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Soup

Harira

Harira is a Moroccan soup made with chickpeas, lentils, fava beans, tomatoes, vermicelli and flour.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Lentils and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 135 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Harira

Time40 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the chickpeas overnight the night before making the soup.

  2. Finely chop all the ingredients.

  3. Put the chopped ingredients together with the water in a large pot. Do not add the vermicelli and flour at this stage.

Cook the soup

  1. Let the soup boil for 40 minutes.

  2. Add the vermicelli when the chickpeas are cooked and leave the mixture on the heat.

Thicken and serve

  1. Mix the flour in a bowl with enough warm water to make it liquid, making sure there are no lumps, add some lemon juice, pour it into the pan and stir simultaneously.

  2. Leave for a few more minutes until the soup starts to thicken, then leave for another couple of minutes and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1079Calories
35 gProtein
17 gFat
198 gCarbs

Counts 15 of 17 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 15 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Lentil1/2 cup cooked (99g)115
Pea1/2 cup (72g)62
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Plum1 medium (66g)30
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Cumin1 tsp ground (2.1g)8
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Cilantro1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)1
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Beannot in our table0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lentils + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beans + ricetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,017 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Peas + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together949 recipes

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

  5. Lentils + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together255 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chick peas
Provide body and a firm, nutty bite to the soup.
Lentils
Break down during simmering to thicken the soup and add earthy substance.
White flour
Thickens the liquid as it cooks, giving the soup its smooth, velvety body.
Tomato paste
Adds concentrated tomato flavour, acidity and colour to the broth.
Fava beans
Add starchy body and a earthy flavour that thickens the soup.
Vermicelli
Adds soft noodle texture and absorbs some of the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the flour mixture. Flour lumps form if it goes into the hot soup unmixed, so it must be whisked smooth in warm water first. Stirring while pouring keeps it dispersed so starch can gelatinise evenly and thicken the soup without clumps.

Swap the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, lentils, beans, flour, rice, tomato, onion):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, lentils, beans, flour, rice, tomato, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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