Warming · Chickpea Soup

Doubara (Dobara)

Photo: Nassima1Nilsen / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

It's usually finished to taste at the counter with a squeeze of lemon and extra harissa, then scooped up with bread rather than eaten with a spoon alone.

Doubara is a spiced chickpea and broad bean soup, simmered with cumin, garlic, harissa, and olive oil until warming and slightly thick. Ladled from big pots by street vendors, especially in Biskra, where it originated, and across eastern Algeria.

Why it's made this way: Doubara is the signature dish of Biskra, the oasis city on the edge of the Sahara, where cheap dried pulses and hot spices made a filling meal; it has since spread to Constantine, Algiers and other cities.