Our harira soup recipe makes the most quintessentially Moroccan dish after tagine – a richly spiced chickpea and lentil soup that’s hearty, comforting, and nothing if not versatile. Serve it as a light soup for the perfect starter or with a stew-like texture for a filling main. Shower with fresh herbs and serve with lemon wedges, dates, and flat bread.
This harira soup recipe makes one of our favourite dishes of one of our favourite cuisines of the Middle East and North Africa or MENA region. We’ve been cooking Moroccan food since we lived in the Middle East and our first trip to Morocco some 25 years ago. If you’re a regular reader you might have made Terence’s Moroccan chickpea soup or lamb tagine with prunes and almonds recipe or my chicken tagine with preserved lemons and olives.
We used to spend a fair bit of time in Morocco and became so smitten with the country we seriously considered buying a riad in Essaouira or Marrakech, two of our favourite places in the world. When we lived in Abu Dhabi and Dubai we’d eat Moroccan food at least once a week. We were so infatuated, we made Morocco our first proper stop on our yearlong global grand tour that launched Grantourismo.
Some of our fondest memories of that trip are from Morocco, especially our foodie memories: from Terence learning to make Moroccan dishes from the lovely Jamila, the chef at the Marrakech riad we stayed at for a couple of weeks to eating Moroccan street food on the Djemaa el Fna and savouring sublime seafood in Essaouira.
We still cook Moroccan food and I’ve recently been making Moroccan feasts for my mother, who we took on a Moroccan road trip after my dad died. I’m going to share some of our takes on some of our favourite Moroccan dishes with you that I’ve been cooking for mum to spark memories of our Moroccan travels, starting with this Moroccan harira recipe.
I’ll tell you more about this Moroccan harira soup recipe below. Looking for more cooking inspiration? We have many hundreds of recipes you can browse in our archives, and you can save recipes you like by clicking on the heart on the right of each post to save your favourite recipes and stories in your private account.
Harira Recipe for a Moroccan Soup That’s Hearty and Comforting
If you’ve travelled in Morocco, you would have had harira. The chickpea and lentil soup appears on every Moroccan restaurant menu. Typically presented as a starter, restaurant-style harira is usually a simple soup with a smooth texture and while delicious probably won’t be the most memorable dish of the meal.
If you’re lucky enough to sample harira in a local home, or learn to make harira in a Moroccan cooking class, you’ll discover much more diversity in how harira is made, in its texture, how it’s served up, and so on. You’ll taste everything from very thin broths to thick and hearty soups that are almost stew-like.
You’ll also find a variation in dried spices used in harira, although most harira recipes feature a combination of ground cinnamon, cumin, paprika, and saffron or turmeric. While harira is often served simply in restaurants, maybe with some bread, in homes it will come with lemon wedges and dates, especially during Ramadan.
Tips to Making this Harira Recipe for the Hearty Moroccan Soup
Just a few tips to making this Moroccan harira soup recipe as it’s super easy, but it’s not fast – you could make the soup in an hour minimum, but the longer you leave it simmering on the stove, the more richly spiced it will taste.
This harira can easily be made as a vegetarian soup, but if you’re using beef then that’s where you need to begin. To a large deep pan or skillet over medium, heat the olive oil until shimmering, add the pieces of beef and sauté for a minute until brown then transfer to a medium-large soup pot.
To the same pan, add the onion and celery and fry until the onion is translucent, then transfer that to the soup pot.
To the soup pot, add the tomatoes, tomato paste, chickpeas, lentils, spices, salt, pepper, and water, stir, and cook over medium for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, adding a little more water if needed.
Reduce the heat to low to simmer for another hour (or more if you like, adding water as needed) until you have a dense stew-like soup that’s rich and fragrant with spices.
Ten minutes before serving, add the broken noodles or pasta. At the same time, taste the harira and adjust the spice or seasoning to suit your palate.
When you’re ready to serve, ladle the harira into bowls, shower with fresh chopped herbs, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil (we like to sprinkle on some chilli flakes), and serve with lemon wedges, dates, and Moroccan flat bread or toasted sourdough. Enjoy!
Harira Recipe for the Hearty Moroccan Soup
Ingredients
- 200 g beef - cut into bite-size pieces, optional
- 3 tbsp vegetable or olive oil
- 1 onion - finely diced
- 1 celery stalk - finely chopped
- 400 g canned tomatoes
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 420 g canned chickpeas
- 420 g canned brown or red lentils
- 4 cups water - or stock, then continue to add water or stock as needed
- 1 tsp ground paprika - or to taste
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon - or to taste
- 1 tsp ground cumin - or to taste
- 1 tsp ground ginger - or to taste
- ½ tsp salt - or to taste
- ½ tsp black pepper - or to taste
- 4 tbsp vermicelli - broken into 2-3 cm pieces, or angel hair pasta
- 2 tbsp fresh flat leaf parsley - roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh coriander - cilantro, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh mint
- 1 lemon - cut into wedges
Instructions
- To a large deep pan or skillet over medium, heat the olive oil until shimmering, add the pieces of beef and sauté for a minute until brown then transfer to a medium-large soup pot.
- To the pan, add the onion and celery and fry until the onion is translucent, then transfer to the soup pot.
- To the soup pot, add the tomatoes, tomato paste, chickpeas, lentils, spices, salt, pepper, and water, stir, and cook over medium for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, adding a little more water if needed.
- Reduce the heat to low to simmer for another hour (or more if you like, adding water as needed) until you have a dense stew-like soup that’s rich and fragrant with spices.
- Ten minutes before serving, add the broken noodles or pasta. At the same time, taste the harira and adjust the spice or seasoning to suit your palate.
- When you’re ready to serve, ladle the harira into bowls, shower with fresh chopped herbs, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, (we like to sprinkle on some chilli flakes), and serve with lemon wedges, dates, and flat bread.
Notes
Nutrition
Please do let us know in the Comments section below if you make our Moroccan harira soup recipe as we love to hear how recipes we share turn out for our readers.
