Vegetable tagine

Some of our Food Ambassadors cooked this delicious tagine for a LEAP training lunch for 60 staff members. It’s a great one because you can basically throw in whatever veg you have, and change it to what is in season. We served it with a giant couscous salad and healthy coleslaw.

Would also go well with this: http://healthylivingplatform.org/project/butterbean-lemon-and-mint-dip

Ingredients

• 700 grams of 3 or 4 different vegetables such as carrots, squash, sweet potatoes or parsnips
• 100 grams of greens such as kale or spinach, chopped
• 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion
• 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
• 1 tin of chickpeas
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 70 grams of dried apricots cut into strips
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated
• 1 teaspoon of ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
• ½ a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 teaspoons of low-salt vegetable stock
• Half a bunch of herbs, such as dill, mint, parsley or coriander (or a mixture)
• Pinch of black pepper
• 50g of flaked almonds

Instructions

1. Put stock in a jug and cover with 300 millilitres of boiling water.
2. Place the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook for 5 minutes. Add all the dried spices and cook for a further 2 minutes.
3. Add stock and chopped tomatoes and cook over a low heat.
4. Meanwhile chop your vegetables into 2cm chunks or cubes and add these to the saucepan. (Do not add the spinach at this stage)
5. Drain the chickpeas and add these. Add the chopped apricots.
6. Bring to the boil, cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer for approximately 30 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked.
7. When the tagine is almost done, add the spinach and cook for a further 5 minutes. Stir through the lemon juice.
8. Whilst the tagine is cooking, roughly chop the herbs.
9. Serve with couscous or flat breads, and sprinkle over chopped herbs and flaked almonds (if using).