Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Lablabi
Chickpeas in garlicky cumin broth ladled over torn bread, hit with harissa, lemon, and a soft egg, Tunisia’s working breakfast.
Tunisian · easy · serves 3
prep 10 min · cook 25 min
~389 cal · 21g protein · 54g carbs · 12g fat · 11g fiber · 11g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Lablabi is Tunisia's great working breakfast and hangover cure, a bowl of chickpeas swimming in a garlicky, cumin-scented broth, poured over torn pieces of stale bread that soak it up into a soft mush. It is finished at the table with , olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, capers, and often a soft-cooked egg cracked in.
Born of thrift, it turns day-old bread and cheap chickpeas into something warming and substantial, sold from humble, steamy hole-in-the-wall eateries in Tunis where regulars tear their own bread into the bowl before the broth is ladled over. Each diner seasons it to taste.
The ritual of assembling it, the bread, the broth, the stirred in until the whole bowl turns orange, is part of the pleasure. Cheap, filling, and fiercely flavored, lablabi is Tunisian street food at its most honest.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and dairy-, nut- 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 3
3 cups cooked chickpeas with their liquid
1/2 loaf stale crusty bread, torn
1 onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp each ground coriander and paprika
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
to taste salt
2 tsp ground cumin
1-2 tbsp
2 lemons
1/4 cup olive oil
3 eggs (soft-poached in the broth)
2 tbsp capers, to finish
2 tbsp olives, to finish
Instructions
1
Soften the onion and garlic in olive oil with the cumin, coriander, paprika and salt, then tip them into the chickpeas simmering in their liquid, topped up with water, for 15 minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
In Tunisia this is breakfast, and the bread goes in the bowl first to soak up the broth. Tinned tuna, pickled turnips, preserved lemon and olives are all standard on the table alongside the egg.
2
Poach the eggs softly right in the broth.
3
Tear bread into deep bowls, the eater’s job in Tunis, so make everyone do their own.
4
Ladle chickpeas and broth over; the bread should drink and collapse.
5
Crown each bowl: egg, a smear of harissa, lemon squeezed hard, olive oil, capers, olives. Stir once and eat immediately.
Tunis lablabi-shop tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Tunis. Tunis cooks the Maghreb's spiciest food, where harissa fires up couscous, brik pastries, and shakshuka. The medina's souks and Mediterranean coast shape a bold, chili-laced capital table.
🗺️
Tunisia. Brik is judged on one thing: whether the egg inside is still runny when it reaches the table. A sheet of malsouka pastry is folded around egg, tuna, capers and parsley and fried for barely a minute, then eaten by hand at a careful angle. Tunisia's coast supplies the tuna and its olive groves the oil it is fried in.
🌍
Africa. Africa's fifty-four nations hold cuisines as different as Morocco's slow-cooked tagines and South Africa's open-fire braai, yet shared threads run through them: ancient grains like millet, sorghum, and teff; stews thickened with groundnut, okra, or palm; and fiery condiments from Tunisian harissa to Ethiopian berbere. Staple starches, fufu, injera, ugali, couscous, anchor communal meals often eaten by hand from a shared dish, where hospitality is a point of honor.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Tunisia
Shakshuka bel HarissaEggs poached directly in a fiery, harissa-laced pepper and tomato sauce, eaten from the pan with bread.
Couscous bel HoutTunisian fish couscous: steamed semolina under a spicy tomato broth of fish and vegetables.
BrikA crisp fried pastry parcel with a runny egg, tuna, and herbs inside, the essential Tunisian starter-lunch.
Browse all Tunisia recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Soup keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and freezes well. Reheat gently and loosen with a little water or stock if needed.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Lablabi?
Chickpeas in garlicky cumin broth ladled over torn bread, hit with harissa, lemon, and a soft egg, Tunisia’s working breakfast.
Where does Lablabi come from?
Lablabi is a Tunisian dish from Tunis, Tunisia.
Can Lablabi be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Lablabi 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 Lablabi 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 Lablabi take to make?
About 35 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 3.
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