Harira soup is a one-pot high-protein Moroccan recipe of lentils, chickpeas, and a rich and flavorful broth with warm spices and herbs.
For more easy lentil recipes try our Moroccan lentil soup, Mujadara, curry lentil soup, and lentil stew.
Introduction
Harira is a hearty, flavorful, aromatic soup from Morocco and North African Cuisine.
It’s often served to break the fast during Ramadan but Louise and I love it as a comforting meal all year round 🍲.
Like many North African dishes – think of our Moroccan Couscous, Moroccan Carrot Salad, and Zaalouk (Eggplant Salad), it uses rich spices to elevate simple ingredients like lentils and chickpeas.
The soup reflects centuries of cultural influence, blending Indian (turmeric, ginger), Arab-Persian (cinnamon), and Middle Eastern (cumin) flavors. Every spoonful is a taste of history and tradition.
For more high-protein vegetarian meals, check out our chickpea soup, chickpea curry, spinach stew, and lentil curry they are easy, healthy, and nutritious recipe.
Ingredients
Find complete ingredient list, quantities, and substitutions in the recipe box at the bottom of the page.
- Flavor Base: Extra virgin olive oil (substitutes: regular olive oil, avocado oil, butter, or smen), onion (white, red, or yellow; shallots as a substitute), celery, and fresh garlic.
- Spices: Ground ginger (or fresh), turmeric, cumin, red pepper flakes (or cayenne, fresh chili, or harissa), optional saffron and cinnamon.
- Stock & Tomatoes: Reduced-sodium vegetable broth (or traditional beef, lamb, or chicken stock), canned crushed/diced tomatoes, and tomato paste.
- Lentils & Chickpeas: Use dried green or brown lentils (avoid split red lentils). Substitute canned lentils using less broth and shorter cooking time. Use canned or pre-cooked dried chickpeas.
- Fresh Herbs: Flat-leaf parsley, optional cilantro and celery leaves.
- Thickener (Optional): Traditionally flour or cornstarch are added for a silkier texture.
Pasta or Rice (Optional): Traditional Moroccan vermicelli (or Angel Hair, spaghettini, spaghetti). If using rice, cook separately and add before serving.
How to Make Harira Soup
Step 1: Flavor base.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add chopped onion and celery and sauté for 4 minutes or until soft.
Add pressed garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin, red pepper flakes, and optionally saffron and cinnamon.
Cook the spices and garlic for a minute or until fragrant. Add a splash of water if the pan gets dry.
Step 2: Simmer the legumes.
Stir in the vegetable broth, crushed tomatoes, rinsed dried lentils, canned or cooked chickpeas, and season with salt and black pepper.
Cover with a lid, boil, crack the top open, lower the temperature, and simmer gently for 30 to 45 minutes or until the lentils are cooked.
Stir occasionally to prevent the legumes from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add more vegetable broth if the pan gets dry.
Step 3: Finish with pasta and herbs.
When the lentils are cooked, stir in chopped celery leaves, parsley, and cilantro.
Optionally, whisk the flour in a cup of water to make a slurry and add it to the soup to make it extra velvety and creamy.
Finally, add the pasta broken into smaller pieces and a cup of broth. Finish cooking, stirring often, until the pasta is al dente.
Step 4: Serving suggestions
Serve harira as a main course with a dollop of Greek yogurt, fresh herbs or a drizzle of skhug, squeezed lemon, quick pickled red onions or preserved lemons.
If you make it without pasta, you can serve it with fluffy saffron rice, basmati rice, or pita bread.
Questions
Unlike chickpeas and beans, dried lentils don’t require soaking. Rinse the lentils under running water to remove dirt, and look for small stones that might hide in between the lentils before using.
You can make harira soup without pasta and serve it with our easy homemade bread, pita bread, on saffron rice or basmati rice.
You can make harira without the flour slurry or substitute cornstarch for flour. The soup won’t have the traditional silky mouth-feel but it will still be delicious.
Refrigeration: Keeps for 5 days without pasta/rice; 48 hours with them. Flavors improve over time.
Freezing: Lasts up to 3 months without pasta/rice. Cool completely before freezing. Not recommended to freeze with pasta/rice.
Thaw & Reheat: Defrost in the fridge, then reheat in the microwave or on the stove with a splash of water.
You can use fresh tomatoes. Chop them into dice and add them at the start with the spices. Cook them for 5 to 10 minutes to concentrate their flavor before moving to the next step.
In Moroccan cuisine tomatoes are first scored with a paring knife, blanched and peeled, however, if you are busy, you can skip this step. The result will still be excellent.
If you tried this Harira soup recipe or any other recipe on our blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let us know how it goes in the comments. We love hearing from you!
