My husband at long last introduced us all to the beloved soup his grandmother used to make for the family on winter mornings, it is called shmeed in the Jewish Moroccan language, but we'll just call it semolina soup, or rather semolina porridge if you'd like to eat it for breakfast!
This dish is simple and quick to prepare and very filling, as it turns out that semolina has a lot more carbohydrates in it than wheat flour. My kids love this soup, and it also great for cold weather, as my husband has fond memories of going to school in the morning with a face that turned red from eating this hot meal.
The thing I still have not been able to figure out is if there is a "whole" version of the yellow semolina made from durham wheat that we use, or whether there is no such thing?
Ingredients:
Makes about 8 servings. You can certainly halve the recipe. Don't be tempted to make a big batch, because the leftovers get very clumpy unless you make sure to add more water before storing in the fridge.
- 12 cups water
- 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro (or less if you don't love cilantro)
- 10 cloves garlic
- 1/3 cup olive oil (I just made this soup without the oil by accident, and truthfully you can omit it, but you'll need to add another 1/2 cup or so of semolina, the oil somehow makes the soup thicker....)
- 1 1/2 cups semolina
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp salt plus more to your liking
Preparation:
- bring water to a boil with everything except semolina
- reduce temp and gradually stir in semolina. cover and cook for 10 minutes
That is it, enjoy! To make this a wonderful evening meal, serve with some crusty bread, some delicious olives, a platter of vegetables and hummous, and maybe some baked sweet potatoes, or sweet potato oven baked fries. Something like red peppers stuffed with rice or rice + meat would also be a great accompaniement.
