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.

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Shorba

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.

Adapted from The Great Book of Couscous