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Algerian Harira

A hearty soup made with lamb, chickpeas, beans, lentils, vegetables, and spices.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 23 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and saffron share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 27 recipes mention both. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

The recipe

Time1 hour

Ingredients

Contains: egg, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Brown the meat

  1. Season the meat with salt and pepper.

  2. Heat olive oil in a large stock pot over medium-high heat.

  3. Add the meat and cook until it just starts to brown. If the meat starts to give off water, raise the heat.

  4. Add the onions and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently.

  5. Add the tomato paste and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

Simmer the soup

  1. Add 1 ½ to 2 quarts of water.

  2. Add the chickpeas and your chosen spice blend, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.

  3. Cook for 1 hour.

  4. Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary. If desired, add more cumin or hot peppers.

Add the remaining ingredients

  1. Add the white beans and bulghur and cook for 30 minutes.

  2. Add the lentils, carrots, and celery and cook for 30 minutes.

  3. Add the vermicelli and cook for 3 minutes.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Wheat + saffrontop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Peas + beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together949 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Beans + lentilstop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).

  5. Beans + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,441 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lamb
Provides meaty flavour and richness as it browns and slowly cooks in the broth.
Chickpeas (in the method)
Hold their shape through long simmering and add body and a nutty, starchy texture.
White beans
Soften during simmering, thickening the soup and adding creamy body.
Green lentils
Break down partly as they cook, thickening the broth and adding earthy flavour.
Tomato paste
Adds concentrated tomato flavour and colour after being cooked down with the onions.
Bulghur wheat
Swells as it cooks, adding chewy texture and thickening the soup.

The step that matters

Cooking the tomato paste. Cooking tomato paste for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly, darkens it and deepens its flavour, reducing raw acidity. Under-cooked paste tastes sharp and flat in the finished soup.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, peas, beans, lentils, carrot, celery, wheat):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Asparagusbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, peas, beans, lentils, carrot, celery, wheat. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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