Recipe for making Harira

Haira is a tasty lentil and chickpea soup meal that is served in Morocco and other parts of North Africa anytime of the year, but it is one of the common meal that is used to break your fast especially in the month of Ramadan.

This dish takes some time especially the prep work, but much of that work can be done in advance and the prepped ingredients put in the freezer for easy cooking at a later time. To find out more on Harira click here

Let us get straight into cooking this delicious African meal;

Ingredients

• 1/2 beef, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 6 large tomatoes(washed and Pureed)
• 1 large onion, grated
• 2.6 liters of water
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• 1 stalk celery with leaves, finely chopped
• 3/4 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and peeled
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric, or 1/4 teaspoon yellow food coloring
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons dried lentils, soaked overnight
• 2 tablespoons raw rice
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1 cup flour
• Coarsely chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

Steps in making Harira

1. Wash and boil the beef properly. Then sieve from stock water.
2. Heat the oil in a 6-quart or larger pot. Add the meat. Cook for a few minutes, stirring to brown all sides.
3. Add the pureed tomatoes, onion, celery, chickpeas, parsley, cilantro, salt, ginger, black pepper, cinnamon, and turmeric. Stir and add 3 cups of the water. Cover tightly and heat over high heat until pressure is achieved. Simmer to cook for 20 to 30 minutes
4. Add the lentils, tomato paste mixture, and the remaining 8 cups of water. If at any point there’s an oily surface forming on top of the soup, simply skim it off and discard. This can happen because of the meat’s fat, if left on.
5. Heat the soup over high heat and after 3 minute reduce the heat to medium and continue cooking. Add rice and cook the soup for 30 minutes. add some more rice. Cover and cook for an additional 60 minutes. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if desired.
6. On the side, make a soup thickener by mixing together the flour and water. Mix properly, you can sieve the mixture if the lumps were present when mixing. NOTE, egg can also be used in place of this mixture.
7. Then reduce the haet of the soup, slowly, and in a thin stream, pour in 1/4 of the flour mixture. Stir constantly and keep the soup simmering so the flour doesn’t stick to the bottom or cooks up in lumps. You will notice the soup beginning to thicken when you’ve used approximately half the flour mixture. The thickness of harira is up to you
8. Simmer the thickened soup, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 10 minutes to cook off the taste of the flour. Remove the soup from the heat, serve, and garnish with chopped parsley.