Tunisia | Lablabi

CLICK HERE FOR THE RECIPE I USED

When I found this recipe I pronounced it lab-lob-ee. When my husband saw the name, he pronounced it Luh-Blobby. AI says it’s leh-bleb-ee. Howtopronounce.com says lab-luh-bye is an option. I have found YouTube videos that pronounce it every which way so I don’t know what is the correct pronunciation! Should it ever come up in verbal conversation, I’m just gonna call it chickpea stew and spare others a cringeworthy pronunciation.

Anyway, Tunisia is a country in North Africa, between Algeria and Libya and leans toward Arabic and Mediterranean flavor profiles (with some Berber influence). I have a nice little list of things I’d like to make but opted for this one because it was not terribly labor intensive and I could acquire the ingredients easily. It also sounded like a nice, meatless, Fall meal. I did see several mentions of this being served as a breakfast meal in Tunisia. So, I guess I made Tunisian breakfast for dinner?

The most labor-intensive parts of preparing lablabi are cleaning and chopping up parsley, dicing an onion, and mincing some garlic. I bought a loaf of French bread from the grocery store and ripped it up with my hands. Super easy. And, in the recipe I used, the chickpeas are canned. The only ingredient I couldn’t get locally was harissa paste but I had some on hand from a previous recipe, yay!

The cooking process is relatively easy. The bread gets toasted under the broiler, or in a toaster oven, if you have one. The chickpeas simmer in a pot while you sauté the veggies in a separate pan. The veggies and seasonings are added to the chickpeas. The toasted bread is put into the bottom of a bowl and the chickpea “stew” is ladled over it. The bowl is then garnished with lemon wedges, parsley, green onions, olive oil, and more harissa paste. I did come across some recipes where it is topped with a poached egg or a hard-boiled egg. I’m sure they would be a really nice addition!

How was it? Delicious!

Harissa paste is a bit spicy so it had a bit of a kick, that I enjoyed. The bread added an interesting layer of texture and flavor. The lemon really amped up all of the other flavors. I always forget how well it does that. I need to use fresh lemon juice more often. I garnished with only parsley and green onions. More harissa paste might have made it too spicy for me and I really didn’t think it needed more lemon or oil.

Would I make it again? If I regularly had harissa paste in the house, yes! Maybe I should start keeping it on hand at all times because I’ve enjoyed every meal I’ve made with it. Lablabi would be a great way to use up bread and canned chickpeas can stay in the pantry for a while.

I think I will end up making this again.

And I will happily eat the leftovers!