This tagine is simply outstanding—a perfect balance of flavors. Made with onions, carrots, turnips, sweet potato, chickpeas, green olives, golden raisins and lemon zest. Flavored with toasted spices and finished with fresh herbs, this is most certainly going to be a dish you make again and again.
Steps
1
Preparing Your Mise en Place | Part 1
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
1 medium white onion
1 turnip (1/2 cup diced)
1 sweet potato (1 cup diced)
2 carrots (1/2 cup diced)
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp whole cumin*
1 tsp whole coriander*
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp chile flakes
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
If using dried chickpeas, prepare them ahead of time. If using canned chickpeas, drain and rinse.
To prepare the rest of your your mise en place, dice in 1/2 inch cubes the onions, turnips, sweet potatoes and carrots. Next, mince the garlic and measure out the tomato paste.
Lastly, toast the cumin and coriander over medium heat until it starts to smoke and release its aroma. Once done, grind in a spice grinder along with the other spices, including the salt and pepper, leaving the mixture a bit course.
*Note: Ground cumin and coriander can be used instead of whole, but we do encourage you to use whole spices and grind them yourself.
Once done, set everything aside while you start the tagine.
2
Starting the Tagine
Ingredients
3 tbsp olive oil* (If using no oil, substitute vegetable stock to dry sauté)
2 cups vegetable stock
To cook the tagine, heat a large heavy fry pan over medium heat. Once hot, add the oil followed by the onions.
*Note: If desired, omit the oil and dry-sauté the onions until translucent and deglaze with a bit of vegetable stock for no oil caramelization.
Cook for 4 minutes, or until they start to brown and become translucent. Stir frequently. Next, add the garlic and let cook for another minute or so.
At this point, reduce the heat to low and add the spices, tomato paste, and vegetable stock, and stir to combine. Add the turnips, sweet potatoes, carrots and chickpeas. Cover and let simmer for 20 to 25 minutes or until the vegetables are just tender. Timing will depend on the size of the vegetables.
In the meantime, you can go ahead and prepare the ingredients for the next step.
3
Finishing the Tagine
Ingredients
1/2 cup green olives
1 jar artichokes (6 oz)
3 tbsp lemon zest (2 to 3 lemons)
1/4 cup golden raisins
Pit and very roughly chop the olives. They are also nice simply cut or torn in half.
Strain, rinse and cut the artichokes into quarters, if they are not already.
Zest the lemons. This may seem like a lot of lemon zest, but it works well in this dish. In fact, you won't even notice a strong lemon flavor—everything just works. Set everything aside.
Once the vegetables are tender add the olives, artichokes, lemon zest and raisins and let cook for another 5 minutes or so.
4
Garnishing the Tagine
Ingredients
2 tbsp fresh mint
3 tbsp fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 tbsp fresh cilantro
lemon zest (optional)
red chile (optional)
To garnish the tagine, chop the fresh herbs and zest the additional lemon, if using. And if adding chiles for more heat, thinly slice and save for garnishing the final dish.
Once the dish has finished cooking, add the freshly chopped herbs and fold everything together. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt or pepper as needed.
This tagine goes particularly well with couscous, but it also goes well with quinoa or your grain of choice. Enjoy!
The First 3 Are On Us
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This is a very simple recipe that I tweaked just a little bit, using less chick peas, slightly more carrots and more olives, and slightly less chile flakes.
I knew that it was a success because it tasted exactly like the tagines served in Moroccan restaurants.
Thank you Rouxbe!!
Now I need sweet potatoes. I have my unused tagine sitting on my cabinets, because I never had a chance to make my intended lamb tagine before we went vegetarian.
We tried some tempeh "burger" patties, and we hated them sooo much. Flavor and texture was off. Willing to give it a second go - do you recommend any specific brand or style?
Oh, good question. I only buy tempeh slabs (usually soy and whole grains), which you can use to make "patties" , meatballs or just to replicate ground meat (pulse in a food processor for a few seconds).
I have access to a few local brands where I live, but I'm not sure what you have in Canada where you live. I like to braise tempeh in chunks or crumble it in to other dishes to add body. Cheers!
Hi Jerry- Tempeh gets softer, but still retains it's crumbly texture. Mock meats made from gluten or soy protein tend to get spongy, tempeh does not. I can braise it for an hour or so and still have a great product! Enjoy.
I served this dish at a dinner party. The guests are big meat eaters. They loved it. I got an email the next day telling me I out did myself. It is beautiful, healthy and very delicious. I had it again tonight and will be serving it again to 4 other meat eater dinner guests. I serve it with Israeli couscous with toasted pinenuts and preserved lemons. I follow the recipe exactly. Why mess with perfection. Thank you Rouxbe.
The Vegetable Tagine is a lovely blend of root vegetables and spices. Lemon zest, fresh cilantro, parsley, and mint set this dish off. Golden raisins are a pleasant, plump, occasional surprise.
I would normally not have attempted this recipe, but I had opened bottles of castelvetrano olives and grilled marinated artichoke hearts that needed to be used. I was also fortunate enough to have some home-grown tomato "estratto" that my husband had made this summer, which I used instead of tomato paste. I finally used the mortar and pestle that I'd bought (upon deciding to stop eating meat and learn vegetarian cooking) for the coriander and cumin seeds. Perhaps oddly, I decided to use the preserved lemons a friend had made and given me instead of the lemon zest (risky, could have been too salty but fortunately I had used less salt than called for and it was fine). The dish was quite lovely and I really, really enjoyed making it (AND eating it). I am grateful to you folks at Rouxbe!
Hi Valerie! Your kind words go a long way. We are grateful to you for participating in our community. Thank you! Congratulations for stepping outside of your comfort zone and creating this flavorful and satisfying dish. I am happy to hear that you loved it! Good call on preserved lemon, this is the perfect place for it! yum.
Lauren
This was fantastic. I used less cinnamon because some members of my family have found it to be too strong in lots of savory recipes. I also added a few handfuls of fresh spinach right at the end for color and added nutrition. I'm looking forward to the leftovers since I expect the flavors to marry over time. I served this with kamut, which I bought and tried on a whim. This is a repeat, for sure.
