After a trip to Morocco, I had tagines on the brain. Not because they are packed full of tasty ingredients, but because my travelling companion kept referring to them as tangines. I thought she was having a laugh and played along with it, but she really did think they were called tangines. I digress…
As the husband doesn’t eat meat, a lovely piece of tender lamb cooked in a funny shaped pot was out of the question. However, flicking through the pages of the very trusty Complete Vegetarian, I happened across a rather nice recipe for an aubergine and chickpea tagine, which, although not very authentic in the way it’s cooked, still delivers on flavour.
This recipe is based on the original, but with a few little tweaks, as I don’t salt aubergines, and the husband isn’t too keen on dried apricots in anything.
Ingredients:
- A few of glugs of olive oil
- 1 small aubergine cut into 1cm dice
- 2 courgettes thinly sliced
- 1 large onion slice
- 2 cloves of garlic chopped
- 1tbsp ground coriander
- 2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1tbsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp ground turmeric
- 225g new potatoes, quartered
- 600ml passata
- 1tbsp tomato puree
- 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- Fresh coriander to garnish
Method
- Put the aubergine and courgettes in a roasting tin, toss in a couple of glugs of olive oil and roast in the oven at gas mark 6 (or there abouts) until golden.
- Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in a large pan and add the onion and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes until softened, then add the spices and cook for a further minute.
- Add the potatoes and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add the passata, tomato puree and 2/3 cup of water, cover and cook for 10 minutes until the sauce thickens and the potatoes cook.
- Add the roasted aubergines, courgettes and drained chickpeas, stir and cook partially covered for 10-15 minutes. Add a little extra water if the tagine becomes too dry.
- Serve with fluffy couscous and garnish with chopped coriander.
The verdict from the toddler: ‘I don’t want that. Yuck!’
The verdict from the husband: ‘Can I have some more, please?’
gas mark 5 