Calling all soup lovers, today is Gorta’s “Soup for Life” day. This global event urges you to gather your friends, family and colleagues for a get together over a bowl and make a  contribution to Gorta’s work fighting hunger and malnutrition in Africa.

If you would like to take part, you can check out details here. If you can’t decide what soup to make you can choose from one of our favourite Cheap Eats soup recipes here. Alternatively you could try this delicious and filling Moroccan soup which can easily pass for dinner.

Even if you don’t have time to rustle up some soup yourself you can help out by eating soup at one of the seventy cafés and restaurants in Dublin, Cork and Mayo who are participating in Gorta’s Soup for Life campaign. For a list of participating cafés and restaurants click here.

Moroccan Lamb and Chickpea Soup

Ingredients:

• 200g cubed lamb pieces
• 1 litre water or lamb stock
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 75g lentils
• 200g diced very ripe tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 cinnamon stick
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 200g chickpeas
• 1 large celery stalk with leaves, finely chopped
• 2 cannelloni pasta tubes, smashed so that you get odd size shapes (or a very small handful of any pasta smashed or crunched up a bit to add interesting texture to the soup)
• Juice 1 lemon
• 1 small bunch of coriander, chopped coarsely

Instructions:

1. Place the lamb cubes in medium sized pot along with the water or stock. Bring the water to the boil and skim off the little bit of froth that forms.
2. Add the onion, lentils, tomatoes, tomato paste, turmeric, ground cinnamon, cinnamon stick, ginger, salt and pepper and allow the pot to simmer very gently for about an hour.
3. Add the chickpeas, celery and smashed pasta and allow to simmer for another 15 minutes. Add the lemon juice and coriander and stir through then turn off heat and let soup stand to cool slightly before serving.

Related posts:

1. Recipe: Lamb and barley soup
2. Summertime lamb soup
3. Lebanese Soup