nutritious | beach house kitchen

Harira on the hob

We regularly have an identity crisis with dishes, turning traditional fare on its head, ‘Beach House-ing’ things you could say. We don’t mean it, no offence to the original recipes and food heritage in question, its just we like to play in the kitchen. Here’s another traditional recipe we have messed about with, thankfully the results were rather delicious.

The best harira I have ever had was for breakfast (regularly) in the village of Chefchaeoun, known to many a traveller for its exceptional soup, jalaba (hooded cloak garment worn by most Moroccans) production and wonderful mountain location. Its small winding streets hide many a wonderful eating experience, rows of blue houses (yes blue!) make this one of the most distinctive and stunning villages in that vast old land.

I moved there for a while, took up residence in a room situated on the walls of the Hamam (the communal bath), the warmest room in town. You see its high up there and you wake chilled to the bone and needing a serious bowl of spicy sustenance. Abdullah provided.

He was a wonderful cook, in nothing more than a space between two buildings, a few squat tables and two gas burners with huge steel pots, Abdullah created the authentic Moroccan dining experience for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was like a French Bistro without the pretense and price tag. My kind of joint for sure.

For a few pennies, Abdullah would dish you up an epic bowl of full-on morning ammunition, sometimes with a tooth-less smile that shifted the early morning fug. This hearty soup fuelled me on many a hike around the Rif Mountains and also on days spent lounging around playing card games with other punks holed up there. It came with a wedge of steaming flat bread, fruity olive oil and a small bowl of freshly ground cumin to use liberally. I sat wearing my Jalaba (the over enthusiastic tourist that I am) eating with the local men in silence, canteen style. No women. In Morocco cafes and restaurants seem to be a male only thing.

Chefchaouen

I like cooking soups, its a soulful pursuit. You don’t have to be to precious, there are rules, but not many, a little like Morocco itself. This is the situation where I feel nice and comfortable.

Recipe Notes

Add just 2 cups of water to make this a hearty stew.

As with all soups/ stews, depending on the quality of your veggies, you many need to add some vegetable stock if the flavour is thin on the ground.

Here’s to you Abdullah. Peace be with you. Hamdullah!

Rainbow Chard and Red Lentil Harira

The Bits – For 4 bowls

1 1/2 cup dried chickpeas (soaked and cooked)

750ml fresh water (or vegetable stock)

1 tbs olive oil

1 1/2 inch fresh ginger (finely diced)

3 cloves garlic (minced)

1 large onion (finely diced)

1 yellow pepper (diced)

3 ripe tomatoes (with flavour)

3 cups chopped rainbow chard (stems separated from the leaves)

1 teas ground turmeric

1 1/2 teas smoked paprika

1/2 teas ground cinnamon

2 teas cumin seeds

3 tbs tomato paste

1 lemon (cut into wedges)

2 tbs gram flour (or flour of your choice)

1 handful fresh coriander leaves (leaves picked, stems chopped)

1 cup red lentils

3 dates (finely chopped)

1 teas fresh ground pepper

2 teas sea salt

Harira bubblin’ away

Do It

Soak your chickpeas overnight in a saucepan. Drain and refresh with new water, well covered. Add 1/4 teas bicarb of soda (this makes them soft and cook quicker), bring to a boil and lower heat. Vigorously simmer for 20 minutes or until chickpeas are tender.

Warm the oil in a thick bottomed sauce pan, add your onions and cumin seeds and saute the onions for a few minutes until glassy, add garlic, pepper and ginger, stir for a couple of minutes and then add all chard stems (add earlier if they are a little tough), flour and spices, stir and warm through for a minute and now add your tomatoes, dates, lentils, tomato paste, warm through for a minute then add your water/ chickpea juice. Bring to a rolling boil and turn down heat to the lowest setting, add your chickpeas and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.

When ready to serve, bring back to just about boiling, add your chard leaves and coriander stems. Re-cover and allow to cook for a few minutes. Check seasoning.

