Moroccan Soup may refer to any soup dish from the Moroccan cuisine and it is cooked with lots of spicy and vegetarian ingredients. The soups in Morocco are often served as a light supper entree rather than a complete meal. While soup is consumed often by the Moroccans, it is during the special occasions like Ramadan, when it is prepared in many varieties and is ritualistically served with appetizers.
The lighter soups are also served for breakfast.
Harira is the national soup of Morocco and it is popularly served during the Ramadan month. This soup is heavily laid with different types of spices and is well-known for abundance of ingredients.
Moroccan Soup Recipes
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Harira: This particular Moroccan soup is considered as a complete meal in itself. The recipe for Harira preparation varies slightly from amongst the different families, depending on the taste preferences and family culinary heritages, but overall, the taste and flavor remains the same. Even though it can be prepared any time, many families prefer reserving the recipe of this particular soup for use only during the special occasions. The basic recipe of Harira involves ingredients like lentils, chickpea, flour, tomatoes, rice, onion, beaten eggs, spices (pepper, ginger, and saffron), herbs (coriander, celery and parsley), olive oil and little amount of meat (chicken, beef or lamb). The soup is served after garnishing with lemon juice and pepper. It is often partnered with hard boiled eggs, and dried dates or other dry fruits like figs, breads and sweets.
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Moroccan Split Pea Bessara: This is nothing but traditional Moroccan split pea soup. The word bessara is also used for fava bean dip. This soup can be prepared using vegetable stock, dried split peas, water, olive oil, garlic, onion, parsley, paprika, salt, cumin, pepper and cayenne pepper.
In this vegetarian version, the split peas are used and they are simmered in broth along with paprika, onions, garlic and pepper before pureeing. The vegetable broth is used for the vegetarian version. For non-vegetarian version, the beef or chicken broth is used as a base for preparation.
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Moroccan Semolina Soup: This soup is normally served as a breakfast dish or an evening snack as it is easy to prepare. The soup is mostly offered with honey or powdered sugar. The soup can be refrigerated well and it can remain fresh for atleast 2 days. The soup becomes thick when it cools, so it is always best to reheat it along with some milk or water. The soup can be easily cooked using the ingredients like salt, water, coarse semolina, butter, milk, and anise seeds. This popular Moroccan soup variant is good to be served during the chilled winters.