The Harira

(a local Moroccan soup)

Introduction

The harira is a local Moroccan soup, most probably of Berber origin and it is a very good meal for cold winter days. There are many different ways to make H'rira from simple vegetarian to elaborate one with meat cubes and S'men (s'men is salt butter somthing like Indian Ghee).
Here is one of my H'rira or Harira recipes.
I'm going to send you a light form of it from El Kelaa Des Sraghna, Beni Mellal and Marrakech.
By Moulay Ali El Bouanani

Ingredients (for 4 people)

1 cup of check peas/garbanzo beans (hummus)
1 cup of lentils
1 cup of dried peeled fava beans/ broad beans (ful)
1 1/2 cup of white flour
1/2 cup oil
1/2 rice
1/2 cup vermicelli (chaa'ria fine)
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1/2 kilo (1 pound) of plum tomatoes peeled You can get these in tins /cans
1 large to medium large onion
1 bunch of fresh coriander (cilantro for Americans somtimes they also call it Chinese parsley) In arabic kusbur.
1 bunch (small) of parsley
1 or two sticks of celery
1 1/2 litres of water (remember that as the pot is boiling, the water evaporates so you need to put water as you go)
1/2 tea spoon black peper
1/2 tea spoon of cumin
1/2 tea spoon of curcuma (kharqoum) yellow root that is used a lot in Indian cuisine.
1 table spoon salt
2 cloves of garlic.

Preparation:

Cut all the ingredients finely and put them into a large pot note that the check peas need to be soaked overnight to ensure their cooking well with the other ingredients. Save the vermicelli, the flour and the egg for the last stage.
Let boil for 40 minutes. When your check peas are cooked it's time to add the vermicelli and mix the flour in a bowl with warm water til it's liquid and there are no lumps in the bowl.
Add some lemon juice and pour into the pot very slowly while stirring with a large spoon or any other wooden spoon.
You should have a thikkish soup (it must not be too thick nor too watery, if it is too watery, you may want to add some flour) add the egg.