Street Food: Moroccan Harira

Welcome to another installment of ethnic recipes from my Street Food cookbook.

This is a Moroccan Harira. A bean soup. It’s also considered Morocco’s national soup.

(Does the US have a national soup? Who knew that sort of thing even existed…)

But I do know that hearty soups are perfect for fall weather!

Nothing was incredibly complicated about this soup. Most of the ingredients are things I keep on hand, or they were very easy to find (with one exception–see below).

I messed with the amounts of different ingredients based on what happened to be in my pantry or refrigerator. But that’s the beauty of cooking–it still came out tasting great!

Here are the measurements I used:

1 c. chickpeas or lentils, cooked (I used lentils)
3 shallots, chopped
1/2 tsp. saffron strands, soaked (Ok–didn’t use this. Where do you find these??)
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. ginger (I used more like a Tbsp. of minced ginger root)
3 tomatoes, chopped
4 c. chicken stock and/or water
1 Tbsp. tomato paste
2-3 Tbsp. cilantro, chopped
2-3 Tbsp. parsley, chopped
1-2 Tbsp. brown rice flour
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
butter
sea salt & pepper to taste

In a large stock pot combine the cooked chickpeas or lentils, shallots, saffron, turmeric, ginger, tomatoes, tomato paste, stock or water, and half of the parsley & cilantro. The directions then instruct you to add a blob of butter.

A blob.

I rather liked that.

(Granted, they called for margarine, which is a disgusting fake food that should never, ever, under any circumstances be considered healthy.)

But I digress…

Getting back to the soup, bring it to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes.

Place the flour in a small bowl and add a bit of the cooking liquid. Stir to make a creamy paste. Then return to the soup and mix well.

Add lemon juice and adjust seasonings. Continue to simmer for 5 minutes more, then serve! Garnish with cilantro & parsley.

They also recommended serving the soup with dates or almonds & honey.

I recommend eating it while sitting in the middle of a big pile of fallen leaves on a sunny autumn afternoon.

Anyone been to Morocco? Did I do justice to their national soup?