Vegetable Tagine

With a fridge full of random ingredients from various different meals, I decided to create my own version of a vegetable tagine. I hate letting anything go to waste (mainly because I’m poor!), so creating my own recipes with left over ingredients is a great way to save money and hopefully end up with something tasty for dinner.

It’s a very simple and cheap recipe as it doesn’t contain any meat, and helps you on your way to 5 a day! I’ve never been to Morocco (it’s on my very long list of places I’d like to visit), but I doubt this recipe is particularly authentic, but it does taste goooood!

Serves 4 hungry people:

Half a butternut squash

2 red onions

1 red pepper

1 carrot

2 parsnips

8 dried apricots

4 cloves garlic

2cm piece of ginger

1 tsp light muscovado sugar

1 tbsp harissa paste

1 tbsp tomato paste

3 tsp paprika

3 tsp cumin

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tins chopped tomato

Chopped mint to serve

Method:

1.       Put the chopped vegetables into a roasting tray and sprinkle on 1 tsp of paprika. Drizzle with oil and put into a pre-heated oven for 45 minutes. Check on them every 15 minutes to make sure they’re not sticking to the tin.
2.       Fry the ginger and garlic for 1 minute, then add the spices and fry for a further minute. Add the chopped tomatoes, sugar, harissa and tomato paste and bring to a light simmer. Leave on the hob on a low heat to allow the sauce to thicken. If it gets too thick add a little vegetable stock to loosen it up.
3.       Add the apricots to the sauce for the final 5 minutes, then add the cooked vegetables and coat thoroughly with the sauce. Serve with couscous and top with the chopped mint.

Veggies roasting:

Tagine & couscous: