Moroccan Spiced Vegetable and Chickpea Soup
This is my favorite vegetable soup recipe. It’s hearty, healthy, completely vegetarian and gluten free.
The harissa spice blend gives the soup it’s heat and complex, earthy flavour. If you can’t find harissa you can substitute some hot paprika instead.
What is Harissa?
Harissa is a paste or spice blend mix used in North African countries and the Middle East to flavor all kinds of foods and dishes. The recipe varies by region but usually contains dried chili peppers, paprika, garlic, cumin and coriander. Spice blends can vary radically in heat and salt, so start with a bit, and add more to taste.
The Vegetables
Like most vegetable soup recipes, this one is flexible. Start with onion, celery and carrots and then go from there.
For the diced vegetables I’ve used bell peppers and zucchini. Swap in diced potatoes, yams or small florets of cauliflower or broccoli .
For the leafy green use baby spinach, kale or even swiss chard
You will want 4-5 cups of diced vegetables in total plus some leafy greens to add at the end.
Hot and spicy or mild and fragrant?
I like this soup quite hot and spicy, so I always add in more harissa then I called for in the recipe. If you like less heat, or no heat, you can use sweet or mild paprika and more of the cumin and cinnamon instead. You will still have a really delicious fragrant soup.
Leftovers?
This recipe does make a large batch, about 10 -12 cups so you will definitely have leftovers!
It is delicious reheated, and will keep in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. It also freezes well, and will keep for 2-3 months in the freezer.
Equipment
- 1 large stockpot
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 cup diced carrot ( about 1 large or 2 medium size)
- 1 cup diced celery ( about 2 stalks)
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 to 2 tsp harrisa (if you can’t find harrisa substitute hot paprika.
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 x 28 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 green pepper, diced
- 1 zucchini, diced
- 1 x 19 oz can chickpeas drained and rinsed
- 2 cups baby spinach or baby kale
- fresh parsley, mint, or coriander to garnish
Instructions
- Rough chop/dice the onion, carrot, celery, bell peppers and the zucchini into about ¼ inch dice. You want the vegetable pieces to be roughly around the same size.Mince the clove of garlic.
- Heat the olive oil over medium heat in large stock pot or Dutch oven. Sauté onion, and carrots 4 to 5 minutes until the onion is softened and translucent. Add the garlic and celery and cook for another minute.Add the harissa, turmeric, cumin and cinnamon. Stir, allowing the spices to warm and release their fragrance, about 30 seconds to 1 minute
- Add the canned diced tomatoes and 4 cups water to the pot. Cover and let come to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook until carrots are tender, but slightly al dente, about 10-15 minutes.
- Add the diced peppers and zucchini. Cook until the carrots, bell peppers and zucchini are soft, about 10 minutes.
- Add the chickpeas, baby spinach or kale and stir through until the spinach /kale has wilted in the broth.Add more water if soup is too thick.
- Taste and adjust seasonings, adding salt if needed and additional harissa or hot paprika to taste.