Culinary Explorer

A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.

Discover Culinary Explorer
Homs (حمص)

Homs (حمص)

Created by

Chickpeas cooked until creamy in a cumin-scented tomato sauce, finished with olive oil and herbs. The legume harira borrows, here given its own generous bowl.

Soups & Stews
Moroccan
Comfort Food
Budget Friendly
Weeknight
15 min
Active Time
1 hr 45 min cook•10 hr total
Yield4 to 6 servings

The chickpea does not need meat to make a meal. Give it time, garlic, cumin, tomato, and a good thread of olive oil, and it becomes the kind of bowl that calls for bread before it calls for a spoon.

The one rule is this: cook the chickpeas tender before the tomato goes in. Acid tightens the skins, and a chickpea with a hard heart will stay stubborn no matter how long you scold it. Soak them well, simmer them gently, then let the sauce gather around them until it turns red, glossy, and thick enough for khobz to drag through.

This is everyday Moroccan cooking, budget food, weeknight food, la cuisine du lien (the cooking of connection) because it stretches without looking stretched. Put the pot in the middle, tear the bread, and leave room for one more hand at the table.

Chickpeas have been grown across North Africa since antiquity and moved through Moroccan kitchens by way of Amazigh agriculture, Mediterranean trade, and later Andalusi urban cooking. In Morocco they appear in harira, couscous, market snacks, and small stews like this homs, with cumin and tomato becoming common after tomatoes entered Moroccan cooking through early modern Atlantic and Mediterranean exchange. The exact dating of this tomato-based version is not fixed, but its place is clear: an everyday dish shared across des cuisines marocaines (Moroccan cuisines), especially in home kitchens where bread finishes the sauce.

The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.

Discover Culinary Explorer

Ingredients

dried chickpeas

Quantity

300g

soaked overnight

olive oil

Quantity

3 tbsp, plus more for finishing

onion

Quantity

1 medium

finely chopped

garlic cloves

Quantity

4

minced

ripe tomatoes or crushed tomatoes

Quantity

2 ripe tomatoes or 250g

grated

tomato paste

Quantity

1 tbsp

ground cumin

Quantity

1 1/2 tsp

sweet paprika

Quantity

1 tsp

ground ginger

Quantity

1/2 tsp

ground turmeric

Quantity

1/4 tsp

cayenne or harissa (optional)

Quantity

1 small pinch

sea salt

Quantity

1 tsp, plus more to taste

black pepper

Quantity

1/2 tsp

coriander and parsley

Quantity

1 small bunch

chopped

preserved lemon rind (optional)

Quantity

1

finely chopped

water or unsalted chickpea cooking liquid

Quantity

1.2 liters

Equipment Needed

  • •Heavy 4 liter stew pot
  • •Wooden spoon
  • •Wide serving bowl

Instructions

  1. 1

    Soak the chickpeas

    Put the dried chickpeas in a large bowl and cover them with plenty of cold water. Leave them overnight, then drain and rinse. They should look swollen and round, not wrinkled, because the soaking gives them a head start before the pot asks anything of them.

  2. 2

    Cook until tender

    Put the soaked chickpeas in a pot with fresh water to cover by 5 cm. Bring to a boil, skim the foam, then lower the heat and simmer until the chickpeas are tender but not falling apart, about 60 to 75 minutes. Taste one. If the center is chalky, keep going.

    Do not add the tomato yet. Tomato tightens chickpea skins, and once that happens the stew loses its softness.
  3. 3

    Build the sauce

    Warm the olive oil in a heavy pot. Add the onion and cook until soft and pale gold, then add the garlic, cumin, paprika, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, and cayenne if using. Stir until the spices smell warm and awake, about 1 minute. Add the grated tomatoes and tomato paste, and cook until the oil begins to show at the edges.

  4. 4

    Stew them together

    Add the drained chickpeas to the sauce with 1.2 liters of water or unsalted chickpea cooking liquid. Salt lightly, bring to a gentle simmer, and cook uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes, until the sauce thickens and the chickpeas sit in it like they belong there.

  5. 5

    Finish the pot

    Stir in most of the coriander and parsley, and the preserved lemon rind if using. Simmer 5 minutes more. Taste for salt and cumin. The scale is in the eyes, la balance est dans les yeux, but the mouth must agree.

  6. 6

    Serve with bread

    Spoon the homs into a warm beldi bowl, finish with a thread of olive oil and the remaining herbs, and bring it to the table with round khobz. The sauce should be thick enough to scoop, not thin like soup.

Chef Tips

  • •Dried chickpeas give you the better pot because their cooking liquid becomes part of the sauce. For a weeknight, use two cans of chickpeas, rinsed, and simmer them in the tomato sauce for 25 minutes.
  • •Use cumin that still has a voice. If the jar smells like dust, toast whole cumin seeds and grind them. With spices, cooking becomes alchemy only when the spice is alive.
  • •Preserved lemon is optional here, but if you use it, use only the rind and chop it fine. Fresh lemon is not the same thing.
  • •This stew should be eaten with bread. A spoon is welcome, but khobz is how the sauce disappears.

Advance Preparation

  • •Soak the chickpeas up to 24 hours ahead and keep them covered in the refrigerator if your kitchen is warm.
  • •The finished stew keeps 3 days in the refrigerator and deepens overnight. Reheat gently with a splash of water if the sauce has tightened.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 300g)

Calories
290 calories
Total Fat
10 g
Saturated Fat
1 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
8 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
560 mg
Total Carbohydrates
40 g
Dietary Fiber
11 g
Sugars
7 g
Protein
12 g

Note: Chef personas and recipes are created with AI assistance. Cook with care: follow safe food-handling practices, check doneness with a thermometer when needed, and adapt for allergies and your kitchen.

Where cooking meets culture.

Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.

Discover Culinary Explorer

More from Moroccan Soups & Bean Stews

Browse the full collection
Adss (عدس)

Chef Zohra

Adss (عدس)

Brown lentils cooked down with tomato, garlic, cumin, and paprika until spoon-thick, then finished with olive oil and coriander. This is weekday Moroccan comfort, made for bread and one more bowl.

Berkoukes d'Oujda (بركوكس)

Chef Zohra

Berkoukes d'Oujda (بركوكس)

Berkoukes is Oujda's feast bowl for Mawlid and winter evenings: hand-rolled semolina pearls, bigger than couscous, swelling in a tomato-red broth with lamb, chickpeas, saffron, and ras el hanout.

Bissara (بيصارة)

Chef Zohra

Bissara (بيصارة)

The north's fava purée, thick and generous, filmed with olive oil and ringed with cumin and paprika. Eat it hot with torn khobz, the way cold mornings are answered.

Chorba Marocaine (شربة)

Chef Zohra

Chorba Marocaine (شربة)

A lighter Moroccan soup for an ordinary night: clear broth, a little lamb, vegetables cut small, herbs, and fine vermicelli added late so the bowl stays lively.