Halal-conscious recipe
Harira with Halal beef
Moroccan harira: a spiced tomato, chickpea and lentil soup with Halal beef, thickened with cornflour and served with coriander and lemon.
Each method follows published technique for the dish, and every Halal substitution is checked against the ingredient pages we cite. Photographs come from our ingredient library rather than the finished dish.
Photo: Atiqa ezahiri · CC BY-SA 4.0
Why Halal checks matter here
Harira has no pork or alcohol, but its beef is only Halal from Halal-slaughtered cattle, and a version made with stock needs the stock checked too.
Harira is a Moroccan soup of tomatoes, chickpeas and lentils, often with meat, spiced with turmeric, ginger and saffron and thickened at the end. It is traditionally eaten to break the fast in Ramadan (see harira). There is no pork or alcohol in it, so the Halal check is the meat.
BBC Good Food's version uses braising beef and plain water. This recipe keeps that and specifies Halal beef (see beef); Halal lamb works too. If you make harira with stock instead of water, use one with a Halal certifier's mark.
Soak dried chickpeas the night before, or use canned ones. Stir the cornflour mixture in slowly so the soup thickens without lumps.
Halal-critical ingredients
- Beef Beef is Halal only from Halal slaughter. Buy braising beef from a Halal butcher or a certified pack. See Beef and Harira.
- Stock, if used This recipe uses water, but some harira recipes use meat or chicken stock, which needs Halal slaughter too. Keep to water, or use Halal-certified stock. See Harira.
Safe substitutes
- Beef of unknown source → Halal braising beef, or Halal lamb
Allergens
celery
Ingredients
Soup
- 15 ml (1 tbsp) olive oil
- 300 g (10½ oz) Halal braising beef, trimmed of excess fat, cut into 3 cm pieces
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- 1½ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- a pinch saffron
- 70 g (⅓ cup) dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and drained (or 140 g canned, drained)
- 6 large tomatoes, grated or blitzed
- 100 g (3½ oz) celery (2 stalks), finely chopped
- 1 l (4 cups) boiling water
- 80 g (⅓ cup + 1 tbsp) dried green lentils
- 3 tbsp cornflour (or plain flour), mixed with 3 tbsp water
To serve
- 2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
- to serve lemon wedges
Method
- Brown the beef. Heat the oil in a large flameproof casserole over a medium heat. Add the beef, onion, turmeric, pepper, ginger and salt and leave for 5 to 10 minutes to brown the meat lightly, stirring now and then.
- Simmer. Add the parsley, tomato purée, saffron, chickpeas, tomatoes and celery with the litre of boiling water. Bring to the boil, cover, lower the heat and simmer for 1 hour.
- Add the lentils. Stir in the lentils, cover and cook for 20 minutes more, until the chickpeas, meat and lentils are cooked.
- Thicken and serve. Mix the cornflour with 3 tbsp water until smooth, stir it into the soup and simmer for 5 minutes until it thickens and turns velvety. Scatter over the coriander and serve hot with lemon wedges for squeezing.
How this recipe was researched
Method adapted from BBC Good Food's 'Harira' (braising beef browned with onion, turmeric, black pepper and ginger; parsley, tomato purée, saffron, chickpeas, grated tomatoes and celery simmered in 1 litre of water for an hour; green lentils added for 20 minutes; thickened with cornflour; finished with coriander and lemon). We specified Halal beef. The recipe uses water, not stock. Timings follow the published technique rather than a kitchen test.
Technique and ingredient sources
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Harira — BBC Good Food
Retrieved:
Serves 6: 300 g braising beef, onion, turmeric, pepper, ginger, parsley, tomato purée, saffron, 70 g dried chickpeas, 6 large tomatoes, 100 g celery, 80 g green lentils, 3 tbsp cornflour, 1 litre water; simmered 1 hour, then 20 minutes, then 5. We specified Halal beef.
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Harira analysis — isithalal.food
Retrieved:
Meat and stock checks for harira.