Lablali is a traditional Tunisian breakfast soup of slow-cooked chickpeas flavored with harissa, cumin, and lemon, served over torn bread with a soft-boiled egg and fresh condiments. It's a hearty, aromatic street food that cooks for hours to develop deep, complex flavor.
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Prepare dried chickpeas: Sort 2 cups dried chickpeas on a baking sheet, removing damaged ones and stones. Rinse thoroughly. Place in a crockpot with 2 cups water and 2 cups vegetable broth. Cook on high for 4 hours (or low for 8 hours). Volume will double.
Place the cooked crockpot chickpeas with 2 cups water and 2 cups vegetable broth in a large, heavy soup pot or Dutch oven.
Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium heat in a medium-sized, heavy nonstick frying pan. Add the chopped onion and cook, stirring, until tender, about 5 minutes.
Stir in the garlic, ginger, and freshly ground spices (cumin, and optionally coriander, caraway, cinnamon). Stir together for a couple of minutes until the garlic is fragrant.
Remove the onion-spice mixture from heat and stir it into the simmering beans.
Deglaze the skillet with some of the lemon juice and add to the pot.
After the beans have cooked for an hour, stir in the harissa and the remaining lemon juice.
Cover and continue to cook for another 5–10 minutes, until the beans are very tender and the broth is fragrant.
Taste and adjust salt and/or add more lemon juice as needed.
To serve in the traditional street style: Place torn day-old bread in the bottom of a bowl. Add a dollop of harissa and a raw or soft-boiled egg over the bread. Ladle in the hot soup over the egg, covering it with chickpeas and broth. Shake on cumin and wait 3 minutes — the egg will cook in the hot soup. Mix everything together and serve.
Optional escarole version: Add a roughly chopped head of escarole directly to the soup about 5 minutes before serving.
Serve with a tray of condiments: chopped parsley, capers, radishes, harissa, sliced or preserved lemons, and a spice mix of cumin, coriander, caraway, cinnamon, and a pinch of saffron.
Store cooled soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Reheat gently on the stovetop over medium heat. Prepare fresh eggs and bread at serving time.
crockpot · Dutch oven or large heavy soup pot · medium heavy nonstick frying pan
Yes. Cook chickpeas in a crockpot up to 2 days ahead, store in an airtight container in the refrigerator, then proceed with the soup on the stovetop.
Soak 2 cups dried chickpeas overnight, then simmer in a pot with 2 cups water and 2 cups vegetable broth for 1.5–2 hours until tender before proceeding with the recipe.
Yes, the recipe is already vegetarian. Use vegetable broth (as listed) and top with a soft-boiled egg for protein.
Chickpeas take 4 hours in a crockpot on high, then the soup simmers for 1 hour, plus 5–10 minutes after adding harissa—roughly 5.5 hours total from dried chickpeas.
Day-old bread holds up best when ladled with hot soup without falling apart. Any sturdy bread like ciabatta, sourdough, or Arabic flatbread works well.