Serve

A lemon wedge, topped with coriander leaves and a good glug of good olive oil. Add green olives and brown rice to the table if you’d like to make this dinner.

For a special touch, we have it sprinkled with roasted and chopped almonds.

We Love It!

With winter lurking up the hill, we are getting back to our hearty soups. Harira is definately one of our fav’s and it is very cool when you have pleasant memories attached to a dish. Food has amazing transporting properties, the sights and tastes so evocative and alive in memories.

Foodie Fact

Spices are much more than just incredible tasting, the vast majority boast some quite brilliant health properties (as long as we don’t burn them in the pan).

Turmeric is a root similar to ginger and in its raw state has very potent flavour, its wonderful stuff. Dried is the best we can normally do on this island. It is peppery and sweet, warm and bitter and has even been likened to orange peel (if very fresh indeed).

Now the nitty gritty and real magic. Turmeric is anti-microbial, anti-flatulent and strongly anti-bacterial. POW!

Heavy plate version with rice, olives, fresh coriander and lashings of olive oil

Sunset time at the Beach House

A real breakfast belly filler here. This is a great start to the day, maybe not the very best, but somewhere close! This is a bowl designed especially for those who have a busy/active time ahead. Maybe your a sheep farmer, or a trapeze artist, whatever your activity of choice, this bircher will give you full power! The sprouting bircher gives slow release energy that will keep you ticking over well beyond lunch, in fact, we find it lasts us until dinnertime! It’s a beast!

You will need to get sprouting here, or buy some in. The former is more enjoyable and much cheaper than the later. It would be a shame to exclude them. We are keen to get the world sprouting, we’d love to see windowsills full of mungs! Once you begin to sprout, you just cannot stop. We used sprouting buckwheat and wheat grains (called wheat berries in the States), both can be bought easily in most shops in the UK in a pre-sprouted state. They will definitely have them in your local health food shop.

Sprouting is great value and nutrition, the grains/pulses really bulk out and you get a good amount of sprouts from just a hand full of dried little things. Wheat grains make for brilliant sprouts, they are quick and abundant and have a nice sweet taste. Wheat grains are basically unprocessed wheat, Ideal if you are craving some bread or biscuits but want to stay super healthy (incidentally, these sprouts make a great loaf I’m told) .

We had this breakfast before a long walk in the hills and it was the perfect fuel to scale some craggy rocks and filthy bogs. Birchers are a real favourite of mine, basically a bowl of muesli, with yoghurt, given one big stir. Makes a change, a bit of a mash up.

The seeds and fruit can be played with here, whatever you have in the bowl and fridge really. We like to used flax seeds because they are great for the digestive system and sunflower seeds because the have amazing health properties and flavour. This recipe uses organic rolled oats, but you could use oat groats if you were eating raw.

Serves two hungry hikers/ workers

The Bits

1 cup of organic rolled oats (or oat groats), 1 banana (chopped), 1 apple (chopped, organic is definitely best here), 1/2 cup nuts (we use hazelnuts or almonds), 1/2 cup raisins, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds, 2 tbs golden flax seeds, 1/2 cup buckwheat sprouts, 1/2 cup wheat grain sprouts, 1 cup yoghurt (we use soya, whatever you prefer), 1 teas cinnamon.

Sprouted Wheat and Apple Bircher – in the mix

Do It

Get out a nice big bowl, add all ingredients in no particular order and give it all a good and gentle stir. It should be well mixed when served.

Bircher post-mix, check out those funky sprouts!

Serve

As quick as you can, in spacious bowls, it does not keep so well.

Sweeties may like a little compote or honey on top of their bircher, but we think it is sweet enough.

Sprouted Wheat and Apple Bircher

We Love It!

This is a bowl of goodness that really sticks to the ribs and is packed with good energy and nutrients. It deserves to be fully fledged member of the ‘best way to start the day’ gang.

Foodie Fact

A serving of sprouted wheat grains contains your daily requirement of Manganese, which keeps your brain, metabolism and nerves in check. Good to know!

Here’s a sunshine morning tune: