Simple Vegetable Tagine

• طاجين الخضرة •

Vegetables are stewed in an aromatic tomato sauce until succulent and tender in this recipe for Simple Vegetable Tagine. Clay pot optional!

Tagines are North African stews that are often made in lidded clay or earthenware pots that recirculate the condensed steam during cooking. Indeed, you don’t need much liquid to cook a traditional tagine because the veggies will exude their juices and add their flavor to the resulting brothy liquid. You can use any vegetables for this, so use this recipe as a guide. I’ve used potatoes, carrots, zucchinis, and peppers here but cauliflower, green beans, precooked beans or chickpeas, eggplants, or pumpkins would be excellent additions. Every tagine I’ve had in Morocco always featured nice large pieces of vegetables, so as to avoid disintegration during cooking. You’ll want to keep that in mind when cutting your veggies.

If you don’t have a traditional clay tagine cooking vessel, no problem. I don’t always use mine to make this since this dish can be prepared in any pot with a tight-fitting lid. An enameled dutch oven is perfect, but a stainless steel pot or wok with a lid works just fine, too. I’ve seasoned this tagine with my basic tagine spice blend. Sometimes I add some more spices to it but the combination below will give you that lovely complex flavor you expect from a Moroccan-style tagine. Be sure to make some kesra bread to eat along with it and scoop up the aromatic juice around the veggies!

Simple Vegetable Tagine

 

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Vegetables are stewed in an aromatic tomato sauce until succulent and tender in this recipe for Simple Vegetable Tagine. Clay pot optional!

Author: Lands & Flavors

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 large shallots or 1 medium onion, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons minced ginger
• 1¼ teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon cardamom
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric
• ¼ teaspoon fennel
• ¼ teaspoon oregano or thyme
• 1 cup puréed tomato or basic tomato sauce
• 1¼ cups water
• 1¼ teaspoon sea salt
• ¼-1/2 of a preserved lemon or strips of lemon zest
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
• 4-5 carrots, peeled and cut into long pieces
• 3 small zucchinis, peeled and halved into long pieces
• 1 chile (jalapeño/serrano), split in half and seeds removed (or not for a spicy tagine)
• ¼ cup olives
• small handful of dried cherries or raisins or prunes
• handful of finely chopped cilantro or parsley

Instructions

1. Add the oil and onions to a pot over medium-high heat and sauté until slightly softened (around 3 minutes). Add the garlic and ginger and sauté for another minute. Now add the spices: paprika, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper, turmeric, fennel, and oregano and sauté for 10 seconds to bloom the spices. Immediately add the tomato, water, salt, preserved lemon, and bay leaf. Scoop out half of this spiced tomato mixture into a small bowl and set aside.
2. Remove the pot from the heat until you put in your veggies. You can arrange them nicely or just dump them all in, whichever you prefer! Either way, add the potatoes, carrots, zucchinis, and chile, then pour the reserved half of the spiced tomato mixture over the veggies. Put it back on medium-high heat, cover the pot, and let it boil for 2-3 minutes. Now reduce the heat to low and leave it to simmer, completely covered, for 20 minutes.
3. After twenty minutes, scatter in the olives and dried cherries. Cover again and continue to simmer for another 5-10 minutes. After 5 minutes, check the doneness of the hardest vegetable you used---in this case, it's the potatoes. If they aren't done yet, give them that extra 5 minutes.
4. When the veggies are all cooked, taste the sauce for seasoning and adjust the salt if needed. Sprinkle with the cilantro, a squirt of lemon, and an extra drizzle of olive oil if you like. Serve immediately with bread or couscous or brown rice.

Notes

-Use this recipe as a base and replace the veggies with your favorites. Just keep in mind that if you use all root vegetables or all starchy vegetables (like potatoes, carrots, pumpkins, etc.) they will absorb more water, so add an extra splash of water to the recipe.

-You want to ensure that whatever vessel you cook this in has a tight-fitting lid. Sometimes lids have a small hole in them to release steam. If yours has this, simply plug the hole with a small scrunched up piece of aluminum foil.

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