Leblebi : Tunisian Chickpea Soup

You'd never know it from my unflattering photo, but this is actually quite a pretty dish in person. My food photography is at its most pathetic where soup is concerned, as you probably have already gathered. I found this delicious meal-in-a bowl in Paula Wolfert's Slow Mediterranean Kitchen, subtitled Recipes for the Passionate Cook. Like all of Paula Wolfert's work, this book resonantes with her devotion and intensity and her evident love of the mediterranean cuisines she documents and interprets. The book is dedicated to foods made from scratch, in a relaxed way, for people who find contentment in the process, and pleasure in serving real home cooked food to their family and friends.

It is not at all meant to be difficult food. Rather, it is food which, because it requires no last minute pyrotechnics, or hurry of any kind, has a wide margin of error. Split second timing is not required, and you won't be feeling anxious about whether it will work, or be okay. This soup is a prime example. It was originally a street food, primarily eaten by Tunisian men, for breakfast, outdoors. I like it for a complete supper, but it would be very nice anytime.

The thing is, you've got to make the chickpeas from scratch, or there is no point. But you can make them ahead, keep them in the fridge, and reheat them when you want to serve your soup. At that point, the only thing you really have to do is fix the eggs, and assemble the ingredients. So actually, it's easy.

You may be thinking that chickpeas are miserable to make-they've got those hard little skins-a real nuisance. But her recipe works, and they are soooo good, silky and delicious. Chickpeas from a can are fine for nearly everything, but not here. So you need to feel like a bit of puttering to do this, but you won't feel over-challenged, and you can do something else while you make your lebeli.

You will need:
1/2 lb chickpeas, soaked overnight in water to cover, with a pinch of baking soda.
2 cups of good veal, chicken or beef stock
a veal bone or two, if you can get them (this is really an asset)
4 garlic cloves
big glop olive oil
salt
pepper
a fresh egg per person
1/2 cup cubed stale good bread per person
harissa sauce, thinned with water to pouring consistency
ground cumin
freshly ground pepper
several pitted black olives per person
capers
diced roasted red bell pepper
extra virgin olive oil
a lemon wedge per person

To make the chickpeas, preheat the oven to 230F. Put the soaked chickpeas, stock, bones, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, and extra water to cover the peas by 1", if necessary, into a heavy lidded pot. Bring to a boil, cover and put in oven for about 3 hours, or until fully cooked and silky. Now, you can keep going, or store the soup in the fridge for a day or two, until you're ready to go. When you are ready you can make it all (serves 8) or a bit now, and more later. If you have refrigerated it, you can easily remove the fat from the top.

When you are ready to eat, reheat the chickpeas in their liquid, while you prepare the eggs. Fill a bowl with ice water. For each bowl of soup, put one egg in a pan of not quite boiling water. Cover pan and turn off the heat. After 6 minutes, slip the eggs into the ice water to cool. Once they ar cool, peel them carefully, leaving the medium cooked eggs whole.

Put some stale bread in the bottom of each bowl, and cover with a portion of chickpeas and their cooking liquid. Set an egg on top of each bowl, and cut it so that the yolk runs. Dribble some harissa sauce over each and sprinkle with cumin and freshly ground pepper. Top with olives, capers, and diced bell pepper. Dribble on a bit of olive oil, and squeeze the lemon wedge over all.

This is a satisfying, belly-warming, invigorating soup, to cure you if you are both tired and hungry. If the eggs are too fussy for you, you could probably substitute a lightly fried egg, with the yolk still very soft. But don't substitute for those chickpeas!

Comments

[Raspberry Sour]

Hi Lindy, that sounds most divine! I've been wanting to try some of Paula Wolfert's recipes for a while, but don't have any of her books. One question- what is harissa sauce??

[lindy]

R.S.: I hope you'll like the soup-I think you will!
Harissa is a tunisian hot chili sauce also containing spices (which may include eg. cumin, caraway, cinnamon, tumeric), plus garlic, and onions. I bought mine in a tube at the middle eastern market.

[Kimberly]

Mmmm... I love chickpeas, and runny egg yolks, and... well, everything in this soup, really, except for the olives.

I like the soft watercolor pears in this version of your banner, too.

[lindy]

Kimberly-Thanks, I still have issues with unequal borders as viewed on a laptop only, strange.....

No olives? Do you like capers? They might make a good substitute for that salty bit of whatever that olives provide.

[Meklorka]

for people who don't like olives OR capers, like myself, I would recommend just the tiniest dab of miso in the bowls you serve this in (don't boil miso or cook it!). It perfectly substitutes that "salty bit of whatever" and is extremely nutritious and delicious.