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Nabila's Spicy Harira

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Harira: Moroccan comfort food


Harira is basically a spicy Moroccan tomato soup with a lot of other things. It's often the first course of a Ramadan ftour (breakfast), after a few dates and juice or milk. For a full pot of Harira, we used a whole kilo of tomatoes.





Ingredients:

large onion, whole  
1 kg tomatoes                         
1 sm bunch  celery leaves, chopped    
1 sm bunch  parsley, chopped              
1 large cup chick peas                      
1 tbsp          olive oil                         
1 tsp            salt                                 
1 tsp            ground plack pepper       
1 tsp            ginger                            
½ tsp           turmeric  
2 liters         water          
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1 c               flour
1 c               water
1 140 g. can tomato paste        
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1 sm. bag     sharia pasta (soak first)
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1 sm bunch  cilantro, chopped
1 cube knorr bullion
                                                         

Combine the onion, tomatoes, celery leaves, parsley, chick peas, olive oil, salt, pepper, ginger, turmeric, and 2 liters of water in a pressure cooker. Bring to a boil and cook under pressure (setting #2, low heat) for ½ hour. Remove from pressure and check if the beans have been cooked. If not, cook another 15 minutes

Remove the pressure cooker and allow the pressure to drop before opening pot.

Remove the whole onion with the boiled tomatoes, and puree in a blender, or with a hand-held blender.

Strain the tomato and onion puree back into the cooked beans, herbs, and spices

blend flour and 1 c. water, and add to thicken the soup
Add the small can of tomato paste, and bring the soup to a boil on the stove for 10 minutes

Add the soaked sharia pasta and stir continually for 10 minutes to avoid having the pasta coagulate at the bottom of the pot.

Add chopped coriander and 1 cub of knorr chicken bullion, cook for 10 minutes more, and serve with bread.

Let me know how you like it. Your comments are welcome.

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