Cookbook author Faye Levy and her husband Yakir are th guest chefs on this episode of Mark Alyn’s Culinary Adventures. Here’s the recipe and a variation as well.
Ingredients:
1 cup brown or green lentils
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil or vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, diced
3 celery stalks, chopped
3 small zucchini, diced
5 cups vegetable or chicken broth mixed with water, or 5 cups water
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1 1/2 to 2 cups cooked chickpeas, liquid reserved, or a 425 gr. can, drained
1/2 to 1 tsp. ground cumin
1/3 cup coarsely chopped cilantro (fresh coriander)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
What To Do:
Harira is a Moroccan chickpea and lentil soup. The soup is popular for breaking the fast after Yom Kippur and for the iftar dinner during Ramadan. It’s also loved in Tunisia, and in Israel, especially among people of North African heritage.
Over the years I’ve made harira the traditional way, with either lamb, beef or chicken, but I’ve also made it vegetarian. Today instead of meat I added morels, which have a meaty texture and a distinctive flavor. Actually, I wasn’t planning to add these mushrooms, but when Yakir came into the kitchen to photograph the soup, he asked, “Why not add morels?”
Often harira is flavored with several spices or with the North African spice blend ras el hanout, which contains over a dozen spices and varies from one family or spice company to another. I used a kosher brand.
First I sauteed a diced zucchini in olive oil and removed it from the saucepan. I heated a little more olive oil in the pot, added chopped onion and cooked it until it began to turn light golden. Next I added minced garlic, sauteed it briefly, and added vegetable broth. I cooked a whole organic baby Jewel yam in the soup until it was tender, removed it and sliced it.
Next I added 1/2 cup Italian canned organic crushed tomatoes, 1 teaspoon ras el hanout, and the soaked dried morels and a few tablespoons of their soaking liquid and cooked them in the soup for about 5 minutes. Then I added 1/2 cup cooked lentils, 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas and 1/2 cup cooked pasta–short fusilli– and heated them through.
Morels are a special treat, and they add a delicious flavor to our soup.
To finish, I squeezed a little lemon juice into the soup, added chopped Italian parsley (instead of the traditional cilantro) and drizzled it with extra virgin olive oil.