Harira

I had lamb soup last weekend. My parents went to a bazaar and there was a wonderful variety of food. My dad decided to buy back a middle eastern dish for me to try. There was the rice with wonderful flavour from spices, accompanied by soup which tasted really familiar to me. Eventually, I realised the soup was boiled with lamb (I don't have lamb very often) but funnily enough, the meat in the soup was chicken (you can see why I was confused).

With lamb on my mind, I searched for a recipe which might be similar to the one I tried. This recipe from All Recipes was fantastic. It was not as oily as the one I had, and had a cleaner taste to it. I'm not familiar with Middle Eastern fare but according to the submitter of the dish, Harira is a traditional Moroccan dish.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons Butter
453 grams Lamb meat
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
3/4 cup Celery ; chopped
1 Onion ; chopped
1 red onion ; chopped
1/2 cup Fresh cilantro ; chopped
822 grams Diced tomatoes
Salt ; to taste
7 cups water
3/4 cup green lentils
425 grams Chick peas ; drained
2 Eggs ; beaten
Cilantro ; for garnish

Instructions:
(1) Season lamb with a bit of salt.

(2) Place butter in large soup pot and melt over low heat. Place lamb, turmeric, black pepper, cinnamon, ginger, cayenne, butter, celery, onion and cilantro into the soup pot and stir frequently for 5 minutes. Pour tomatoes (reserve juice) into the mixture and salt to taste. Let simmer for 15 minutes.

(3) Pour tomato juice, 7 cups water, and the lentils into the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer. Let soup simmer, covered, for 2 hours.

(4) About 10 minutes before serving, turn the heat to medium-high, place chickpeas into the soup, let cook about 10 minutes. Stir in eggs, let eggs cook 1 minute.