How to make Moroccan Harira - A warmly spiced and filling Chickpea and Lentil soup

Today we're making Moroccan Harira, one of the most popular soups in the whole of the Middle East. This soup contains a combination of Chickpeas, Lentils, Meat and Vegetables that makes it a complete rounded meal. It's spiced with cinnamon and ginger to give it a classic winter spiced flavor. This soup is guaranteed to become one of your favourites.
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00:00 Intro
00:56 Recipe preparation
04:16 Cooking the Harira
07:44 Serving suggestion
08:19 Taste test and Review
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My Equipment:
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Ingredients:
250g (9oz) Finely diced Lamb or Beef. Substitute with other vegetables if making this vegetarian
200g (7oz) Finely diced tomatoes. I recommend canned
75g (2 3/4 oz) Green Lentils
75g (2 3/4 oz) Dried chickpeas
75g (2 3/4 oz) Vermicelli Noodles (Wheat not rice)
70g (2 1/2 oz) Tomato Paste
25g (3 Tbsp) All Purpose Flour
1 Medium Brown (Spanish) onion
2 Small pieces cinnamon bark or 1/2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 Cup Minced Celery leaves
1/4 Cup Minced Parsley
1/4 Cup Minced Coriander
1 Tbsp Butter
2 Tsp Salt
3/4 Tsp Ginger Powder
1/2 Tsp Black Pepper
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Directions:
1. Soak your chickpeas overnight in water until they have at least doubled in size
2. Mince your celery, parsley and coriander finely
3. Dice your onion to a medium dice
4. Dice your meat into very small cubes
5. Wash your lentils
6. Place a pot on the stove over high heat and add the butter
7. Once the butter is melted, add the meat and sear stirring occasionally until a deep brown colour and a browned fond has formed on the base of the pot
8. Turn the heat down to medium and add the onion saute with the meat until it is translucent
9. Add some water to the pot to deglaze the fond
10. Once the pot is mostly cleaned, add the tomatoes, lentils, chickpeas, celery, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, salt and 1.5 litres or quarts of water
11. Bring the pot to a boil and once it boils reduce the heat to medium and cover the pot. Allow to simmer for 45 minutes.
12. Check the chickpeas, lentils and meat for doneness. When cooked mix in the tomato paste
13. Make a slurry with the flour and 1/2c of water and stir into the pot, allow it to cook for 2 minutes
14. Add the vermicelli as well as parsley and coriander and allow the vermicelli to cook for 10 minutes, stirring regularly to prevent burning
15. Check vermicelli for doneness and then serve the soup with fresh lemon wedges

[jobdebolle]

Looks amazing! Since I liked your lentil soup so much I will definitely try this one out!

[agnescleary]

Glorious food, terrific videos. No extraneous, irritating chit chat, clear camera work, good explanations and no obnoxious sound track. This is the gold standard!

[fayhares]

This made my heart jump with joy and sing, harira is such a staple here in Morocco, especially during Ramadan when it is served alongside some dates and boiled eggs. Yummm! One way to make prepping the ingredients easy and fast is to use a blender and blend the onion, tomato, parsley, cilantro and celery together, adding some water to help the blender go, and then you would add everything to the pot with 1 tablespoon of canola oil (usually and no more than 1tbsp otherwise your harira will end up with greasy aftertaste and you don't want that), your meat, legumes, spices, ... Also, to make sure your flour is cooked, after adding the thickening mixture, you will start seeing some foam form on the top, you should keep cooking the harira while stirring frequently until the foam is gone (insider tip lol)

[mariag]

This is delicious. I had it for the first time during last Ramadan. My neighbour brought me dinner every evening for the entire month. I ate it with tears in my eyes because it tasted almost like a soup my dad used to make. He was Slovenian but cooked many different dishes. Also there are several similarities with the Mediterranean influences in both cuisines.

