The story of Red rice soup
In the kitchen of Baghdad's Jews, rice is the base of nearly every meal, and it often comes out red from tomato paste. Red rice soup is that same flavour in a bowl: browned chicken thighs, onion, garlic and ripe tomatoes, with rice that goes into the pot raw and cooks there until the soup thickens. It is a home soup made when tomatoes are good, at the end of summer, and on winter evenings too.
In Israel the soup crossed between communities, and today red rice soup is cooked in many Mizrahi homes, sometimes with beef instead of chicken. Next to it are white rice soups: the Greek and Sephardic egg and lemon soup, and the simple rice in chicken broth made for children. And plenty of grandmothers threw a handful of rice into any soup, just to make it thicker.
What makes Red rice soup itself
In red rice soup the rice is not a side cooked separately but part of the soup. It goes raw into the tomato broth 20 minutes before the end, releases starch and thickens the whole pot, so every spoonful is full. The paste is fried first until it darkens and loses its sharp sourness, the fresh tomatoes add brightness, and the spring onion, chilli and lemon on top bring a fresh bite that cuts through the thickness.
