Hearty stew of chickpeas, lentils, and lamb in a fragrant tomato broth

Nothing can beat the smell of a soup simmering on the stove on a cold winter day, the flavors melding into something magical that brings comfort and warmth. This soup is one of my favorites for those cold gray days. The warm enticing middle eastern spices blend together and transport you to warmer climes. The beans and meat add delicious heartiness. And the tomatoes bring vibrancy through their acidity.

I started developing this recipe based on common ingredients found in traditional Moroccan tajine dishes. These stews are slowly cooked in a clay pot called a tajine and feature a variety of ingredients including dried fruit, nuts, meats, vegetables, and many spices including turmeric, ginger, cinnamon and more.

This stew begins with browning lamb in your stockpot. If you have never had lamb or are only familiar with it in its common roast form, I encourage you to broaden your cooking horizons and try it in this dish. For this recipe, you should choose stew meat or a tougher cut of meat, as opposed to something like a leg cut. The simmering process will soften the meat, so don’t worry about anything being too chewy. If lamb is not available to you, you can substitute beef. If your meat is not precut into bitesize pieces, do so before browning.

As the meat is browning begin to add your seasonings. Cooking your seasonings will begin to bring out their flavors. As you will see, this recipe calls for a lot of different spices. Don’t be daunted by it. Trust the blend. These iconic spices are frequently used in other Middle Eastern, Indian, or North African food and will definitely not sit on your shelf if you enjoy the dishes of these areas. I also want to note that I call for mostly ground spices. I do this to help quicken the distribution of flavor, shortening the time I need to simmer the soup, and so I don’t have to fish around as much at the end to remove the spice pieces.

After your meat is browned and spices added, the even easier part comes. Begin adding water, bouillon, and tomatoes to form the broth of the stew. Then add your chopped cilantro. You will be adding a lot of cilantro. The result is amazing as the cilantro is cooked and flavors the stew. The beans and lentils are added next. Once all your ingredients are it you just have to wait.

The longer you simmer this soup the better in my opinion. Yes, it’s hard not to eat it right away as the fragrance fills your house and it’s not always feasible in a busy schedule to let it simmer forever, but if you have the time give it a couple hours.

The result is worth the wait. While your soup is simmering, you can mix up a salad or some flatbread to go with it, but it is also delicious just by itself. I hope it brings warmth and comfort to you and inspires you to explore new flavors and cuisines. Enjoy!

– The Recipe –