Harira / Harira / Harira

When shadows grow longer
and the sun sets for the forthcoming night...
Then you can brighten your evening and strengthen your body with a Moroccan soup/dish known as harira. Tada! Here is a quicker (I don't have two hours to prepare my dinner) and vegetarian (costs less and friends can eat) variant.



For a large soup pot I used:
too much chickpeas (due to a slight miscalculation; soaked overnight and cooked as described here). I guess 1-2 cups of chickpeas should be enough (if so, you might use just half of the spices below)
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon paprika powder
1 pinch of saffron threads (optional)
1/2 teaspoon ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoons butter
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
quite a lot of parsley, chopped
500g canned tomatoes
some zacierka makaronowa or soup pasta
1 egg beaten with the juice of 1/2 lemon
some more lemon to garnish and season with later on

Begin with the spices. Chop the ginger, mix with all the other spices in a small bowl. In another casserole start cooking the chickpeas (takes 20 minutes for me) - or simply open the canned ones. In a large soup pot melt the butter and add the spice mix. Let it cook for a moment or two to release the flavour and colours. Add the onion, parsley and celery. Cook stirring, then add the tomatoes and let it simmer until the chickpeas are done.

Add the chickpeas with some of the cooking water and pasta or zacierka, simmer for a while more. Add the beaten egg and stir.

Serve with some more lemon and eat, eat, eat!