Moroccan Harira Soup

Ingredients

• 250g chicken/lamb, cut into small pieces (Take chicken breast fillet and make 1 inch pieces)
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped quite small, but not too finely
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed to a paste
• 3/4 green chillies, finely chopped – depends how much chilli you want in your soup. Over here, the small green chillies are quite hot so I used 3,4. Don’t know how hot dubai chillies are.
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ginger paste
• 1 tsp garam masala
• ¼ Tsp turmeric
• ½ Tsp Red chilli powder
• 1 medium carrot (diced – small cubes)
• Green onion (2 sticks, slice both the white and the green part)
• 5tbsp of tomato puree
• ½ tin of chopped tomatoes (if it is a 400g tin) – or in otherwords, 200-250 gm chopped tomatoes
• 1.5 litres chicken/vegetable stock – Just use chicken or vegetable cubes to make stock. Follow the directions on the cube packet. The stock will be salty so do NOT add any extra salt while making the soup. The chicken/vegetable stock will already have enough salt.

• A handful of red lentils – Masoor daal
• 2 tbsp Rice - OPTIONAL
• 1/2 can chickpeas (or 200 gms), drained and rinsed (Do not use the chickpea broth from the can)

TO serve with:
Lemon juice (2-3 tbsp or to taste, depends how sour you like it)
2 tbsp roughly chopped fresh mint
2 tbsp  chopped coriander leaves.

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat and cook the chicken/lamb for a few minutes on each side, make it golden brown. Remove the meat from the pan.
2. Add the onion, garlic, and chopped green chillies to the pan and cook, stirring for about 5 minutes until the onions are softened, but not browned. Add the remaining spices (garam masala, turmeric, ginger, red chilli powder), lentils, and cook for another minute.
3. Then add carrots and green onion. Cook for 2 minutes.
4. Stir in the tomato puree, tomatoes, stock and chicken. Bring to boil then simmer for about 45 minutes on medium heat.
5. Add the rice, simmer for ten minutes and then add the chickpeas and simmer for another 15 minutes on medium heat. Just before serving, add mint, coriander and lemon juice. Check salt, add if necessary.

Happy eating! :)


PS: If at any stage, you feel like soup is getting too thick, add more water.  End result should be a thick soup but not too thick like a paste and not too thin to be watery/runny. Base will remain “shorbah” type but will have flavor and lots of ingredients to make it thick.