🇱🇾 Libya
Libyan sharbaLibyan lamb and orzo soup
Libya's national soup: lamb in a spicy tomato broth with chickpeas and orzo, seasoned with bzar, finished with dried mint and lemon, and served at almost every Ramadan iftar.
Origin and history
Libya's shorba, simply the Libyan soup (shourba libiya), is regarded in Libya and abroad as a national dish. Its lamb, tomato, chickpea and orzo base belongs to the wider Maghrebi family of chorba soups, and it is on nearly every Libyan table during Ramadan. Sources say little more about its origin; recipes vary from home to home.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 1 h 30 min
- Hands-on
- 30 min
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 450 g1 lb lamb, shoulder, in small cubes, bone in if possible
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp bzar (Libyan spice mix), see the notes: turmeric, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, cloves
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder or harissa, more to taste
- 100 g1/2 cup chickpeas, cooked, or canned and drained
- 1/4 cup each chopped parsley and coriander
- 1.8 l7 1/2 cups water, hot
- 100 g1/2 cup orzo (or other small pasta)
- 1 tbsp dried mint
- salt; lemon wedges, to taste and to serve
Method
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1. Heat the oil in a large pot and brown the lamb on all sides over medium-high heat, about 8 minutes.
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2. Add the onion and cook until soft.
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3. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until it darkens and smells sweet.
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4. Add the bzar, chilli, salt and the chickpeas, then the parsley and coriander, and stir for a minute.
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5. Pour in the hot water, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 40 to 60 minutes, until the lamb is tender.
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6. Add the orzo, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring now and then so it does not stick, until it is tender. The soup should be loose, not stew-like.
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7. Stir in the dried mint, turn off the heat and let the soup rest for 10 minutes.
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8. Serve hot with lemon wedges.
Notes
- Bzar: a Libyan spice mix of roughly 2 tbsp turmeric, 1 tbsp black pepper, 1 tbsp cinnamon, 1/2 tbsp ginger and 1 tsp ground cloves. Each family has its own blend; a pinch of each is enough in the pot.
- Add the pasta at the end, close to serving, because the soup thickens as it sits; thin with hot water when reheating.
- Chicken or beef may replace lamb; some versions use bulgur or crushed wheat instead of orzo.
- The dried mint, generous and added at the very end, is the constant in the sources.
- It is the usual soup of the Libyan Ramadan table, served at iftar with bread and dates; sharba is cooked daily during the month.
- Related soups: Algerian and Tunisian chorba (chorba frik uses green wheat), and Moroccan harira.
Adapted from Shourba Libiya, Middle East Monitor, The North African Cookbook, Jeff Koehler (Phaidon), as printed by Cuisine NZ, and Libyan soup (sharrba), Islamweb.
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.