Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Chorba Frik
The Ramadan soup of Algeria: a spiced tomato broth with lamb, chickpeas and smoky green freekeh, thick enough to eat as a meal.
Algerian · medium · serves 6
prep 20 min · cook 60 min
~311 cal · 24g protein · 22g carbs · 14g fat · 5g fiber · 4g sugars · 6g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Chorba frik is the soup that breaks the fast in Algerian homes every night of Ramadan, and turns up at weddings and family gatherings besides. Its defining ingredient is frik, young green wheat that is roasted, cracked and stirred into the pot, where it thickens the broth and lends a distinctive smoky, nutty taste.
Built on lamb, onion, tomato and chickpeas and perfumed with coriander, mint and a little cinnamon, it sits somewhere between soup and stew, hearty enough to be dinner on its own. In the east around Constantine a lighter, strained version called jari is made, but the tomato-red chorba is what most of the country cooks.
It is served piping hot with lemon to squeeze over and alongside, the traditional way to open the evening meal.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
1 lb lamb shoulder, cut in small pieces
1/2 cup freekeh (cracked green wheat), rinsed
1 onion, finely chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tomatoes, grated
1 cup cooked chickpeas
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 handful cilantro and mint, chopped
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp paprika
1 lemon, to serve
Instructions
1
Brown the lamb (or start the chickpeas and potato) with the onion and celery in the olive oil in a large pot.
2
Stir in the tomato paste, grated tomato, cinnamon and paprika and cook 2 minutes.
3
Pour in about 6 cups of water, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until the lamb is tender, about 40 minutes.
4
Add the freekeh and chickpeas and simmer uncovered 15 to 20 minutes more, until the grain is tender and the soup thickens.
✎ Chef’s note
Freekeh keeps drinking up liquid as it sits, so loosen the pot with a little hot water before serving if it has gone stiff.
5
Stir in the herbs, season, and serve hot with lemon wedges and dates.
Algerian Ramadan home cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Algiers. Ramadan reorders the kitchen. The fast is broken with chorba before anything else, most often the frik version thickened with cracked green wheat, and the pastries that follow run to honey, almond and orange flower water. The baguette and the coffee habit are French leftovers sitting beside Berber flatbreads.
🗺️
Algeria. Algerian cooking is the largest of the Maghreb, built on couscous, slow-simmered tagine-style stews, and Mediterranean produce. French, Berber, and Ottoman influences layer over a table generous with lamb, chickpeas, and semolina.
🌍
Africa. The structure repeats across most of the continent: one starch and one sauce. A grain or root is cooked stiff, torn or rolled by hand, and used to carry a stew of leaves, groundnut, okra or fish, usually from a shared bowl and with the right hand. UNESCO listings have followed that logic, inscribing couscous in 2020 as a shared Maghreb tradition and Ivorian attieke in 2024.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Algeria
Friday Couscous with Seven VegetablesSteamed couscous under a saffron-tinted vegetable stew, the meal that gathers Algerian families every Friday.
MsemenFlaky square semolina flatbreads folded in layers and griddled, served with honey or jam.
ChakhchoukhaTorn flatbread bathed in a spiced lamb, chickpea, and tomato sauce, an Algerian dish for gatherings.
Browse all Algeria recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Soup keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and freezes well. Reheat gently and loosen with a little water or stock if needed.
Make it a Algeria meal
Cherbet el LozDrink
Kalb el LouzDessert
ChakhchoukhaLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Chorba Frik?
The Ramadan soup of Algeria: a spiced tomato broth with lamb, chickpeas and smoky green freekeh, thick enough to eat as a meal.
Where does Chorba Frik come from?
Chorba Frik is a Algerian dish from Algiers, Algeria.
Can Chorba Frik be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Chorba Frik recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Chorba Frik safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Chorba Frik take to make?
About 80 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 60 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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