Tunisian cuisine

Tunisian lablabi

Name: Tunisian lablabi
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 90 min
Total time: 105 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Tunisian cuisine
Ingredients: 400 g Chickpeas; 300 g Stale white bread; 8 clove Garlic; 3 tbsp Harissa; 2 tsp Ground cumin; 4 Eggs; 80 ml Olive oil; 80 g Olives; 2 tbsp Capers; 150 g Tinned tuna; 1 Lemon; to taste Salt

لبلابي

Chickpeas in a garlic broth poured over torn stale bread, with an egg, cumin and harissa.

Prep: 15 min
Cook: 90 min
Total: 105 min
Difficulty: Easy

Servings

Units

Ingredients

Chickpeas — soaked overnight400 g
Stale white bread300 g
Garlic8 clove
Harissa3 tbsp
Ground cumin2 tsp
Eggs4
Olive oil80 ml
Olives80 g
Capers2 tbsp
Tinned tuna — optional150 g
Lemon1
Saltto 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
Boil the chickpeas in two litres of water with half the garlic for ninety minutes, until soft but whole.
92 min
2
Pound the remaining garlic with salt and cumin to a paste and stir it into the broth. Season.
6 min
3
Soft-boil the eggs, six minutes from the boil, and peel them.
10 min
4
Tear the bread into large pieces into deep bowls, filling them halfway.
4 min
5
Ladle the hot broth and chickpeas over the bread until it is thoroughly soaked.
3 min
6
Top with an egg, a spoon of harissa, olives, capers and tuna, then olive oil and lemon.
4 min

About the dish

The bread is torn into the bowl by hand rather than cut: uneven pieces take up the broth differently, and that is the texture of the dish.

Everyone builds their own bowl: how much harissa, how much cumin, egg or no egg. In Tunisian lablabi houses the seasonings sit on the table, not in the kitchen.

This is working-morning food — cheap, hot and filling. It is eaten standing at breakfast, and there are places in Tunis that cook nothing else.

Worth knowing

— Fresh bread will not do: it turns to mush in seconds. It has to be yesterday's, dried out.
— The broth must be boiling as it goes in. Warm broth will not soften the bread properly.
— The harissa is stirred in at the bowl, not in the pot. That way everyone sets their own heat, which is part of the point.

Nutrition

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

Calories: 520 kcal
Protein: 22 g
Fat: 22 g
Carbs: 60 g

Ingredients

Method

About the dish

Worth knowing

Nutrition

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