When the sun goes down and the call to prayer drifts over the neighborhood, steaming bowls begin to appear on the table. A soup stained red with tomato, tiny rice-shaped pasta, and meat that gives way at the touch of a spoon. A last scattering of mint sends its fragrance up with the steam. Squeeze in a little lemon and take the first spoonful. Sharba libiya, literally "Libyan soup," is exactly what its name says: a bowl Libyans have loved for generations.
The soup that reaches the table almost every night of Ramadan
Jeff Koehler, the food writer behind The North African Cookbook, describes this soup as something close to Libya's national dish. It is sometimes called simply sharba (soup) and sometimes sharba libiya, "Libyan soup." During Ramadan, he says, it appears on the table almost every evening.
After a day of fasting, a warm soup is gentle on the body. With meat, tomato, beans and pasta all in one pot, sharba is a soup that can stand as a whole meal. The recipe on the Islamic site Islamweb makes the same point: the soup is served on many occasions, but it is eaten most in the month of Ramadan. The same site notes that it is well known not only in Libya but across North Africa, in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.
Sharba is a word for "soup" used from North Africa through the Middle East, and it is also spelled shorba or chorba depending on the region. Algeria has its own version, chorba frik, made with roasted young wheat (freekeh), so the ingredients and aromas differ from country to country.
The deciding touch: plenty of mint at the end
Sharba varies from household to household, but Koehler lists one thing that never changes: a generous addition of dried mint at the end. The cool freshness of the mint on top of the warm aroma of tomato and spices keeps a meat soup, which can easily turn heavy, light enough to finish to the last spoonful.
The other signature is orzo, a small pasta shaped like grains of rice. The Islamweb recipe also offers a version that uses cracked-wheat bulgur in place of the orzo. For spices, Koehler's recipe uses cinnamon, ginger, turmeric and cayenne pepper, while Islamweb's calls for chili powder, paprika, mixed spices and turmeric, which shows how much the blend varies from home to home.
Ingredients (serves 4)
The ingredients follow the recipe (serves 4) in Jeff Koehler's The North African Cookbook.
Grating the tomatoes leaves the skins in your hand and puts only the pulp in the soup. The riper the tomato, the sweeter the soup and the brighter its color. Orzo is sold at Italian and import grocers and online. If you cannot find it, broken-up spaghetti or another small soup pasta will do. Dried spearmint is the easiest to use; rub it between your palms just before adding it and the aroma comes up much more strongly.
Cut the tomatoes in half crosswise, press the cut side against a grater and grate, holding the skin down with your palm. In the end only the skin stays in your hand, so there is no need to blanch and peel them.
Orzo soaks up the soup as it cooks and tends to sink and stick to the bottom of the pot. If it scorches, the burnt taste spreads through the whole soup, so once the orzo is in, stir from the bottom now and then. Orzo and bulgur are made from wheat, so anyone with a wheat allergy should take care.
The sharba way is not al dente orzo but orzo cooked soft all the way through. If the soup reduces too much, loosen it with a little hot water at a time.
Dried mint gives its best aroma when it goes in just before you turn off the heat. Add it too early and the fragrance fades, so treat it as the last small step.
Squeeze on lemon and eat it hot
Ladle the finished sharba generously into warmed bowls and serve with lemon wedges. Both Koehler's recipe and the Islamweb recipe bring lemon to the table. Squeezed on just before eating, it adds acidity to the sweetness of the tomato and the aroma of the mint and tightens the whole flavor. How much lemon is up to you; squeezing on a bit more as you eat is perfectly fine.
To taste North African soups side by side, try Algeria's roasted-wheat soup chorba frik, or harira, the Moroccan soup that is essential on Ramadan evenings. For another Libyan home dish, there is also mafrum, stuffed potatoes in tomato sauce.
Frequently asked questions
What if I cannot get lamb?
Koehler's recipe says beef can be used in place of the lamb. Cut a stewing cut of beef into about 1 cm (1/2 in) cubes and proceed the same way. The time it takes for the meat to become tender varies by cut, so check by pressing with a spoon in step 4.
Can I use bulgur instead of orzo?
Yes. The Islamweb recipe describes a version that uses bulgur in place of orzo. Bulgur cooks differently from orzo, so follow the package directions and cook it until soft.
What should I do with leftover soup?
Let it cool a little, put it in a storage container, refrigerate, and finish it soon. As it sits, the orzo absorbs the soup and swells, and the soup gets thicker. When reheating, loosen it with a little hot water and heat it until it is hot all the way through.
Is it a spicy soup?
The heat depends on how much cayenne pepper you use. Leave it out and you have a mild soup built around the warm aroma of cinnamon and ginger. If you like it hot, add more cayenne.
Sources
- Cuisine (New Zealand), Jeff Koehler, “Chorba With Lamb & Dried Mint / Region: Libya” (excerpt from The North African Cookbook, Phaidon). Accessed and checked: 22 October 2026. https://www.cuisine.co.nz/recipe/chorba-with-lamb-dried-mint-region-libya/
- Islamweb, “Libyan Soup (Sharrba),” published 2009. Accessed and checked: 22 October 2026. https://www.islamweb.net/en/article/149693/libyan-soup-sharrba
