Hajars Own Harira The National Soup Of Morocco Recipes

There are as many recipes for harira as there are people who eat it though there are essentials. The beans and lentils, cilantro (fresh leaf), tomato and pasta of some sort. This is my own recipe based on ingredients and flavors which I enjoyed from other hariras. Harira is eaten all year, not only at Ramadan though it would not be Ramadan without it! This soup along with others is used traditionally for breakfast at sunset. This would be a first course served with accompaniments and bread before moving on to heavier foods. Many break fast with milk and dates; a very old tradition and I doubt that they knew way back when that the combination of natural sugar and the milk protein were a near perfect combination. Some find this a bit too rough for the first thing in the stomach. While harira is the national soup of Morocco, history tells that this is not a Moroccan invention but an invention of the Maghreb of which Morocco is a part. This recipe may look truly daunting though it really isn't. In our house the first course on the table is always either harira, chorba, or one of my stews; usually chicken, dates, pistachios and fruit. Then after that settles we move on to a normal main course without the use of garlic as it is forbidden during Ramadan. Before bed we will usually have a pot of tea and a rice pudding, dessert couscous or just the tea. Shebakia, the very honey sweet special Ramadan sesame cookies are always here though we prefer to have them with coffee and not necessarily daily.

Recipe From food.com

Provided by Hajar Elizabeth

Categories     Lentil

Time 4h

Yield 10 serving(s)

Number Of Ingredients 22