Lablabi

Name: Lablabi
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Tunisian
Ingredients: 800 g Cooked chickpeas with their liquid; 300 g Stale crusty bread, torn; 5 cloves Garlic, crushed; 2 tsp Ground cumin; 2 tbsp Harissa; 5 tbsp Olive oil; 4 Eggs; 160 g tuna, 2 tbsp capers, 60 g olives Tinned tuna, capers, olives; 1 Lemon; 1 1/2 tsp Salt

Stale bread torn into a bowl, buried under garlicky chickpeas and their broth, then dressed at the table with harissa, cumin, olive oil, tuna and a soft egg.

Source

Recette de Tunisian street kitchens · 🏺 Traditionnel · The counter-and-cart side of Tunisian food — fried to order, eaten standing, and hotter with harissa than any tourist expects.

Tunisian · breakfast soup — An ownerless traditional dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article confirms lablabi as a traditional Tunisian chickpea soup served over torn stale bread with garlic, cumin, harissa and olive oil. Quantities and method here are this book's own.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

Watch it being made · 3 videos

Harissa House Eat and Shine DinnersWithDave

⏱ 40 min🍽 4 portions🔥 430 kcal🇹🇳 Tunisie🌶️🌶️

HalalPescétarienSans produits laitiersSans fruits à coque

Étapes

Bring the chickpeas and their liquid to a simmer with the garlic, half the cumin and a good pinch of salt. Give it 15 minutes.
Soft-boil the eggs for 6 minutes, cool them in cold water and peel.
Tear the bread into rough chunks and divide it between four deep bowls, filling each about half way.
💡 Stale bread is the point — fresh bread turns to paste the moment the broth hits it.
Ladle the hot chickpeas and plenty of broth over the bread and let it stand 2 minutes to soak.
Top each bowl with a halved egg, tuna, capers and olives.
Finish with harissa, the rest of the cumin, a hard pour of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon. Stir it all together to eat.

💡 Astuces

In Tunis this is what you eat at 7am, standing at a counter, in winter. It is built to be cheap, hot and filling.
The broth should be generous — lablabi is a soup, not a bowl of wet bread. Keep extra chickpea liquid to top it up.
Vegan version: leave out the egg and tuna. It stays a real, complete dish.