Harira is a traditional Moroccan soup of chickpeas, lentils and tomatoes that is super filling and deliciously fragrant with lots of spices. If you ask me, it's the perfect comfort food that's hearty and healthy at the same time. I'm currently a bit obsessed with everything Moroccan as well as other North African recipes. I'm sure I'll share some more of them soon but this has got to be my favourite so far! Especially when on a vegan diet, this is perfect as it's packed full of protein from not only the lentils but also the chickpeas. And if you've been following this little blog for a while you'll know that anything covered in parsley is a 10/10 in my books :)

Here's what you'll need:

Dice the onion and garlic and chop the celeriac into small pieces. Heat up the olive oil in a big pot and saute the onions together with the garlic.

Once your onion is nice and translucent, add the chickpeas, lentils, tomato puree and all the spices to the pot. Roast the mixture for a little while until fragrant, then add your vegetable stock, bring to a boil then let simmer on reduced heat for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile in a measuring cup, mix 50 ml of cold water with the flour. Whisk thoroughly so as not to get any lumps in your mixture. Now add the can of chopped tomatoes to it and put to the side. Chop your parsley and set aside until the soup is almost done.

After about 20 minutes, the lentils should be all soft so you can further reduce the heat to low and add the tomato-flour-mixture to the pot while continiously stirring. Leave to thicken for a while then add the chopped parsley and maybe some more cumin seeds. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve with lemon wedges to add some tangyness to the dish.

I really hope you give this recipe a try - you will not regret it! If you do, let me know in the comments below how you liked it, or share your creations with me on Instagram @jessinretrospect.

This recipe has been a long time coming seeing how I've been making these cookies for months now! If you're a matcha lover like me these cookies are the ones for you! They are soft and fluffy, not too sweet and the perfect little afternoon pick me up :) Find out how to make them below :)

Here's what you'll need:

For the Matcha Sugar:

In a big mixing bowl, combine the butter, icing sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and matcha powder. In a different bowl combine the flour, cornflour and salt, then add the dry mixture into your big mixing bowl gradually until it forms a dough.

Now roll the dough into little balls using a tablespoon so they're all roughly the same size. Put the matcha balls onto a lined baking tray then cover in cling film and refridgerate for about an hour.

After refridgerating, preheat your oven to 180°C.

Take the clingfilm off the baking tray, then bake your cookies for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile combine the icing sugar and matcha to create a matcha sugar to cover your cookies in. Put the matcha sugar into a resealable freezer bag.

Take your cookies out of the oven and leave to cool slightly before adding them one after the other to the freezer bag and shake until covered in matcha sugar.

And there you go! This recipe will make about 25 to 30 little cookies depending obviously on how generous you're being when rolling out your dough into cookies :)

I tell you, you need to try these! If you do, leave me a comment and let me know how you got on :)