Moroccan lentil soup (aka Harira) is a nutritious low carb soup, stuffed with legumes and veggies! The soup is enriched with healthy and taste giving spices and is not hot but perfectly mild balanced in flavor. One-Pot, easy plant-based, meatless north-African soup. Enjoy this soup as a main dish with flatbread or as a starter.

Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes

4.91 from 10 votes

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Spicy Moroccan Lentil Soup - Veg Harira Recipe [+Video]

Moroccan Lentil Soup, aka Harira, is a spiced north African nutritious soup, low in carbs and high in Proteins.

This is a vegan version of the Harira soup, and it's not a traditional authentic recipe. It's based on the original, which is prepared with meats.

If you like soups like my Indian lentil soup, then this one-pot easy soup should be your next dinner meal!

What is Moroccan Soup (Harira)?

Harira is a Moroccan Lentil Soup served all year round but especially during Ramadan to break the fast at night.

The soup is usually prepared with local meats such as lamb to enrich it and make it super nutritious, because of the daylight fast.

If you don't get to eat the whole day, you need to pack the soup with nutritional value.

With the proteins from the meat and lentils, this is easily achieved, yet this is not the only perk of this wonderful soup.

Moroccan ladies know how to cook up great dishes, so they figured it would make sense to season it appropriately because you need to celebrate the fact that you managed to get through another day without eating, right?

So, the Moroccan soup is packed with gorgeous flavors.

You won't be able to leave your spoon alone.

Moroccan stew ingredients:

This Moroccan Lentil Soup is vegan, simply because I am really picky with lamb meat and I don't think this soup would be that great with beef or chicken.

Besides I decided long ago that this soup is just amazing vegan and that anything more would be almost too much.

After all, I am no a person who needs to fast.

Yet, if you feel like adding lamb to it, just do it!

(and then invite me over to convince me to make mine with lamb meat in the future! :P)

You will need legumes, red lentils and chickpeas (garbanzo beans), for this soup.

I use only dried lentils and chickpeas, not the canned stuff and I usually go organic as well because those taste better and the quality is higher as well.

Red lentils and Chickpeas (Garbanzo beans)

Root vegetables are important here as well because they give the basic flavors to the soup.

I add carrots, celery green stalks, onion, ginger, and garlic.

The spices are essential as well. I like to use Turmeric, cumin, chili, cinnamon, and black pepper.

These spices combined to create a warm comfortable taste which works really well with the chosen legumes and root veggies.

Besides that, I add in some acidity with tomato, which also thickens the soup, and lemon juice at the end.

These flavors combined to create a well-rounded taste experience for this Moroccan Lentil Soup!

How to make Moroccan Lentil Soup?

The Moroccan soup with lentils and chickpeas is very straightforward to prepare.

Keep your ingredients cut and ready so that you can just cooking and add the ingredients along the way.

You need to keep the soup to cook for 60 minutes at least so that it gains in flavor.

This is important even if your chickpeas are cooked super soft in advance.

Lemon Juice is always used to garnish this soup.

I like to add cilantro as well as color contrast and for little flavor (you can skip the cilantro if you like).

The full recipe card is situated further below with the step by step details.

You can also cook the Moroccan lentil soup in the following appliances to save time and effort:

Instant Pot
Slow Cooker
Thermomix

How to serve the Harira Soup?

The most delicious way to enjoy Harira Soup, in my opinion, is simply to serve it as a main dish with bread or a flatbread.

Sometimes I prepare Lebanese zaatar flatbread (I know it's not Moroccan but the combination is really amazing!) with the Harira soup.

Moroccans that I met have their own opinion.

Most will say to serve the soup with dates.

Some have suggested dried figs or a potato patty called Maâkouda.

Others enjoy the Moroccan Lentil Soup as a starter and serve up other Meditteranean/north African meals after that such as tajine or stuffed tomatoes.