What is bissara and what Moroccan soups are there beyond harira?

Everyone knows harira, but Morocco has a whole world of soups beyond it, and bissara is the one I most want you to find. It's a thick, velvety purée of dried fava beans (sometimes split peas) cooked down with garlic until smooth, then served in a bowl with a deep well of olive oil poured over the top, a dusting of cumin and sweet paprika, and a pinch of chilli if you like heat. You tear bread and scoop, and it is pure, humble comfort.

Bissara is winter breakfast and street food rolled into one. On cold mornings in Fes, Chefchaouen and the north you'll see little hole-in-the-wall places ladling it out to workers for a few dirhams, the steam rising off the bowls, and it costs almost nothing for a meal that genuinely sets you up for the day. Smooth, garlicky and warming, it's the food of ordinary mornings, and tasting it where the locals queue is half the pleasure.

There's more to explore. Chorba is a lighter, brothy soup, often with vermicelli or small pasta, vegetables and a little meat. Hssoua (or hsoua) is a soothing soup thickened with barley or wheat flour, sometimes milky, eaten for breakfast or to break a fast. And there are simple lentil soups and seasonal vegetable soups, each one finished the Moroccan way — a swirl of good olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, fresh coriander and the inevitable, essential cumin.

My advice is to treat soup as breakfast at least once. Find a busy bissara counter on a cool morning, order a bowl with extra oil and cumin, add chilli and bread, and you'll understand why Moroccans have eaten this way for generations. It's some of the cheapest, most satisfying, most authentic food in the country.