Harira is one of the most delicious and flavorful soups you'll ever have. It's filled with good stuff like lentils, chickpeas, tomatoes, noodles and spices! And with my recipe, it's really easy to make too! A big bowl of this stuff is guaranteed to warm you up on a chilly day.
If you've ever ordered harira at a Moroccan restaurant before, you know what mean! This soup features a magical combination of flavors that will absolutely delight your tastebuds.
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After enjoying harira a bunch of times while dining out, I finally started working in the kitchen to create my own version. I love making soup, and in particular have a thing for lentil based soups, as you may have noticed if you've tried my traditional lentil soup, Mediterranean red lentil soup, or French lentil soup.
Most lentil soups are pretty easy to throw together, but harira tends to be a little more complicated, with most recipes calling for long soak times and quite a bit of prep work. Well, today we're taking some shortcuts! But I promise, you'll never be able to tell. This harira is the most delicious you'll find, and also one of the simplest to make!
Ingredients You'll Need
- Olive oil. You can substitute another high-heat oil, but only do it if you're really stuck. Olive oil is the best choice for this recipe!
- Onion.
- Celery.
- Garlic.
- Spices. You'll need a bunch of spices for this recipe, but you can find them all in the spice aisle of pretty much any grocery store. You'll need ground cumin, paprika, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.
- Vegetable broth.
- Dried lentils. We're using basic, brown lentils for this recipe, which are generally the most common variety. Red or green lentils will also work, but will alter the texture of the soup. Green lentils will also take a bit more time to cook.
- Chickpeas. We're using canned chickpeas to avoid having to soak and precook them. Easy!
- Flour. You'll need a tiny bit of all-purpose flour to thicken the soup.
- Diced tomatoes. And we'll also be using canned diced tomatoes, to avoid the prep work required of fresh ones.
- Vermicelli noodles. These are super tiny, skinny little wheat noodles. I've linked to the brand that I used in the recipe card, but if you don't feel like buying them, feel free to substitute rice, broken capellini pasta, or simply leave them out.
- Fresh cilantro. Cilantro haters can skip this.
- Fresh parsley. I like to use flat-leaf parsley for this recipe, as it's more flavorful than curly.
- Salt.
- Lemon wedges. Serve these alongside your soup, so everyone can add as much lemon juice as they like to their bowl.
How It's Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
Start by doing your prep work. Dice the onion and celery, and mince the garlic.
Step 1: Start by heating your oil in a pot, then add diced onion and celery. Cook these veggies for about ten minutes, just to get them softened a bit.
Step 2: Add minced garlic and all of your spices to the pot. Stir it up and sauté the mixture for about a minute, until the garlic and spices release their delicious aromas.
Step 3: Add the broth, lentils, and chickpeas. Raise the heat, get the liquid to a boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer until the lentils are tender.
Step 4: Make your thickener by stirring the flour together with a bit of cold water. Add it to the soup, along with the tomatoes. Let the soup simmer a few minutes longer.
Tip: Keep a pot or kettle of hot water on the stove, and add some at any point if the soup becomes too thick while cooking.
Step 5: Stir in the vermicelli, then continue simmering the soup just until the noodles are done. This should only take a few minutes.
Step 6: Take the pot off of heat, then stir in the parsley and cilantro. Season the soup with some salt to taste.
Step 6: Your Moroccan harira soup is ready to serve! Ladle it into bowls and serve it with some lemon wedges on the side.
Leftovers & Storage
Leftover harira will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about three days, or in the freezer for about three months. The lentils will soak up broth as it sits, so you may find your soup to be not so soupy when you take it out of storage. That's fine! Just add some water or broth when you reheat it!
Frequently Asked Questions
It sure can! Replace the flour with cornstarch, but reduce the amount by half. You can also use gluten-free vermicelli or capellini if you can find it. If not, use rice instead, or simply leave it out.
It's rather mild, but the cayenne pepper and black pepper both add a touch of heat. You can omit either one or both if you'd like.
I love enjoying this soup with a green salad, some pita bread, and hummus! My roasted garlic hummus goes particularly well with it.
More Hearty Soups
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📖 Recipe
Moroccan Harira Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, mined
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup dried brown lentils
- 1 (15.5 ounce/439 gram) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 (14.5 ounce/411 gram) can diced tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons dried vermicelli noodles (Note 1)
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
- Salt, to taste
- Lemon wedges, for serving
Instructions
- Coat the bottom of a large pot with the oil and place it over medium heat. Give the oil a minute to heat up, then add the onion and celery. Sweat the vegetables for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they've softened up a bit.
- Stir in the garlic, cumin, paprika, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Sauté the mixture for about a minute, stirring constantly, until it becomes very fragrant.
- Stir in the broth, lentils, and chickpeas. Raise the heat and bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat and let the soup simmer for about 25 minutes, until the lentils are tender. Add some hot water if the soup becomes too thick at any point while cooking.
- Stir the cold water and flour together in a small container, then add it to the soup. Stir in the tomatoes. Continue simmering the soup for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the vermicelli, then continue simmering the soup until the noodles are tender, about three minutes.
- Remove the pot from heat and stir in the parsley and cilantro. Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.
- Ladle into bowls and serve with lemon wedges on the side.
Notes
- Feel free to omit the vermicelli noodles if you can't find them. You can also use capellini pasta broken into small (2-inch) pieces. Rice also works as a substitute, but you will need to let it cook for around 20 minutes (or longer for some varieties like brown rice).
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This is delicious and easy to make. I like that there isn't much to cut up so that helps get it together quickly. Sometimes I add chicken if I have some leftover in the fridge.
Making this tonight. I love that you keep coming up with new soup recipes after all these years!
I made this tonight for dinner, and it was delicious!! It was just right in the spice and heat department. Because I am gluten-free, I used GF 1 for 1 flour, and used brown rice capellini for the vermicelli. I also added some thinly sliced carrots that I had in the fridge. Everything turned out perfect! I wouldn't change a thing....
Thank you, Alissa! This soup turned out absolutely delicious, and made my house smell fabulous! In case any of your readers are interested in a Nutritarian diet, I made this with some substitutions, additions, and deletions based on my 15+ years' experience, as follows:
I used a very light spritz (about 1/2 teaspoon) of avocado oil spray instead of the 2 Tbsp of olive oil. I used a large sweet onion and 6 medium stalks of celery, and added an entire large fresh fennel bulb (diced). I used black lentils (super-chewy!) and, for a little kick, I chose diced fire-roasted tomatoes. I subbed out the vermicelli noodles for a delicious "rice" made solely from organic lentils. I used arrowroot powder instead of flour for the thickener. Also, I only had on hand about half the required amount of my homemade vegetable broth, so I whipped up a batch of low-sodium no-chicken broth from bouillon cubes to round out the liquid.
This will be a new addition to my family "faves," and we are already looking forward to leftovers tomorrow!😋
Sharine, her recipe was wonderful as is. Your smug as hell comments weren’t necessary.
Thank you! This will be a new family favorite! Delicious!
Once the lemon went in, this turned out delicious!
How do you get 3 Tablespoons of verimicelli or is this a typo
Looking at the picture of the dried noodles in the pot, it looks like a very small amount of the noodles. I would probably just grab some out of the bag and add it to the pot for the amount, but personally, I would add more broth/water and add more noodles. We love vermicelli noodles in soup at our house. Adds a nice texture to soups.