Squash & Chickpea Tagine.
Cooking a tagine is a satisfying process. It’s incredibly simple with a huge pay-off; The pot does the hard work for you. Dont worry if you dont have a tagine though, you could also do this in a casserole.
Serves 4
Equipment.
sharp knife & chopping board
kettle
tagine/casserole
Ingredients.
Half a small butternut squash, approx. 500g
1 small courgette
1 red pepper, deseeded
1 carrot, approx. 100g
Handful of fine green beans, approx. 100g
Half a (400g) tin of chickpeas, drained
1 large vine tomato
1 small onion, or half a large one
Handful of prunes, pitted
1 tbsp olive oil
Spice Paste:
1 tsp each: turmeric, ground ginger, sweet paprika, ground coriander, ground cumin and salt
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 whole preserved lemons, finely chopped
Handful of fresh parsley, approx 15g, finely chopped with stems
3 tbsp olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Splash of water
To Serve:
Couscous, fresh parsley, toasted sliced almond
Method.
Preheat oven to 180c, and place the tagine in the oven to preheat too
Prepare the vegetables: Peel the squash and cut into roughly 2cm chunks. Cut both the courgette and carrot in half and cut each half into 6-8 batons roughly 1cm thick. Slice the red pepper into 1cm batons too. Peel and finely dice the onion. Roughly dice the tomato. Trim the green beans and leave whole. Cut the prunes in half, ensuring there are no stones.
Prepare the spice paste: Measure out the spices into a small bowl. Add the chopped parsley, preserved lemons, garlic, and olive oil, and mix thoroughly to combine. Add a few twists of freshly ground black pepper, and a splash of water.
Assemble: Remove the tagine from the oven and add the olive oil & onion. Arrange the squash, chickpeas, tomato, and prunes on top. Starting with the carrots (as they take the longest to cook), arrange the vegetable batons on top, mimicking the shape of the tagine lid (check out my Instagram reel/TikTok for a visual on how to do this!)
Finally, pour over the spice paste, covering as many of the vegetables as possible. Rinse the bowl out with a splash of water and add this to the tagine too, pouring it down the centre of the vegetables.
Put the lid on the tagine and cook in the oven for around 45mins until the veggies are soft
Serve with couscous, some extra fresh parsley, and toasted flaked almonds
