Moroccan Chickpea Tagine
I recently spent two weeks travelling around Morocco and I have to admit, before the trip I didn’t know a whole lot about Moroccan food.
A quick bit of research beforehand told me that as a vegan I’d probably be pretty safe with tagines and cous cous, so I figured I wouldn’t go hungry. Thankfully that prediction was very correct because I completely fell in love with tagines and ended up eating one or two almost every single day.
Because we were mostly travelling through smaller rural areas, the options were usually pretty simple – mainly vegetable tagine. They were always delicious, but it definitely got my brain ticking about all the other things you could add to a tagine. Chickpeas, beans, tofu, or even some plant-based meats would all work so well with those incredible Moroccan flavours.
So when I got home it only felt right to create my own version inspired by everything I ate on the trip.
Technically a tagine is actually the name of the cooking pot rather than the dish itself, so I won’t go as far as calling this an authentic tagine. Let’s call it tagine inspired instead.
What I love most about this kind of cooking is how simple ingredients can turn into something so flavourful. A few spices, aromatics and chickpeas and suddenly you’ve the most comforting dinner.
If you haven’t experimented much with Moroccan flavours before, definitely give this one a try. It’s a perfect midweek dinner serve up with some Moroccan cous cous or some warm bread to soak up the sauce.
It’s also great for batch cooking because the flavours get even better the next day. Honestly, this might be one of those meals you end up making on repeat.
Enjoy!
Key ingredients that make this Vegan tagine so special-
- Chickpeas- Ordinary tinned chickpeas will work fine in this dish but i highly recommend buying dried giant chickpeas, soaking and cooking them before using.
- Preserved lemon- Preserved lemons are salted, soft aged lemons that you can eat the rind of. The preserving makes the rind very soft and the sharp flavour of the lemon is softened. Preserved lemons have a much more complex flavour and to me are the star of the show of the flavour profile in this dish. They are available in most big supermarkets or online. Preserved lemons can also be made at home for a fraction of the price. Try not to skip adding these if you can.
- Green olives- I am not a huge olive fan but they really do belong in this dish. If you do not like big chunks of olives try to dice them up and appreciate the saltiness that they add to this dish. However if you really cannot eat them then feel free to omit.
- Saffron-Saffron is well known for being the most expensive luxury spice however only a small amount needs to be used in each dish to get the flavour- it is very strong. So its well worth buying some to pop in your cupboard for special occasions.
Moroccan Tagine Style Chickpeas
Ingredients
- 560 g Cooked chickpeas
- 1 Large onion diced
- 2 Garlic cloves minced
- 2 tbsp Tomato paste
- 1 Preserved lemon
- 10 Green olives
Spice Mix
- 1 tsp Paprika
- 1 tsp Cumin
- 1 tsp Black pepper
- 1 tsp Turmeric
- 1 tsp Saffron
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C
- Cut the preserved lemon in half and remove the seeds. Dice up really fine and set aside.
- Dice up half of the olives and slice the others to garnish the dish. Set these aside also.
- Add a glug of olive oil to the pan and fry off the dice onion until softened. Stir in the minced garlic.
- Now add in the diced preserved lemon, the spices, salt and tomato paste. Stir well on a low heat.
- If using jarred chickpeas add them in with their juice. If using tinned chickpeas drain them and add in with 200 ml of water.
- Now add the diced olives and stir to combine all of the ingredients.
- Pop the lid on and put into the oven for 1 hour.
- You’ll need to check in on the dish every 15-20 minutes to make sure its not drying out. If the chickpeas are looking a little dry add in water bit by bit to keep it moist and slightly saucy.
- After the hour has passed and you’ve checked that the chickpeas are soft and flavoursome take the dish out and serve up garnished with some lemon slices, chopped parsley and the sliced olives.
Notes
If you like this recipe why not take a look at some of my other chickpea recipes
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