Yummy! I made my own Hawaij spice mix based on an online recipe as I had all the spices on hand (black pepper, cardamom, turmeric, cloves, cumin, etc...) Don't know if it was exactly right, but the soup was great! My butternut squash was a bit too old, so I added more potatoes (3 medium-sized yellow potatoes total), and I used a can of diced tomatoes instead of fresh. The next day I garnished it with feta, lemon juice, and cilantro, and that was awesome. Thanks for a great new flavor. I'll have to ask my Yemeni co-workers about this :)

I made my own Hawaij, which involved some guesswork, but I must have done o.k., because this was fantastic!

I made this last summer for me and my girlfriend. She is Vegetarian so it can be hard finding something we will both enjoy, but this certainly did the trick. I am making it again tomorrow with a few variations so we shall see how that goes. Last time I used Curry paste instead of hawaij and it worked perfectly. Who would have thought swapping out the ingredient the dish is named for would work.