Hajar's Best Moroccan Chorba

Hajar Elizabeth's Note:

With cold weather and Ramadan approaching this soup along with Morocco's national soup Harira will be daily staples here. Morocco is known for wonderful soups IF you use the authentic home cook's recipes!

• Total Time: 1 hrs 55 mins
• Prep Time: 25 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 250 g calf meat or 250 g beef or 250 g chicken
• 2 carrots
• 2 turnips
• 2 large potatoes
• 2 stalks celery
• 3 very ripe tomatoes or 2 tablespoons tomato concentrate or 2 tablespoons tomato puree
• 1 bunch fresh flat leaf parsley
• 1 onion
• 2 cups vermicelli or 2 cups thin spaghetti, broken into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon saffron (optional)
• 1 teaspoon good turmeric

Directions:

1. If you cannot find turnips use kholrabi or other similar firm vegetable, even cabbage in chunks! You can also simply omit it. We use what we have not necessarily what we need here in Morocco. Just do not use rutabegas/swede! Most of we Moroccan home cooks use the 1 teaspoons of good turmeric instead of the saffron but you must use one or the other as this is mainly for color.
2. Peel and cut the vegetables into little pieces(except for tomatoes), put them inside a stew pot ,add the meat cut in little pieces plus the vegetables with parsley,crushed onion (grated or very finely minced),oil salt, pepper and saffron. Add 2 ltres of water, put the pot on until boiling.
3. Fold the parsley into a bundle/packet and tie with a stem or kitchen string.
4. Remove the tomato cores, wash them and plunge them for 30 seconds into boiling water before peeling them, crush the pulp with a fork in a bowl or on a plate, put the tomatoes in the pot and mix. Cover and leave it cook on a medium fire for 60 minutes.
5. 10 minutes before serving, throw vermecilli in rain (scatter) , cover 3/4 and leave it to cook. Serve as soon as it is cooked. Pasta is done. Please do not cook your Moroccan dishes with pasta al dente; al just isn't to be found. We think that he left for America! Also, here someone always eats the parsley bundle.

Reviews

[Bergy]

5 star all the way. I made this yesterday and had it for lunch today - A meal in a bowl. I have also frozen 3 containers so I got 8 servings. Wonderful flavor and a very easy recipe. I even threw in a parsnip and I put the chopped parsley right into the soup Thanks Hajar for a winner of a recipe

[breton cove dreamer]

I made this in the morning and reheated it for supper. Easy clean up you gotta love that

[Sackville]

Fantastic, hearty soup, full of spice and flavour. I had a rather sad looking turnip to use up and this turned it into a very tasty supper. I used stewing beef and broken up spaghetti. Wouldn't change a thing. Thanks!