Hamud – Iraqi Sour Soup with Vegetables and Chickpeas with homemade tomato paste

👨‍🍳 Method

For the homemade tomato paste ✓ Homemade · or skip – back to store-bought

1. 1
   Wash the tomatoes, remove the cores and quarter each tomato.

   KnifeCutting board
2. 2
   Put the tomatoes, the salt and half of the olive oil in a wide pot, cover and cook over medium heat about 20 minutes, until the tomatoes soften and release their liquid.

   StoveWide, shallow pot
3. 3
   Pass the tomatoes and their liquid through a food mill or sieve and return the purée to the pot: the skins and seeds stay behind.

   Food millorFine sieve
4. 4
   Cook uncovered about an hour at a lively simmer, stirring now and then, until the purée reduces by half.

   StoveWooden spoon

   💡The paste burns easily as it dries: stir and scrape the bottom and edges, and once it is thick, don't walk away.
5. 5
   Preheat the oven to 110°C (230°F).

   Oven

   💡Put things in the oven only once it's reached temperature, after the heating light has gone off: an oven that hasn't reached temperature changes baking times, and the bake burns outside or stays underbaked.
6. 6
   Grease a wide baking dish with the rest of the olive oil and pour in the purée in a thin layer. Dry in the oven about 3 hours, stirring and scraping the edges every 30 minutes, until the paste is thick, sticky and brick red.

   OvenBaking sheetSilicone spatula
7. 7
   Let the paste cool.

   Jar

For the Stock

1. 8
   Cover the bones with water in a large pot and bring to a boil. Skim off the foam that floats to the top with a spoon.

   StoveLarge pot

   💡Skim off the foam that rises at the start of cooking: it's proteins that cloud the stock.
2. 9
   Add the onion and carrot.
3. 10
   Turn down to low and simmer' gently' 2 hours, until the stock is rich.

   Stove

   💡A gentle simmer, not a boil: a hard boil dries the food out and clouds it, a slow simmer cooks it evenly.
4. 11
   Strain through a fine sieve into a clean pot.

   Fine sieveLarge pot

To assemble

1. 12
   Add the chickpeas, tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, turmeric and cumin to the strained stock and bring to a boil.

   Stove
2. 13
   Turn down the heat and simmer 20 minutes, until the stock takes on the flavor of the spices.

   Stove
3. 14
   Stir in the lemon juice, sugar, salt and black pepper. Taste: the soup should be sweet-and-sour. Adjust to taste.

   💡Balance at the end, once the flavors have come together: add sour, sweet and salty a little at a time, tasting between additions.
4. 15
   Serve hot in bowls, and sprinkle the parsley and cilantro on top.