Moroccan Vegetable Tagine
Squash, sweet potato, carrot, and courgette steamed slowly in a cinnamon-and-harissa tomato sauce with apricots and raisins. The trick is low heat and time — the vegetables should collapse. From The Green Kitchen (David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl).
Ingredients
Tagine
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large onion, roughly chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- ½ inch fresh ginger, grated, or 1 teaspoon ground
- 1 to 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- Sea salt
- 2 to 3 teaspoons harissa paste, or dried harissa
- 2 cans (14 oz each) whole plum tomatoes
- Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
- A large handful of cilantro, leaves picked and chopped
- 1 small butternut squash, cut in 2-inch pieces
- 1 sweet potato, cut in 2-inch pieces
- 3 carrots, cut in 2-inch pieces
- 1 courgette, cut in 2-inch pieces
- 10 unsulphured dried apricots
- 1 1/3 cups chickpeas, cooked or canned and rinsed
- ½ cup golden raisins
To serve
- 1 cup wholegrain couscous
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cups water
- Roasted almonds
- A small handful of cilantro, chopped
- A few sprigs of fresh mint
Instructions
Heat the olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan or flameproof casserole and sauté the onion a few minutes until it softens. Add the garlic, ginger, cinnamon, cumin, and salt and stir, then add the harissa, tomatoes, lemon juice and zest, and fresh cilantro. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat.
Add the squash, sweet potato, carrots, courgette, and apricots. Stir so everything is coated in tomato sauce. Cover and simmer about an hour, stirring carefully once or twice.
When the vegetables are very tender, stir in the chickpeas and raisins and cook 5 minutes more.
For the couscous, put it in a large bowl, drizzle the olive oil over, and stir until coated. Pour boiling water over, cover, and leave 10 minutes to absorb. Fluff with a fork.
Serve sprinkled with roasted almonds, cilantro, and mint.
Notes
In an actual tagine: soak it first if it needs it, prepare the tomato sauce on the stove, then add the vegetables to the tagine, pour the sauce over so everything is covered, lid on, and bake at 300°F for about 1 ½ hours. Add the chickpeas and raisins and let it stand 5 minutes before serving.
Quinoa or cooked millet instead of couscous both work.
The cinnamon quantity looks wrong and is not — a tablespoon is what carries the dish.
Photo: 16:9clue, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.