Moroccan vegetable tagine is a slow-cooked medley of mouthwatering flavors and fearsome spices that are guaranteed to make your taste buds tingle!

For this Moroccan-inspired recipe, you can use up all of the vegetables that you have in the kitchen (as many vegetables go deliciously well with this tagine). This iconic Moroccan cookery method takes patience, and if you've got a tagine pot, you'll be able to slowly release the best flavors, for a fantastic meal.

Here's our mouthwateringly delicious, painstakingly slow-cooked Moroccan vegetable tagine recipe!

Slow-Cooked Moroccan Vegetable Tagine

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Servings

4

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

40 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 tsp of harissa paste
• 1 tsp of ground ginger
• 2 tbsp of ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp of cumin
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 cans of chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 cup of chickpeas
• 1 zucchini*
• 1 sweet potato
• 1 small pumpkin
• 3 carrots
• 1 lemon
• Fresh cilantro
• Fresh mint
• 10 dried apricots
• A handful of raisins
• Roasted almond flakes
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Couscous

Directions

1. Start the recipe by chopping you Morrocan vegetables up into small chunks. Apart from the onion, you can chop the vegetables loosely, into larger chunks (only the onion should be finely chopped).
2. Place your tagine pot on the stovetop and heat a drizzle of olive oil in the bottom.
3. Cook your onions until they begin to soften.
4. Add in the minced garlic, ginger, cumin, and cinnamon and cook gently for a few minutes.
5. Add in the harissa paste, cans of tomatoes, and a handful of fresh cilantro.
6. Squeeze in your lemon, and then bring the broth to the boil.
7. Lower the heat, and add the rest of your chopped vegetables (pumpkin, carrots, sweet potato, and zucchini, are our Morrocan vegetables of choice).
8. Stir everything into the broth, then add in the apricots, before allowing the vegetable tagine to slowly stew on the stovetop.
9. Leave the tagine to simmer for at least one hour. *
10. When the vegetables are tender, they're ready to eat.
11. Prepare your couscous, sprinkle over some fresh coriander and mint, roast some almond flakes, and serve with raisins!

Recipe Note

*Our Morrocan tagine works deliciously well with so many vegetables, so if you haven't got these exact vegetables in your kitchen, then don't be afraid to get creative!

*Keep checking the vegetable tagine, and if it's too dry, add some vegetable stock to top up the broth.

Vegetable tagine recipes FAQs

Our tagine vegetarian is a masterful mix of spices and hearty vegetables, but it really isn't that difficult to prepare. It's all about the slow cooking, so with a little patience, you can easily cook up a vegetarian Moroccan feast!

Just in case you had any other questions, though, we put together this quick FAQ to answer the most common queries we receive when it comes to preparing Morrocan vegetable tagine.

What is a tagine, exactly?

Let's start with the basics! What is a tagine?

The answer might seem obvious (especially as you've just read through our tagine recipe, and possibly already cooked a tagine!), but the concept is actually quite nuanced. You see, tagine is not just the stew that you've been cooking up, but it's an incredibly important part of Morrocan cuisine and culture.

Tagine is a dish and a cooking style. It's a historic cooking technique that allows you to slowly stew vegetables (or meat) and slowly release the delicious spices and flavors that Moroccan food is so famed for. This way, it's best done with a tagine pot (yes, the tagine is the dish, the method of cooking, and the cooking implement!).

A tagine pot is historically made from clay, but these days, modern enameled tagine pots have become popular too. It's the shape that's the most important element to the tagine pot, as the conical shape and funnel allow the moisture to circulate inside of the pot itself, thereby keeping all of the spices and flavors inside. The vegetables are essentially stewed in their own juices, to create a superbly tender dish!

Do I need a tagine pot?

You don't necessarily need a tagine pot to cook up a tagine but trust us, it really helps!

If you're looking for authenticity, then you have to use a tagine pot. There's no other way to get that super tender blend of spices and soft vegetables that the tagine pot will produce when it's used for slow-cooking.

If you don't have a tagine pot, then you could use a saucepan, as long as you've got a lid, or you could also cook with a covered casserole dish. It won't be quite the same, however!

Can I cook vegetable tagine in the oven?

