Garlic soup and harissa

Preparation info
  • Serves

    4

    • Difficulty

      Medium

Appears in

By Yotam Ottolenghi

Published 2010

  • About

This soup is sweetly delicious and relatively easy to prepare, if you don’t mind a bit of garlic peeling. The harissa adds work but you could substitute a good commercial variety. Still, this one makes a fantastic condiment to keep in your fridge and add to roasted aubergines, vegetable stews and many rice and couscous dishes.

Ingredients

  • 4 medium shallots, finely chopped
  • 3 celery sticks, finely diced
  • 40 g butter

Method

First make the harissa. Preheat the grill to high, then grill the pepper for 15–20 minutes, or until blackened all over. Transfer to a bowl, cover it with cling film and allow to cool. Then peel the pepper and discard its seeds.

Place a frying pan on a low heat and lightly dry-roast the coriander, cumin and caraway seeds for 2 minutes. Remove them to a pestle and use a mortar to grind t