Beef harira with lentils, chickpeas and vermicelli
The substantial soup of Moroccan Jews, served to break the Yom Kippur fast: tender beef, lentils and chickpeas in a tomato broth with ginger and herbs, thickened with tadouira and brightened with lemon.
Method
- Pat the beef cubes dry with kitchen paper and season with 1 g salt. If using saffron, crush the threads in 1 tbsp hot water and leave to infuse. Finely chop the onion and celery stalk, then finely chop the celery leaves separately. Wash and dry the coriander and parsley, then separate the stems from the leaves: finely chop the stems with half the leaves and keep the remaining leaves whole in the fridge for the end.
- Heat the oil in a 20 cm casserole over a medium-high heat. Add the beef in a single layer and brown for 4 minutes without moving it too much, until the sides are brown. Add the onion and celery, reduce to a medium heat and cook for 5 minutes, scraping up the browned bits: the onion should turn translucent and light golden.
- Add the ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, pepper and tomato purée; stir for 1 minute, until the purée darkens and smells fragrant. Pour in the passata, infused saffron, chopped herbs (stems and half the leaves) and celery leaves, then the 600 g hot water and 6 g salt, scraping the bottom. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook over a low heat for 25 minutes.
- Add the rinsed lentils and the drained, rinsed chickpeas. Cover and cook over a low heat for 30 minutes, then for 20–25 minutes with the lid ajar, scraping the bottom every 10 minutes: the lentils should start to break down and thicken the broth, and a fork should slide easily into the beef. If the meat or lentils still offer resistance, cook for another 10 minutes with 50 g hot water.
- Mix the flour with the 100 g cold water using a fork until no lumps remain. Pour this tadouira in a thin stream into the gently bubbling soup, stirring constantly, and cook for 3 minutes. Break the vermicelli into 2–3 cm lengths over the casserole and cook at a gentle boil for another 3 minutes, stirring: the vermicelli should be tender but intact and the soup velvety, coating a spoon with no raw flour taste, but still flowing from a ladle. Taste and add 2–3 g salt until the broth is distinctly salty: the lentils and vermicelli will continue to absorb the salt.
- Off the heat, finely slice the reserved herb leaves and stir them in with the juice of half the lemon. Divide the meat, pulses and broth between two large bowls (about 700 ml) and serve piping hot, with a lemon wedge and, if you like, two dates each on the side.
On your plate
Recipe
701 kcal · protein 42 g · carbs 82 g · fat 21 g
Quantities per person
- 110 g Stewing beef, shoulder or neck, cut into 4 cm cubes
- 22.5 g Green or brown lentils
- 75 g Tinned chickpeas (400 g tin)
- 20 g Wheat vermicelli (angel-hair pasta)
- 100 g Tomato passata (700 g)
- 10 g Double-concentrated tomato purée
- 45 g Yellow onions
- 25 g Celery
- 7.5 g Plain wheat flour
- 10 g Extra virgin olive oil
- 350 g Water
- 0.5 g Ground ginger
- 0.5 g Turmeric
- 0.15 g Ground cinnamon
- 0.25 g Ground black pepper
- 0.025 g Saffron threads
- 10 g Fresh coriander
- 10 g Flat-leaf parsley
- 60 g Lemon
- 5 g Fine salt
- 40 g Medjool dates
Cooking tips
The evening before and the morning (best for taking to the office): make the soup the day before up to the end of step 4, cool quickly and refrigerate. In the morning, bring to a simmer with 100 g water and a pinch of salt (0.5–1 g), then follow step 5, cooking the vermicelli for only 2 minutes: they will finish swelling in the broth by lunchtime. For the office, the easiest option is to pour the piping-hot soup into two food flasks of at least 800 ml, scalded just beforehand; at lunchtime, eat as it is, without reheating. Otherwise, fill two containers, adding 50 g hot salted water to each (100 g in all, with a pinch of salt) before closing, stand them in a cold-water bath for 15 minutes, transport in an insulated bag and refrigerate on arrival. At lunchtime, cover, microwave on full power for 2 minutes 30 seconds, stir, then heat for another 1–2 minutes until piping hot in the centre; loosen with 2–3 tbsp water and check the salt. To prepare everything the day before, cook the vermicelli for only 2 minutes and pack into containers with a total of 150 g hot water and a pinch of salt (0.5–1 g), instead of the 100 g above, or they will absorb all the broth overnight; reheat in the microwave in the same way. In every case, take the chopped herb leaves and lemon juice in a separate small pot and stir in just before eating. Keeps in the fridge for 48 hours. The onion, celery and herbs can be chopped while the beef browns. In some families, an egg is beaten with the lemon juice and stirred in off the heat for an even silkier harira.
Moroccan Jewish harira, made with meat and thickened with tadouira, served with dates to break the Yom Kippur fast; a family version using olive oil rather than smen.
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