In our vegetable tagine recipe, we suggest using your tagine pot on the stovetop, but you can also use it in the oven. The stovetop works best if you're looking to cook the tagine quickly (our recipe should only need one hour of simmering), but if you've got lots more time, then you can slow-cook the tagine in the oven too.

Tagine pots work well in the oven - as well as they cook on stovetops. In the oven, you can leave the tagine to slow cook for hours if you want to, for the ultimate, tender vegetables.

What vegetables are used in Moroccan cooking?

Morrocan cooking is a refined blending of spices and vegetables. From chickpea tagine to an eggplant tagine - improvise with everything you can find. However, if you want your cooking to be really authentic, then there are a few specific vegetables you should try to include in the recipe.

These include, but are not limited to the following:

• Olives
• Tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Beans
• Peas
• Carrots
• Zucchini
• Eggplant
• Pumpkin
• Sweet potatoes
• Leeks
• Onions
• Artichoke
• Bell peppers
• Zucchini

All of these vegetables are easy to find in your local supermarket. The really fantastic thing about this tagine recipe, though, is that so many more vegetables go really well in this dish. You can use up all the vegetables in your pantry, and it's guaranteed to taste great, no matter what you end up throwing into the tagine pot!

What goes best with Moroccan vegetable tagine?

Aside from tagines, the most well known Morrocan dish has to be couscous (these are two dishes that complement each other spectacularly well!).

Couscous is quintessentially Morrocan, and it's super easy to prepare. Simply add hot water, and let the couscous soak up the liquid while you wait for your tagine to slowly stew on the stovetop. Couscous will taste great if it's just served plain, but you can add some lemon juice or sprinkle it with fresh cilantro and raisins for a little bit of added flavor.

If you want to try something different, though, then vegetable tagine could also be served with rice, bulgar wheat, or quinoa. This is a dish that's best served with grains, of course!

A fresh, juicy side salad of cucumber and tomato won't go amiss either, while a few slices of flatbread, or pitta bread, are perfect for moping up all of the leftover tagine juices at the end of the meal.

Can I prepare vegetable tagine ahead of time?

Yes, you can definitely prepare vegetable tagine ahead of time! In fact, we highly recommend preparing all the ingredients well ahead of dinner time and then allowing the tagine to slowly simmer on the stovetop or stew in the oven while you go about the rest of your day. Tagine tastes best when it's slow-cooked, so why not prepare it ahead of time?

If you don't want to leave the dish to simmer on the side all day, then you can also prepare all of the ingredients, simmer it for an hour as per the recipe above, and then leave it in the fridge before reheating the vegetable tagine later.

Could I marinate the vegetables ahead of time?

To bring out the best of the spices, you can leave your vegetables to marinate overnight. This is the traditional way to prepare a tagine (and another reason why it takes so long to cook truly authentic tagine!).

Cut up your vegetables and mix up all of your spices. Coat your vegetables in the spice mix, and then leave them overnight in the fridge. This allows the spices to really wok their way into the vegetables for a deliciously fragrant meal!

Can I store vegetable tagine in the fridge?

If you have any leftovers (which we doubt you will!), then you can store your vegetable tagine in the fridge after dinner. We don't recommend keeping it in the fridge for more than 48 hours, or it could start to turn.

You can store the leftovers in a resealable container, or you could simply store them in the tagine pot that you cooked them in. When you're ready to eat the leftovers, just put the tagine pot back on the stovetop and reheat the dish slowly, to keep in the flavors.

Can I freeze vegetable tagine?

While we wouldn't worry about keeping your tagine leftovers in the fridge for a day or two, we wouldn't really recommend freezing them. It won't do you any harm; we just feel that it destroys much of the flavor that you've spent so long cooking!

If you do need to freeze the vegetable tagine, then you should store the leftovers in a resealable container or in a ziplock bag. When it's time to eat the leftovers again, try to allow the tagine to slowly thaw naturally, on the side, or in the fridge (overnight if you can). Reheat the vegetable tagine by slowly cooking it again on the stovetop, in the tagine pot.

Vegetable tagine takeaway

Our mouthwatering Moroccan vegetable stew is a delicious mix of healthy vegetables that are slow-cooked to tender perfection. With the perfect spices and plenty of patience, you can bring the delicious flavors of Morocco back home! Why not bookmark our vegetarian tagine recipes for later?