Spiced Vegetable Tagine with Preserved Lemon

This full-flavoured tagine is a cost effective and healthy way of using an abundance of  vegetables.

I love the flavours in this super easy recipe. We are going to play around with our spices here, infusing the veggies with cumin, coriander, cinnamon and the popular (slightly spicy) ras-el-hanout which is an Arabic blend of over 12 spices.

You can find ras-el-hanout, harissa and preserved lemons easily enough from good deli’s and supermarkets.

This dish is suitable for freezing; in fact, freezing will intensify its flavour.

Super Quick Veggies: You can buy ready chopped mixed vegetables, try to find one with an interesting combination of colours and textures.

Seasonal Swaps: You can use ANY combination of veggies here, remember to cut root veggies into smallish chunks or batons to make sure they cook in 30min. I used courgettes, peppers, red onions, butternut, beans, peas and aubergines.

Getting Ahead: The dish will benefit from being made a day or two ahead.

I served this with some quinoa (or couscous) and a dollop harissa yogurt. For the harissa yogurt season 1 cup full thick yogurt of choice with salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon harissa.

• pinch saffron soaked in 500ml boiling water
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons ginger, grated
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 2 teaspoons coriander
• 2 teaspoons ras-el-hanout (see note)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 6 cups mixed veg cut into thick cubes (see note)
• 1 x 400g tin chickpeas (water and all)
• 1 preserved lemon, skin only, diced
• 100g (about 10) dried apricots, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup flaked almond, toasted
• 1 cup chopped (together) dill, coriander and mint

1. Toast your spices in a small frying pan until fragrant, remove from the heat. Remember not to use any oil, we are simply dry toasting the spices.
2. In a large lidded casserole heat the oil on a medium heat, add the garlic, ginger and tomato paste and gently heat for 3 minutes. Add the spices and fry for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
3. Add the saffron liquid and 1 teaspoon salt. Add the vegetables, tinned chickpeas and the liquid, preserved lemon and apricots. Bring the tagine to a gentle simmer and cook lidded until the root veggies are soft. Start checking the pot after 15 minutes. Remove and cool slightly. Season well with salt and pepper.
4. Add the herbs and flaked almonds. Serve with cooked and fluffed quinoa or couscous and a dollop of harissa yogurt on the side. Enjoy!