Harira

Harira is a herb-rich, tomato-based soup with a velvety-smooth, creamy texture, as the word hareer signifies velvetiness in Arabic. It's the most popular soup in Morocco, symbolizing the unification of people during Ramadan, the holy month of fasting in the Muslim calendar. According to religious law, practitioners may not eat or drink anything between dawn and sunset. At sunset, when the cannons strike, Moroccans eat their first meal of the day - the obligatory harira soup, accompanied by dates, figs, coffee, or milk, along with fried honey cookies shaped like flowers and sprinkled with sesame, called chebakia. Harira is made from a variety of legumes such as lentils, fava beans, and chickpeas, tomato sauce, harissa paste, and fresh herbs such as parsley, turmeric, saffron, lemon, caraway seeds, and coriander, but every region in Morocco has its own version of the soup. It's also very popular in Algeria. Harira can be either vegetarian or stuffed with bits of lamb, chicken, beef, or fish meat. In some cases, beaten eggs or flour and water mixture are whisked into the soup near the end of cooking in order to give it a slightly different texture and to thicken it. Spicy, peppery, nourishing, rich with vegetables and meat, harira is a true delicacy in the world of soups.