Vegetable Moroccan Tagine

We are preparing a vegetarian stew of pumpkin and tomatoes with lots of spices from the Middle East. It is the spices that make this stew incredibly fragrant, tasty and rich, as well as low-calorie. You can also add any vegetables to this stew. If you prefer meat, then the stew goes well with chicken.

How to cook Moroccan stew?

Traditionally, stew in Morocco is prepared in a special dish — tagine. A tagine is a clay cooking vessel with a cone-shaped lid in which steam circulates during cooking, allowing fragrant condensate to drip back into stew or vegetables. If you don’t have a tagine at home or you don’t live in the Middle East at all, then just take a thick-walled pan.

Oriental spices are an incredible find for cooking delicious dishes. The richness and aroma of spices reveal the whole taste of the stew and make the cooking process cozy. Cardamom, cumin, coriander fill and permeate the air in every corner of the kitchen. It feels like you’re floating in a thick fragrant cloud. As soon as the spices are combined with vegetables in a tagine or a saucepan, magic happens, which makes you dizzy and immediately want to try the not—yet-ready stew.

Traditionally, this vegetarian stew can be served with couscous or steamed rice. The side dish absorbs all the notes of the stew, which makes the dish even more intense in taste.

This Moroccan stew goes especially well with almonds. This nut complements the taste of vegetables combined with spices. The aftertaste leaves a slight piquancy on the tongue from hot pepper and ginger. For this simple reason, a spoonful of fresh thick yogurt is added to the stew.

Recipe type: Stew

Recipe type: Middle East

Yield: 10

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 1 hour 30 mins

Total time: 2 hrs

Ingredients:

Pumpkin — 560 grams

Tomatoes — 2 pieces

Eggplant — 1 piece

Red sweet pepper — 1 piece

Red onion — 1 piece

Garlic — 1 clove

String beans — 160 grams

Chickpeas (canned) — 240 grams

Cardamom (ground) — 1 tablespoon

Coriander (ground) — 1 tablespoon

Cumin (ground) — 1 tablespoon

Cayenne chili pepper (ground) — 1 teaspoon

Ginger (ground) — ½ teaspoon

Cumin — 2 teaspoons

Olive oil — 7 tablespoons

Water — 800 ml

Salt — 2 teaspoons

Black pepper (ground) — ½ teaspoon

Lemon zest — 5 grams

Lemon juice — 30 ml

Almonds — 30 grams

Directions:

1. Prepare chickpeas. If you use dried chickpeas, then soak it in water for a day beforehand and put it in the refrigerator.

2. Peel the pumpkin and cut it into cubes of 2 cm (1 inch).

3. Peel tomatoes from the pulp and cut into size with pumpkin.

4. Cut the eggplant into the size of a pumpkin and soak it in salted cold water for 20 minutes.

5. Peel sweet Bulgarian red pepper from seeds and white partitions and cut into size with pumpkin.

6. Peel the red onion and cut it into petals.

7. Finely chop the garlic.

8. Mix all the ground spices into one cup.

9. Heat olive oil (1 tablespoon) over medium heat in a deep, thick-walled saucepan.

10. Add the red onion and garlic to the pan. Cook for 1 minute. Remove from the pan into a separate cup.

11. Heat olive oil (1 tablespoon) over maximum heat in a deep, thick-walled saucepan.

12. Add the pumpkin to the pot and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan into a cup with onions.

13. Heat olive oil (5 tablespoons) over medium heat.

14. Remove the sliced eggplant from the salt water and dry it with a paper towel. Add the eggplant pieces to the pan with oil. Cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan into a cup with onion and pumpkin.

15. Fry the sweet red pepper in the same saucepan. Cook for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan into a cup with onion and pumpkin.

16. Add tomatoes and all spices to the pan. Mix it up. Cook for 3 minutes.

17. Return all the other ready-made ingredients (onion, pumpkin, sweet pepper) to the pan. Mix it up.

18. Add water to the pot and cover with a lid. Cook for 10 minutes over medium heat.

19. Stir the contents of the pan. Cover and cook for another 15 minutes over medium heat.

20. Add string beans and chickpeas to the stew pot. Mix it up. Cook for 20 minutes without a lid.

21. Remove the stew pan from the heat and add the zest and juice of one lemon.

Serving: Serve the stew in a tagine with couscous, a spoonful of yogurt and almonds.

Enjoy your meal!