Moroccan Soup with Chicken, Couscous, Mint and Lemon

Subtly spiced, with a zing of lemon and dried mint and a mild kick of red chilli, this gorgeous couscous and chicken soup takes a while to prepare but is so easy to make. Dried mint is essential for this dish. If you can't find dried mint in your local supermarket, dry a bunch of fresh mint in your oven a few hours before you make the soup (see notes, below). This soup is, for me, a near-perfect supper; I would be happy to eat it for lunch. And breakfast. It's good, nourishing family food too (if you have any picky eaters who don't do spice, use the left-over stock to make my Quick, Thick Chicken Soup For Kids)

Because this is a spiced soup, it needs a very strong chicken stock, and for this reason I have specified both a whole fresh chicken, and extra chicken bones (a chicken carcass, which you can ask your butcher for) or a pack of wings. The first part of this recipe - making the stock - can be done at your leisure (but do refrigerate the stock if you're making it early). The second part of the recipe should be started about thirty minutes before you serve.

This recipe is adapted from Moroccan: A Culinary Journey of Discovery by Ghillie Basan.

Moroccan Soup with Chicken, Couscous, Mint and Lemon

For the stock:

1 whole fresh chicken
an extra chicken carcass (leftover from the roast, or raw), or 8 wings
3 litres cool water
1 whole onion, skin on, roughly chopped
3 carrots, roughly chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
a few stalks of parsley
2 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
a lemon, washed and quartered, but not peeled
1 4-cm stick cinnamon
1 T (15 ml) whole coriander seeds

salt and freshly milled black pepper

For the soup:
30 ml olive oil
2 large onions, peeled and finely chopped
1-2 fresh red chillies, to taste, de-seeded and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 T (15 ml) powdered cumin
1 T (15 ml) paprika
1 T (15 ml) dried mint (see notes, below)
1 T (15 ml) white sugar
4 T (60 ml) tinned tomato paste
3/4 cup (180 ml) couscous
salt and freshly milled black pepper

To serve:
fresh coriander leaves, chopped
a little grated lemon zest
dried mint
lemon wedges


First make the stock. Put the whole chicken and the chicken carcass (or wings) into a big pot, add the water and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for half an hour, now and then skimming off any white scum that floats to the surface. Now add all the remaining stock ingredients, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer for an hour and a quarter, or until the whole chicken is tender and cooked right through.

Remove the whole chicken, leaving the carcass and vegetables in the stock, place it in a colander set over a bowl, and set aside to cool. If you have time, simmer the stock for another hour or so. Now switch off the heat under the stock and allow to cool for half an hour. Using a metal spoon, skim off any fat that has floated to the surface.

In the meantime, heat the oil in a soup pot and add the onions and chilli. Fry over a medium heat until the onions are softened and beginning to turn golden. Stir in the garlic, cumin, paprika, mint, sugar and tomato paste and cook for another minute.

Strain two litres of the chicken stock into this mixture and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat, tip in the couscous and simmer for about ten minutes, or until the couscous is done. Season with salt and freshly milled black pepper.

When the chicken is cool enough, strip the meat from the carcass and shred it. Discard any skin or bone and keep it for a stock.

Set out the warmed soup dishes, and pile the shredded chicken into the centre of each soup dish. Ladle the soup around the chicken. Grate over a little lemon zest and sprinkle with a pinch of dried mint and a generous scattering of fresh coriander.

Serve with lemon wedges, to be squeezed into the hot soup.

Serves 6-8.

Notes:
To dry fresh mint, wash a bunch of mint and strip off the leaves. Shake well. Spread the leaves loosely on a baking tray, and put them on the middle rack of your oven. Turn the heat down to its lowest setting and bake until they are quite dry. Crumble the leaves and store in a clean, airtight jar for a up to a month.

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Quick, thick chicken soup for kids, using the remains of the roast

My goodness, but it's a palaver making a proper chicken soup. The concocting of the stock, the cooling of the bird, the plucking of the meat, the chopping and frying of the onions and other veg, the liquidising-in-batches of scalding liquid, and the dozens of dirty bowls, pots and sieves involved ... it just doesn't seem worth the bother, no matter how heavenly and heartwarming the result.

But I feel I have an obligation to make chicken soup for my family, the same creamy, thick, luscious, nutmeggy essence of chicken made by my own mom and her mom before her. Besides, it took me eight years to convince my daughter to eat soup, and Mom's Chicken Soup is the only soup she'll eat. Every time I put a picked-out chicken carcass on the stove to make a stock (which is generally once a week) she races into the kitchen, shouting 'Oh, goody! Chicken soup!'.

Here is a quicker version that omits the tiresome chopping and sautéing of veggies, and involves only a large saucepan, a colander, a big bowl and a liquidiser. It doesn't have the complex flavours of a properly made chicken soup, and it's thickened, I blush to admit, with flour, but I promise this is a passable version of the real thing.

Quick, thick chicken soup for kids

the leftovers of a roast chicken, excess skin and fat removed
1 large onion, peeled and cut in half
3 large carrots, peeled
a few sticks of celery, or a handful of fresh parsley, or both
2 bay leaves
5 black peppercorns
water
4 Tbsp (60ml) flour
4 Tbsp (60 ml) butter
1½ cups (375 ml) milk
juice of half a lemon
½ tsp (2.5 ml) freshly grated nutmeg
salt and milled black pepper
a dash of fresh cream (optional)

Put the chicken, onions, carrots, celery, parsley, bay leaves and peppercorns in a large saucepan, add just enough water to cover the ingredients, and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer over a gentle heat for an hour and a half, or until the stock has reduced slightly. Place a colander in a large bowl and tip the stock, bones and vegetables into the colander. Allow to drain for five minutes.

In the meantime, make a white sauce. Heat the flour and butter in the same saucepan in which you made the stock. Allow to bubble for a minute or so. Using a balloon whisk, whisk in the milk and continue stirring briskly until the mixture begins to thicken alarmingly. Immediately remove from the heat.

Now tip half the drained stock into a liquidiser and add the cooked onion, celery, parsley and carrots. Give it a good whizz to process everything finely, then pour the mixture into the milk/flour mixture. Return to the heat and bring to the boil, whisking constantly to disperse any lumps. Once the mixture is thickened and boiling, use the left-over stock to thin the soup to the desired consistency. Pick all the remaining bits and pieces off the boiled chicken, shred with your fingers and add to the soup. Add the lemon juice and a shower of nutmeg, and season well with salt and pepper. Add a splash of cream, if you like (but this isn't really necessary - the soup is quite silken enough without cream). Simmer for another 5 minutes, and serve hot.

Note: The final thickness of any white sauce depends on the strength of the flour. If you find your soup isn't quite thick enough, add a little flour or cornflour slaked with water.

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