Harira Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil extra virgin
- 1 large onion
- 1 stalk celery
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger optional
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 pinch saffron optional
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon optional
- 6 cups vegetable broth + 1 more cup if you add pasta
- 1 can (15 oz) crushed tomatoes
- ½ cup dried green lentils
- 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ cup parsley
- ¼ cup cilantro optional
- ¼ cup celery leaves optional
- ¼ cup flour optional
- 5 ounces angel hair pasta optional
Instructions
- Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large pot. Add 1 large onion, 1 stalk celery (both chopped) and sauté for 4 minutes until soft.Add 2 cloves garlic (grated), 2 tablespoons tomato paste, 2 teaspoons ground ginger, 2 teaspoons turmeric, 1 teaspoon cumin, ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, 1 pinch saffron (optional), and ¼ teaspoon cinnamon (optional).Cook for 1 more minute or until fragrant. Add a splash of water if the pot dries.
- Stir in 6 cups vegetable broth, 1 can (15 oz) crushed tomatoes, ½ cup dried green lentils (rinsed), 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas (drained).Season with 1 teaspoon salt and ⅛ teaspoon black pepper.Simmer 40 minutes or until the lentils are cooked. Stir occasionally.
- Stir in ¼ cup parsley, ¼ cup cilantro, ¼ cup celery leaves, all chopped.Optional step: whisk ¼ cup flour in 1 cup of water and add it to the soup to make velvety and creamy.Optional step: break 5 ounces angel hair pasta with your hands and add it in with 1 more cup of vegetable broth.
- Finish cooking, stirring often, until the pasta is al dente.Serve harira as a main course with a dollop of Greek yogurt, fresh herbs or a drizzle of skhug, squeezed lemon, quick pickled red onions or preserved lemons.
Video
Notes
- Extra virgin olive oil: substitutes: regular olive oil, avocado oil, butter, or smen.
- Onion: white, red, or yellow; shallots as a substitute.
- Ground ginger: substitute 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger.
- Red pepper flakes: substitute cayenne, fresh chili, or harissa sauce.
- Saffron and cinnamon are optional.
- Reduced-sodium veg broth: substitute beef, lamb, or chicken stock.
- Crushed tomatoes: substitute tomato puree, whole canned peeled tomatoes, or diced tomatoes.
- Dried green lentils: substitute dried brown or French lentils. Avoid red split lentils. You can also use 1 15-oz (230g) can of lentils. In this case, only simmer the soup for 20 minutes and add half the vegetable broth.
- Canned chickpeas: substitute 1½ cups cooked chickpeas
- Cilantro and celery leaves are optional.
- Flour (optional): substitute 2 tablespoons cornstarch for gluten-free.
- Angel hair pasta or moroccan vermicelli made from hard wheat flour (not asian rice vermicelli). Substitute about 1½ cup of cooked rice.
- Refrigeration: Keeps for 5 days without pasta/rice; 48 hours with them. Flavors improve over time.
- Freezing: Lasts up to 3 months without pasta/rice. Cool completely before freezing. Not recommended to freeze with pasta/rice.
- Thaw & Reheat: Defrost in the fridge, then reheat in the microwave or on the stove with a splash of water.
Nutrition
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Hi! We are Nico & Louise
We’re here to share delicious, easy, and healthy plant-based recipes (vegetarian & vegan) 🌿✨.
Welcome to our blog, we are glad you are here.
Love this recipe! Thank you for sharing.
Great recipe, thank you! I always add a bit of harissa to make it extra flavoury and hot.
I cannot think of a more perfect fall dish! The warm spices and heartiness really hit the spot. It was a huge hit with my family and it has been added to the “make again” list 🙂 Thank you for sharing this recipe.
This is DELICIOUS 🤤
I love the tomato, lentil, chickpea and pasta combination. But for me the acidity of the tomato combined with the strong flavors of powdered ginger and tumeric, resulted in a stew that tasted very bitter. I would not make this again.
How many mg of sodium is in this Harira soup please?
Hi Kimberly,
I updated the recipe box to include the sodium amount, which is about 980 mg per portion. Please keep in mind that sodium can vary greatly depending on the ingredients you use.
For instance, we use low sodium veg broth (for even less sodium you can use water) and canned tomatoes without added sodium.
I hope this helps,
All the best,
Nico
Thank you for adding the sodium information. I’m trying all your recipes, because I’m learning how to eat healthier. I have high blood pressure and edema, so having the sodium level available on them helps.
Made Harisa soup today. Went by the recipe as it was written and came out very flavorful and easy to make.
If you haven’t tried Nico & Louise’s recipes they are very easy and super flavorful. Must try!
Thanks so much Sharon for your kind comment and your support 🥰
I’m delighted you enjoyed this soup – and our recipes in general! All the best,
Louise
This was my first time using a recipe from this site and I am looking forward to making more. I am impressed with how thoroughly well written the instructions are, as well as including the ingredients with the amounts in the body of the recipe makes following it on a device so much easier. The Harira soup was great! Next time I will either thicken it or use noodles as doing both was a bit too starchy. Flavor was great!
Thank you for the obvious effort put into communicating the recipes!
Hi Lauren,
I’m so happy you like our recipe instructions. We put a lot of time and effort into this in order to make it a seamless and easy experience for the user.
Thank you very much for your kind feedback, it means a lot to us ❤️
All the best,
Louise
It looks delicious
I’m so happy you like the look of it, Edda ❤️