Our family’s meal this holiday will be a little non-traditional. We’re making a plant-based vegan Moroccan dinner and the main dish is this Moroccan Chickpea Vegetable Tagine. If you haven’t heard of a tagine, it’s a piece of bakeware used for making the dish with the same name.
A typical Moroccan meal is made up of cold salads for starters, followed by tagine and couscous topped with vegetables or meats and usually includes fruit for dessert. If you’d like to see the full menu, visit my article, “Plant-Based Moroccan Holiday Menu.”
My version of this vegetable tagine is a sort of sophisticated vegetable stew filled with spices that are similar to those used in Indian cuisine, spices like cumin, coriander, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and the like.
Tagines also usually include some type of dried fruit such as raisins, dates or apricots. This dish uses dried apricots. Oftentimes it can also include olives and/or nuts.
Savory plant-based soups are perfect for dinner:
- Irish Cabbage Potato Soup with Dumplings
- Mary’s Vegetable Soup with Farro
- Mulligatawny Soup
- Tomato, Carrot, Brussels Sprout Soup
- Vichyssoise with Fennel
I found this beautiful ceramic tagine on Etsy and it’s specifically made to use in the oven or even on the stovetop. It’s a festive presentation when serving to guests as you open it to reveal the beautiful vegetables inside. Serve couscous on the side.
Couscous is a very small pasta made from semolina wheat and I have seen a whole wheat version. However, I have experienced the whole wheat version being a bit too old and smelling rancid (because the oils have gone off). I couldn’t even find the whole wheat version in Whole Foods recently.
There is also a larger version of couscous if you prefer. Here’s one I found from Bob’s Red Mill
If you’d prefer, you can always use a different “grain” such as farro, brown rice, barley, or even quinoa for a gluten-free version.
I like to make the stew in a large pot on the stovetop by first sauteing the onion and garlic in a little vegetable broth but, if you have a tagine dish, you can actually make it in the tagine dish.
After adding the tomato paste, tomatoes, and spices, I add all of the chopped vegetables and enough vegetable broth to just cover. This can be done earlier in the day and set aside until later when you want to finish the dish.
I then put it all into the ceramic tagine and pop it into the oven to bake for another 45 minutes or so until the vegetables are tender. Of course, you can continue to cook on the stove or use an oven-friendly dish instead of the tagine bakeware.
It doesn’t take much to fill up your pot since 3 red potatoes, 1 large sweet potato, zucchini, and cauliflower do the trick, but what’s fun about a recipe like this is that you can add your favorite vegetables.
The addition of broccoli, butternut squash or green beans would work as well.
I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below for this Moroccan Chickpea Vegetable Tagine recipe! If you have a photo, post it on my Instagram page, tag me using the hashtag #plantbasedcooking in your caption, and I won’t miss it!
This recipe is Certified Plantricious because it meets the following guidelines.
The Trusted Seal for
Plant-Based Nutrition
- Must be whole food plant-based, contains no animal products
- May be minimally processed
- No added oil
- No added sugars
- No artificial additives or preservatives
- Sodium (mg) to Calories ratio, 1 ≤ 1
- Total Fiber to Calories, 2g ≥ 100 calories
Moroccan Chickpea Vegetable Tagine
Equipment
- Measuring Cups and Spoons
- Tagine (optional)
Ingredients
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp Ceylon cinnamon*
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- 1 large onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 (15-oz.) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 (15-oz.) can chickpeas rinsed and drained (Eden Brand no added salt)
- 3 medium red potatoes unpeeled, washed and cut into 3/4"
- 2 medium zucchini cut into 3/4"
- 1/2 large cauliflower broken into bite-sized pieces
- 1 large sweet potato peeled and cut into 3/4"
- 2 tbsp Harissa spice mix (can be very spicy, optional)
- 2 cups homemade vegetable broth or low-sodium brand
- 1 cup dried apricots halved
- 1 cup whole-wheat couscous uncooked
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- ½ cup cilantro chopped
- 1 tsp salt (optional)
Instructions
- Combine cumin, coriander, ginger, cinnamon, and pepper in a small bowl. Set aside. SEE Note below*
- In a large saucepan, add onion and garlic in about ¼ cup water; cook 8 to 10 minutes or until water has evaporated and they are golden and tender. Stir in spice mixture, tomato paste, canned tomatoes, and harissa, if using, and cook 1 minute, stirring.
- Stir in broth, sweet and red potatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, about 10 minutes. Then add the zucchini, cauliflower, and chickpeas and continue to simmer until all of the vegetables are tender and the sauce has thickened about another 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, bring 2 1/4 cups water and lemon juice to a boil. Remove from heat. Stir in couscous. Cover and let sit until all liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
- To finish the tagine, stir in apricots and season with sea salt, if desired.
- Place into a tagine, if you have one, or large platter for serving. Each person can dish up some couscous and top with the vegetable tagine sprinkled with cilantro and a few toasted almonds.
Notes
Harissa Spice and Salt are not included in the nutrition label.
The ingredients are missing “sweet and red potatoes “ as well as zucchini and cauliflower. Very frustrating to start a recipe only to find the instructions call for things that weren’t listed in the ingredients. I guessed at how much and continued. Not a good recipe at all!!!
I’m so sorry to have missed those. I just added them to the recipe. Hopefully, it wasn’t too difficult to figure out! I know that is frustrating, but as you can imagine, I’m not perfect and sometimes make mistakes. I work hard to create, shop, cook, photograph and write recipes posts, as well as informative articles. I hope you’ll forgive me because the recipe is delicious.
Hi Diane, I’m excited to give this a go later this week. We’ve got to make it GF, and I have some brown rice on hand (from meal prep) which you mentioned csn be a substitute for the couscous. I have a question: you suggest cooking the couscous with a combination of lemon juice and water. Since our rice is already cooked, should I not try to find a place to put a little lemon flare in? What would you suggest? Juice, zest, which step?
And thank you for the great recipes and website. We’ve made several of your recipes from different categories and they’ve been a true “hit.” You *are* appreciated. 🙂
Hey, Lisa. Honestly, the dish is to flavorful that you really don’t need to add anything to your rice since it’s already cooked. If you wanted to, try adding a tablespoon of lemon juice to the finished dish, but totally not necessary. 🙂 And, thanks for the kind words! I’m so glad you guys are enjoying the recipes!
Another success, thanks! I did do just that, as I found half of a lemon in the fridge, ready to do its part. We enjoyed the leftovers for lunch as well. What’s nice is that it’s hearty and flavorful, and did not require us to use the oven. As hot as it’s been all summer long, our AC bill is high enough. We both can’t wait until it’s cooking weather again.
Hey Lisa, so glad you enjoyed the recipe! 🙂 Yes, it has been hot. It’s been cold grain and potato salads for us lately and I love having leftovers!
Why make a tagine in a skillet if you have an actual tagine? This recipe should be called Moroccan Chickpea Vegetable Skillet as the two cooking methods are very different.
Well, there’s the dish, a Moroccan cone-shaped baking dish, and there’s the recipe and they’re both named the same. Not everyone has a tagine dish but it’s a beautiful presentation if you have one. Yes, you can make the recipe in a tagine dish so I’ll mention that in the recipe for those that would like to do so.