Coconut Saag
Priya Krishna
2305 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
2,305
35 minutes
Chickpea Harissa Soup
- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:3 to 4 servings
- 3tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1large yellow onion, diced (about ½ cup)
- 1large carrot, diced (about ¼ cup)
- Kosher salt
- 6garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 to 2tablespoons harissa, or to taste
- 2(14-ounce) cans chickpeas
- 2tablespoons lemon juice
- Honey, to taste (optional)
- Toppings (optional): More lemon juice, celery, celery leaves, herbs (cilantro, parsley, mint), capers, pitted olives, croutons or bread crumbs, soft-boiled egg
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
393 calories; 16 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 9 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 51 grams carbohydrates; 14 grams dietary fiber; 10 grams sugars; 15 grams protein; 610 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered byPreparation
- Step 1
Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot and a pinch of salt, and sauté, stirring occasionally, until tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cumin and cook until fragrant, 1 minute. Stir in the harissa and cook until fragrant, 1 minute.
- Step 2
Add the chickpeas and their liquid. Fill a can with water, and add that to the pot as well. Season with salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the chickpeas are warmed and the flavors have come together, about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Now taste it: Add salt, water (if too thick), honey (if too spicy), and/or harissa (if not spicy enough) to your liking. Serve hot, with whichever toppings you like.
Tip
- Soup can be made 3 days in advance.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Sunny
Where does one buy harissa?
Leslie J
This was very good. I started with 2 cups dried chickpeas, cooked them with a few bay leaves in the Instapot, then transferred with cooking liquid to the carrot (4)/onion/harissa mixture. Added a can of chicken broth, another c water, 1/2 c rice, and some slivered kale and simmered for about 30 min. Served with parsley, cilantro, celery leaves (really good!), capers, and green olives on the side.
PamMcG
It’s soup. You don’t need to measure onions.
Amber
It would also be good to have equivalents for the chickpeas, in case people are cooking them from scratch. The best equivalent I have found is 1/2 cup chickpeas = 1.5 c cooked chickpeas = one can chickpeas. I would be happy to be corrected.
Lillie
This is a riff on a classic Tunisian street food, Lablabi! Fill your bowl with croutons (or just torn pieces of stale bread) ladle the chickpea broth on top, an egg is a must (very soft boiled so it falls apart and mixes in with the broth) as well as some extra garlic in oil and a sprinkling of cumin!
Lynne
I doubled the recipe but used only 2T of Harissa, added one can of diced tomatoes and 1 cup of red lentils. It was DELICIOUS!! Then, added cilantro and extra lemon juice before serving.
Amber
1 "large" onion is 1/2 cup? Internet sources advise that a "medium" onion is 8 oz weight or one cup chopped. NY Times, could you please standardize your onion sizes? I know it would be a huge job to do this for the backlist of thousands of recipes, but it would be nice to do this for any new recipes added to the site. Onions are important!
Eustacia
I happened to have some preserved lemon on hand, so I cut off the rind and squished the pulpy bits into the soup instead of plain lemon juice. Then I julienned the rind to ue as a garnish. Delightful!
Chris M
Instead of water, I added a 14.5oz can of diced peeled tomatoes with juice. I just like tomatoes a lot. Added chopped parsley for topping, and crumbled in some leftover feta I had in the bowl right before I ate it - all worked well. Really good recipe, good base to play around with, lots of good suggestions above.
Vladimir Poutine
Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, or any local Mediterranean market if you have one. Even easier, you can just make your own: https://www.seriouseats.com/2018/04/harissa-is-the-customizable-condiment-of-your-sweet-spicy-dreams.html
Julie Figg
Used Red Thai curry paste in place of the harissa. Grocery stores in a small town lead to improv!
MD
Added a little bit of turmeric for color, chicken stock, and chopped kale. It was lovely — perfect for a rainy evening
mary
This soup is the best! I’ll often add some smoked honey at the end. I also usually scoop half of the soup out when it’s ready- take an immersion blender to it, then add the blended half back in. Love the texture this creates!
