Chorba frik

Ingredients

• Lamb — finely diced500 g
• Freekeh150 g
• Chickpeas — soaked overnight150 g
• Onion2
• Tomatoes — grated400 g
• Tomato paste2 tbsp
• Celery2
• Coriander30 g
• Dried mint2 tsp
• Cinnamon stick1
• Ghee50 g
• Lemon1
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Brown the meat with the onion and celery in ghee for ten minutes.

   12 min

2. 2

   Add the grated tomato, tomato paste, cinnamon, salt and pepper and cook five minutes.

   7 min

3. 3

   Pour in two litres of boiling water, add the chickpeas and simmer forty minutes.

   42 min

4. 4

   Rinse the freekeh, add it and cook twenty minutes more, stirring; the grain settles and catches.

   22 min

5. 5

   Stir in the coriander five minutes before the end and loosen with water if the soup has gone too thick.

   6 min

6. 6

   Ladle out, crumble dried mint over each bowl and add lemon juice.

   3 min

About the dish

Freekeh is wheat harvested young and burned in the field. The fire gives it the smokiness that makes this soup recognisable; bulgur will not stand in for it.

The grain goes in after the meat and tomatoes and thickens the soup by itself. No flour or starch is needed here.

Dried mint is crumbled over the bowl at serving. In the pot it loses its scent in half an hour and becomes just a herb.

Worth knowing

• — Freekeh is rinsed twice: it arrives with field dust and fine grit from the burning.
• — The soup thickens on cooling more than it seems it will. When reheating, add water straight away.
• — In Ramadan chorba comes first, before the dates and everything else: after a day without food, hot broth is easier than solids.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

420 kcal

Protein

28 g

Fat

18 g

Carbs

38 g

More from Algeria

• Algerian couscous — Semolina steamed three times over a pot of meat and vegetables, with the broth served apart.