Shorba (Soup)

I'm not very fond of any type of soup, I just don't like eating liquid food. However, soup is traditionaly the first course in an Algerian meal, and I've had pretty pleasant experiences with Moroccan harira, a similar concotion to this but which also adds lentils. I'm happy I made it, because I really enjoyed it. It's specially good with some lemon juice. The chickpeas are very common ingredients in soup, though I don't particularly like them so I would skip them next time.

This recipe calls for Orzo, which are small soup pasta noodles available in the pasta section of a well-stocked supermarket. I had actually bought some, but somehow I managed to lose them, so I substituted with broken up capellini (the only type of pasta I had). It worked very well. You could also use angel hair pasta, or other types of soup pasta. I made this soup with chicken, but you can also use lamb or beef.

Ingredients

# 1 1/2 lbs chicken, cubed
# 1 yellow onion, grated
# 1/2 zucchini, grated
# 1/2 small potato, grated
# 1/2 rib celery with libs, halved
# 1 carrot, halved
# 1/4 cup dried chick-peas, soaked overnight in water and drained OR canned chick-peas
# 2 tsp. salt
# 1/2 tsp. black pepper
# 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
# 1 tbsp. paprika
# 2 tbsp. tomato paste
# 1 tbsp. olive oil
# 8 cups of water
# 1/2 cup orzo or another soup pasta
# 1 tbsp. chopped parsley
# 1 tsp. chopped fresh mint leaves
# lemon slices

Instructions

Put meat, onion, zucchini, potato, celery, carrot, salt, pepper, cinnamon, paprika, tomato paste, oil, chick-peas (if using dried kind) and 1/2 cup of water in a large pot.

Cover and saute over low heat for 20 minutes.

Add the rest of the water, bring to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes.

Add pasta and chickpeas (if using canned).

Cook for 10 minutes.

Add parsley and mint.

Serve with lemon slices.

Recipe by: The Africa Guide
Adapted from The Great Book of Couscous