"The soup of all soups,” that’s how my dad used to call the harira soup. “Did grandpa really say that?” asks my younger son, “not really” I answer, “it’s my take on his his words, but that’s what he meant”. In my childhood home, soup was a must at every dinner,but harira wasn’t one of them. Harira was an event and holiday dish. It's even a bit strange to me that I have no real memories of this amazing soup, especially with a dad like mine. When he didn’t have soup at dinner, he felt that he was going to bed hungry. Years later, when harira became a regular on our dinner table, I asked him about the soup. Dad praised it, and told me that in Morocco, both Jews and Muslims ate it. He proudly told me that during the month of Ramadan, out of respect for their Muslim neighbors, the Jews didn’t eat the soup before dinner, since it was the traditional dish for breaking the fast. Naturally, for the Jews, it was the same tradition after Yom Kippur. Though he called harira the soup of all soups, I never got a clear answer why my parents didn’t make it more often. That’s how my father was, a man of contradictions.
Ingredients
1 lb beef cubes
3 beef bones
1 ½ cups chickpeas soaked overnight
1 cup green lentils
2 onions diced
2 celery stalks diced
3 grated tomatoes
½ cup parsley chopped
½ cup cilantro chopped
1 cup fine egg noodles
2 TBS fresh lemon juice
¼ cup flour
1 cup soup broth
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp hawaij blend - mix spices for soup
Salt
Black pepper
2 TBS oil
8-10 cups water
Heat olive oil in a deep pot to medium high heat. Fry onions to golden. Sprinkle the meat cubes with salt and pepper. Add beef bones and meat to the pot and continue frying for 3-4 minutes. Add chickpeas, lentils, celery stalks and grated tomatoes, mix well and cook for 4 minutes. Add about 8-10 cups of water and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 1 ½ hour until fully cooked and tender. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
Pour 1 cup of the soup liquid into a small bowl. Add flour and mix well not to allow lumps to form. Add lemon juice, parsley, cilantro, noodles and flour mixture while stirring. Cook for 15 minutes stirring occasionally, until noodles are soft.
