Harira!

according to Wikipedia, Harira is the national traditional food of Morocco, and is a traditional break-the-fast food for Ramadan. I've found recipes for Harira in my Jewish cookbooks, and my Mediterannean cookbooks. Somewhat of a hodgepodge stew of chicken, beef, or lamb, it includes north african spices, tomatoes, chickpeas, lentils, noodles, and sometimes hard boiled eggs. We skipped the eggs, but i can't wait to make this again. A super easy one pot dish, you'll wish you had doubled the recipe.

Moroccan Harira
adapted from Mediterranean:a taste of the sun, by Jaqueline Clark

1 lb Chunked chicken, beef, or lamb (we used chicken sausages)
1/2 tsp ground cinamon
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp ground coriander
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 onion, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup green or brown lentils
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
small package pearl onions (usually has 12-20 onions in package)
1/2 cup vermicelli or soup noodles
salt & pepper
lemon slices

put meal, cinnamon, butter, coridander, parsley and onions into a large heavy bottomed pan, and cook over medium heat until meat is browned and onions are soft, 5-10 minutes. add the tomatoes, cook another 50 minutes. rinse the lentils under running water, then add them to the pot along with the chickpeas and 3 cups water. bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 45 min or until meat is cooked (if using beef or lamb, you will need to simmer longer).
near the end of this cooking time, prepare the pearl onions - bring a small pot of water to a boil, add onions. let them boil for 2-3 minutes, then remove and put the onions in a bowl of cold water. with a very sharp knife, cut the end off the onion, and push out the insides, and throw away the outer skins.
add the onions to the pot, and simmer uncovered for another 20 min. add noodles, and continue simmering until noodles are cooked, maybe 10 more minutes. season to taste with salt & peper. serve hot, and garnish with lemon slices.

You can control how "stewy" or how "soupy" this is by changing the amount of water added. stewy is nice, but soupy is nice too, because you get more leftovers. with the above recipe, we got about about 6 large servings.

in the last few years, I have truly learned that cinammon and meat is a match made in heaven.