Boiling • Simmering and Stewing • bread (day-old bread) • chickpeas • cumin • garlic • harissa • lemon juice • oil (olive oil) • salt • Northern Africa • Tunisia
Lablabi (Chickpea Soup)
Chickpeas, day-old bread, lemon juice, and olive oil (and harissa, Tunisia’s famous hot sauce) are the basic ingredients needed to make Lablabi — a soup from Tunisia. Chickpeas (chick-peas or chick peas) are also called garbanzo beans and ceci. They are common in Mediterranean, Indian, and Middle Eastern cuisine. Lablabi soup goes well with hard-boiled egg or pan-fried fish.
Lablabi (Chickpea Soup) Recipe
Chick peas, day-old bread, lemon juice, and olive oil are the basic ingredients of Lablabi soup.
Ingredients
2 cups dried chickpeas that have been washed, rinsed and soaked overnight; some cooks add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) to the water in which the chickpeas soak — or — start with 32 oz of canned chick peas, drained and rinsed.)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp harissa sauce (canned or homemade)
1 tbsp cumin
salt (to taste)
juice of one lemon
½ cup olive oil
3 slices of day-old bread, preferably day-old french bread, broken into small pieces
Instructions
1
In a large soup pot, cover chickpeas with water, bring to a boil, and cook at a simmer until tender (1 to 2 hours). — Or if starting with canned chickpeas, heat in 4 cups of water for 10 minutes.
2
Add garlic, harissa sauce, ground cumin, and salt. Simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.
3
Immediately before serving: add lemon juice, olive oil, and bread crumbs. Serve hot.
Ingredients
2 cups dried chickpeas that have been washed, rinsed and soaked overnight; some cooks add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) to the water in which the chickpeas soak — or — start with 32 oz of canned chick peas, drained and rinsed.)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp harissa sauce (canned or homemade)
1 tbsp cumin
salt (to taste)
juice of one lemon
½ cup olive oil
3 slices of day-old bread, preferably day-old french bread, broken into small pieces
Directions
1
In a large soup pot, cover chickpeas with water, bring to a boil, and cook at a simmer until tender (1 to 2 hours). — Or if starting with canned chickpeas, heat in 4 cups of water for 10 minutes.
2
Add garlic, harissa sauce, ground cumin, and salt. Simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.
3
Immediately before serving: add lemon juice, olive oil, and bread crumbs. Serve hot.
A more traditional method is to start with whole cumin and grind it immediately before preparing the soup.
The soup can also be served by placing portions of bread crumbs in each soup bowl, ladling the soup over the bread, and pouring equal portions of lemon juice and olive oil over the soup. Serve with additional harissa on the side.
A richer lablabi soup can be made by frying the garlic, some chopped red onion, a chopped carrot, and some chopped celery in olive oil, and adding this to the cooked chickpeas. Additionally, the chickpeas can be cooked in chicken broth or chicken stock.
A spicy-hot sauce from Tunisia, harissa sauce (or harissa) is made from hot chiles, garlic, cumin, coriander, caraway and olive oil. Harissa is served with couscous and is also used in soups and stews. Commercially-produced harissa in cans and jars may be obtained at Middle Eastern grocery stores.