Lablabi - Tunisian Chickpea Soup

Simple, but tasty soup my father made on occasion when I was young. I found it on an African recipe site whilst trying to track down another forgotten recipe I longed for. Preparation time excludes the time taken to soak chickpeas. Some tips and ideas.- "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 chick peas. Additionally, the chick peas can be cooked in chicken broth or chicken stock. Goes well with hard-boiled egg or pan-fried fish."

• Ready In: 50 mins
• Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 2  cups dried garbanzo beans or 2  cups canned chick-peas
• 4 -6  garlic cloves, minced
• 1  tablespoon harissa
• 1  tablespoon cumin
•  salt, to taste
• 1  lemon, juice of
• 6  tablespoons olive oil
• 3  slices  of day-old  bread, preferably day-old French bread, broken into small pieces

Directions

1. Wash chickpeas and soak overnight (if using dried).
2. If desired, rinse them again. In a large soup pot, cover chickpeas with water, bring to a boil, and cook until tender (ten to twenty minutes). — Or start with two pounds of canned chick peas, drained and rinsed, and heated in four cups of water.
3. Add garlic, harissa sauce, ground cumin, and salt. Simmer for ten minutes. Immediately before serving: add lemon juice, olive oil, and bread crumbs. Serve hot.