Food and Recipes
Chick Pea and Vegetable Tajine
By Melanie Gulliver
When time is short but you want to serve up a delicious healthy meal then you can never go wrong with a ‘tray bake’- a one tray, throw-it-all-in, bake in the oven, dish. Not only are you free to go do other things while it is cooking, but you only have one pot to wash up as well.
There are many tray bake recipes on offer on the internet but one of my favourites, and a very traditional one, is a Moroccan tagine.
If you go to Morocco you will see small triangular shaped clay tagines at pretty much every restaurant- there they are often cooked over hot coals for several hours. You can reserve your tagine in advance while it is cooking, and the restaurant owner will put a tomato on the top of the tagine to show it is reserved.
I like to make my tagine in the oven but a slow cooker can also be used.
A tagine will usually mix savoury and sweet ingredients and some people find that combination strange, but I find it totally delicious. Feel free to play with the vegetables too- I think a nice mix of colours is necessary though!
I have used the classic mix of Moroccan spices here – Ras el hanout - which you can find in any supermarket or spice store - I was told that it is also known as ‘The Lazy Housewife’s Mix’!
It certainly gives any Moroccan dish a wonderful flavour without being spicy hot. Contrary to popular belief, Moroccan food does not use chili traditionally- you can add some chili flakes at the end of cooking to your plate of food if you wish to spice up your tagine a little more.
Other traditional Moroccan tagine recipes are;
Chicken with Preserved Lemons and Olives
Lamb or Beef with Prunes
Chicken and Apricot
Chicken, Lamb or Beef with Peas and Artichokes
Shrimp in Tomato Sauce
Fish, Chermoula and Vegetable Tagine (another favourite of mine)
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Melanie Gulliver is the Clever Chef and a Director of The Clever Kitchen, a local company delivering organic nutritious wholefood meals to Monaco and along the Cote d'Azur, and holding regular nutrition workshops in Monaco and Nice. Melanie takes orders for custom cakes and events as well.
Contact details:
Melanie@theclever.kitchen, +33 (0)6 15 21 63 53
FB: facebook.com/thecleverkitchen1
Instagram: @tck.delivery and @thecleverkitchen
**For the next two weeks Melanie will be making her detox deliveries on May 13th to 17th, and June 3rd to 7th. For any further details, do not hesitate to email or telephone her.