Harira (Moroccan soup)

Feel like bringing on the sun in your kitchen with warming southern tastes? For this Moroccan soup -that is traditionally eaten at iftar, when muslims break their fasting at sunset- there are many different recipes to be found but all are full of vegetables, beans, sometimes meat and vermicelli (thin pasta). Mine is irresistable thanks to adding warming spices, chilipepper, a squeeze of lemon juice, some olives and fresh coriander leaves - if you feel like it. Don't be put of by the length of the ingrediënts list, they are all pretty common (or can be swapped if not) and the recipe itself is pretty straightforward. 

Ingrediënts: 

- 2 tablespoons of ghee (clarified butter, to be found in Indian supermarkets or health food stores)

- 2 tablespoons of olive oil

- 1 cm of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

- 3 cloves of garlic, pressed

- 1 piece of fresh turmeric, peeled and grated (or 1 extra teaspoon of dried turmeric powder)

- 1 onion, cut

- 1 cinnamon stick

- 1 teaspoon of dried paprika powder

- 1 teaspoon of dried cumin powder

- 1 can of tomatosauce with basil (or just regular passata or a can of chopped tomatoes)

- 2 bay leaves

- 1 teaspoon of dried turmeric

- a pinch of chilipowder

- 1 can of mixed beans (chickpeas, white beans, borlotti beans,...)

- 5 carrots, cut in rather small pieces

- 1 1/2 l water with 2 cubes of chickenstock dissolved in it

- a portion of vermicelli (or broken spaghetti, for example 50g)

- a handful of fresh corianderleaves, roughly chopped up

- a handful of fresh persley leaves, roughly chopped up

- a few green olives (you can also serve them on the side, it's probably bonkers to put them in your soup but I do)

1. Melt the ghee and olive oil in a souppot. Sautee the onion and garlic for a minute, then add the ginger and fresh turmeric. Add the cinnamon stick and stir in the paprika powder and dried tumeric. When the flavours of the spices waft up to you, add the carrot pieces and the beans. Mix in the tomatosauce/passata/tomato pieces. Put the bay leaves in the pot and add the chicken stock. Give it a stir and place a lid on the pot. 
2. Let the soup cook for about 45 minutes while stirring from time to time. When 30 min of the total cooking time have passed, add in the vermicelli and the chilipowder. Add the lemon juice the last 2 minutes. Check if the carrots are soft, taste the soup and adjust to your taste. Stir in the coriander and persley leaves, add the olives and dish up with rustic chuncks of bread. 

Make a fresh start with Matar Paneer (India)

If you've never cooked Indian before, you can take a great start with Matar Paneer (peas with baked Indian cheese). It's a very simple recipe that requires only a few key ingrediënts, so not much that can go wrong! On top of that, it's just extremely tasty (next to pea soup with bacon, my favourite way to eat my not-so-favourite-veggie). Those golden cubes of butter-creamy cheese are divine. It's also quick to make and heats up well the next day (actually, it even tastes better). So go find a reason not to go ahead and try...







Aside from peas (obviously), there are only 3 more key-ingrediënts: Paneer or Indian cheese which you can find in Indian/Pakistan shops but maybe also in your organic supermarket. Ghee (clarified butter) which gives it a distinct flavour and Garam Masala (an Indian spice mix) you may find in both as well. I always go for flavourfull organic frozen peas. 






200g paneer
400g (frozen) peas
2 el ghee
1 small onion, diced
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 cm fresh ginger *
1 whole fresh or dried (green) chilipeper and/or a bit of chilipowder**
1/2 teaspoon garam masala

* the ginger is pretty essential here, it balances the garam masala out. So if you want the perfect taste (in my opinion) it's a matter of neither of those to take the upper hand when you savour the dish. If you taste one more than the other, add some more of the lesser one. 
** I prefer a combination of whole and powdered chilipeper, the powder seems to add sharpness whereas the the whole chilipeper seems to create a depth of warmth, but that could be entirely my imagination! 

1. Cut the paneer into bitsizes, I like to have a piece in every mouthfull. Bake them on medium high in the clarified butter (it will already smell amazing at this point) until golden. Do not make the same mistake as I always do and overbake them to get them extra crunchy, they will go dry inside, you don't want to loose the soft, smooth creaminess on the inside... Put the baked paneer aside and continu with your buttered pan. 
2. Bake the onion just a little, add 5 tablespoons of water and a touch of salt, bring to a boil. Lower the heat and add the peas and sugar. Let simmer with a lid on for about 5 minutes. 
3. Now reintroduce the paneer, add the chilipeper, ginger and garam masala and continue to bake for a few more minutes until all the flavours have blended. Taste and serve with rice. It's really really as simple as that.