Vegetarian Tagine

Vegetable tagine for 6-8 people

Preparation: approx. 30 minutes.

Roasting time: approx. 2 hours.

Delicious Vegetarian Tagine

Moroccan tagines are often made with lamb, fish, chicken or beef. But vegetarian alternatives are also often made. Here is my take on a vegetable tagine, which contains some of the most used vegetables in Morocco, topped with fresh herbs, which are also widely used in Moroccan tagines.

You can also easily use other vegetables than the ones I have mentioned here.

• One tagine dish – can be purchased here.
• 3 squash (possibly a mix of yellow and green)
• 4 potatoes
• 2 sweet potatoes
• 3 carrots
• 1 eggplant
• 3 onions
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 4 ripe steak tomatoes (sliced)
• Freshly chopped parsley
• Fresh coriander (optional)
• One glass of green or black olives
• 1 large glass vegetable bouillon (one bouillon cube)
• 1 glass of boiled water with dissolved saffron

Spices:

• approx. 2-4 tsp. Ras el hanout (can be bought or made yourself – click here for the recipe for ras el hanout)
• a pinch of saffron
• freshly grated ginger
• approx. 2-4 tsp. ground turmeric
• approx. 2-4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• approx. 2-4 tsp. ground cumin

Preparation:

1. Fry the onion and garlic in a pan with a little oil on a low heat so that they become slightly caramelised.
2. Cut the aubergine into slices and fry them in the pan so that they take on the flavour.
3. Peel carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes.
4. Squash and carrots are cut into sticks. Cut potatoes in half (if they are small). Sweet potatoes are cut to the same size as normal potatoes. Tomatoes are cut into slices.
5. Now potatoes, carrots, squash and sweet potatoes must be put in a "marinade". Here, I have the best experience of making a small bowl for each vegetable.
6. Make a marinade of water so that it covers the vegetable, one garlic, a little ginger (preferably fresh) and a teaspoon of turmeric (ground).
7. Place squash, potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes in separate bowls and leave to soak for approx. 15 minutes.

Collection:

Now we need to assemble the tagine, and here we need to start with the vegetables that need to have the longest time. Between the layers, you must add the spices - turn the amount up or down according to how spicy you want the vegetable tagine.

1. Sprinkle spices: ras el hanout, turmeric, cinnamon and cumin between each layer. Sprinkle with ground ginger, chopped parsley, a pinch of pepper and possibly a pinch of salt. For a little spice, you can add some chili.
2. At the bottom, first put potatoes, then sweet potatoes and then carrots. Next, place the squash, the sliced lightly roasted aubergine and finally the tomato slices on top.
3. Pour the broth and saffron solution over the tagine and let it simmer on a low heat (if stove) or put it in the oven at 160 degrees for a few hours.
4. Check it regularly and add or remove moisture to suit. The water should go approx. to the edge. But some vegetables give off a lot of water, and the moisture should preferably not go over the edge.
5. 10 minutes before serving, add olives.
6. Serve with bulgur or couscous and top with fresh parsley and coriander

Bon appetite!

Once you have tried this vegetable tagine, you can try one of my other tagine recipes. Find them here.

If you want to know more about the origin of the tagine, read my blog post about it. Here you will find e.g. an original tagine recipe from the 13th century. Read it here.