[Moosemoose]

Hi Obi! I just wanted to say I love your channel! Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food is some of my favorite and it's great to finally learn how to make it as authentic as possible! It also makes me think of a project I have been trying to gain traction on since beginning medical school. As a medical student I've noticed that when it comes to dietary restrictions for people with, say Diabetes Mellitis, Hypertension, High cholesterol/Lipids, Crohns or Irritable Bowel Syndrome or just obesity that the diets prescribed are often lackluster and alien to many people, especially people of different ethnicities, and that this cultural difference can be so great between diets and the patient that this leads to them having difficulties maintaining these regimens resulting in poor health outcomes. For example, convincing a 65 year old man with hypertension who has grown up with Mexican food his entire life to change this behavior completely and instead adopt a diet with food that he is completely unfamiliar with would be far less effective than creating recipes and cooking manuals with Mexican dishes tailored specifically for patients with chronic medical conditions like him.
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I believe it would be far easier for people to maintain a dietary regimen if that diet were tailored to their particular culture, as this would be more familiar. That being said, I'm trying to collect recipes from all over the world little by little to create regional, even national diets and I'd like to pick your mind if possible about any healthy, authentic Middle Eastern recipes since here in Chicago many immigrant populations have seen rapidly growing cases of Hypertension, Diabetes and High cholesterol. I believe that our people shouldn't have to suffer from lackluster food just because of illness and should still be able to enjoy eating, as this is one of the things that makes life worth living.

[jabrayjay]

Just made this now for the first iftar of Ramadan, I tripled the receipe :)

[AbuOmar]

This is an ACTUAL recipe with precise instructions for someone who hasn't made something like this before. Great job.

[franarmidazainaab]

only the name of this channel deserves a standing ovation! Bravo from Italy :)

[hiiammoot]

Made my Moroccan mom watch it and she gave it a seal of approval.

The only major thing she does differently is she uses olive oil instead of butter at the start. And instead of adding tomato paste at the end, she adds more tomato at the start.

[HarunaMaurer]

I'm moroccan and this was perfect!! If anyone wants to try it, I personally love to drop an egg and stir it in. I love the taste!

[LocalManMakesMusic]

Just made this and it was sooo good!
I actually used chicken thigh meat and it worked really well.
I’ve watched many of your videos and now that I know I can trust your recipes, I will be making so much good food! Thank you!

[annadrift]

Definitely my favorite food. The taste is otherworldly yet grounded in history and ancient cultures. It reminds me of an ancient roman soup as well. Excellent recipe.

[SaraDeux]

I am Morroccan and this looks so yummy!!!! U did good!

[aitoriri]

I used to work with Morocan teens as a social worker and they showed me this recepie. We did it a couple of times for ramadan and it was delicious

[townsendstephen]

I just made this tonight with TVP chunks instead of meat. It is absolutely delicious. My new favourite

[Leisurelistsb]

I made this a couple of days ago. Wow! So delicious! I can't stop eating it. My only substitutions were, that I used ground turkey cooked separately from the onion, and to which I added 7 spices. I sauteed the onions separately to caramelize them, added the tomato paste first into the onions to toast the paste a little before adding the seasoned turkey. I also subbed out the green lentils for brown. Other than that it was all the same. Thank you for the recipe. Now, this American is that much closer to mastering Middle Eastern food. I love your channel!

[Neem]

My hubby it's Egyptian and he loves this, Obi we love this recipe yum!

[ranthropologist]

A restaurant where I used to live would serve this with every meal and it was my absolute favorite. Sometimes, if I wasn't feeling well, my dad would go to get this soup specially because it always made me feel better. Thank you for teaching me how to make it. <3

[h.i]

As a moroccan woman i'm very impresses. But i want to give you some advice to make the soup better and easier. Next time put the meat, cheakpea, a carrot, a potato and a whole onion in a pot with 1 liter of water. Dont cut the veggies smal. Just leave them whole. Do the spices; gingerpowder, kurkuma, pepper and salt. Let the veggies cook until soften and put it in a blender. Cook 4 or 5 tomatos in a separet pot until done (it's better than preserved tomatos) and put the tomatos with the water in the same blender with te cooked veggies and blend this very wel together. If it's thick just add some water to make it less thick. Than siff it trough a siff and pour it with te meat and cheakpea. Then do the tomato paste after a while do the lentels and the flour in the pot. Then the coriander, parsly and the selery leaves. Cook this good voor 30 min. Add the vermicelli and keep stirring and 10-15 min it's done.

[Moonchevre]

A few more days of Ramadhan left... I'm definitely making this version. Thank you.