Charlemagne
I made this last night. Huge hit! Notes for next time: - Used Mina harissa (Whole Foods), which was salty on its own The salt I added was superfluous & the soup was a tad saltier than I would have preferred (still delicious!!). Next time, I'll limit the salt to a pinch in Step 1. - The large onion yielded more than 1/2 a cup. - Didn't let the carrots get mushy. Could use more, maybe purple. - Used 4 heaping Tblsp. of harissa - not too spicy at all! No honey. - Use less cumin. - SO GOOD!
Christina
The measurements based on the quantities of vegetables seemed a little off, especially when I had another recipe by Slagle which had 1 medium onion equaling 1.5 cups. Not feeling confident with this recipe, I found that Ottolenghi had a similar recipe in Plenty More and used that one instead. It had a few more spices, but was no more complex than this recipe. What put it over the top was Ottolenghi's soup had a wonderful the feta paste that I made with parsley and mint.
Royce
This is one of my favorite recipes, I did alter the recipe a little. I found as written is a little bland. Double the garlic, add salt, added black olives, at the very end cooked red Argentinian shrimp in the soup! It’s a keeper!!!
6101
Adding salt at the end helped but even with 2T harissa it seemed to need more *width* so I added some worchesershire. Anything for a little more umami. It was pretty good with a variety of herbs, fresh garlicky croutons, capers, and and easy quick option but deserves some more flavor experimentation.
sharon
This is super easy. And just ok. Made as stated EXCEPT! Used veggie broth.
Kateclancy
This is perfect for a quick dinner, or packed for an office lunch. I found that it needed some umami, and so I always add some anchovy paste (to keep it vegan, maybe aminos with less salt added, or nutritional yeast would do). I also add a heart green like chard or kale. Great meal.
Alexia
I used 1 entire glass jar of Harissa mild from "Mina" -found it at Lotus supermarket- (delicious sauce). Then 1 can of chickpeas and 1 can of white beans. I caramelized 1 giant onion diced (about 25 minutes). I did not add carrots but a handful of couscous and boiled egg as a topper. FANTASTIC! Our favorite!
Helen
I really like this soup and have made it several times . My tweaks: a spoonful of capers in my bowl adds briny taste. I added a teaspoon of Aleppo pepper and a tsp of paprika while cooking. Used full 2 tbsp of (Casablanca) harissa. No added salt or honey needed.
B Eaglesham
I added butternut squash and baby potato pieces and partially blended at the end. Very tasty soup for a cold day.
Ruth S
Add chicken stock instead of water; a can of tomatoes; preserved lemon pulp and rind instead of lemon juice
Karen S
Delicious and so easy! Plus it’s one of those pantry recipes since most of the ingredients are usually on hand
Jean
I used chicken stock instead of water.
Marta
I have made this recipe a dozen times at least, per the recipe or close to it depending on what I have. It is always wonderful. I split the difference on the harissa and use 1-1/2 T (Seasoned Pioneers brand - pretty spicy). It is chili hot, but we like it that way.
tim walsh
where do you find harissa?
Marta
Here you go - https://www.seasonedpioneers.com/shop/seasonings-spices/african/harissa-spice-mix/ This brand comes from England, I think, and it takes a little while to get delivered.
Alexia
I found a jar of delicious Harissa at Lotus supermarket. The brand is MINA. It made a difference. Hope this helps.
Margaret
I cooked this with celery as well as carrots, and stirred in a bunch of spinach toward the end (I like a lot of veggies in my soup). I added a can of tomato paste after adding the spices (including turmeric) and let that cook for a bit. Deglazed with a little balsamic, and added a knob of butter as it was simmering to make the broth richer. It’s so good! I ate it with crumbled feta sprinkled on top.
tony
Not really the recipe that had then...
michal
Didn't have harissa, used 1 teaspoon of schug instead. Yummy!
Molly
I have made this a few times and liked it, so I was making it again last night, when I realized I was out of chickpeas! Oh no! But I used two 14-oz cans of cannellini beans with their liquid instead, and the soup still turned out well - almost as good as with chickpeas, I thought. My husband actually liked it better with the cannellinis!
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