Recipe #61: experimental chickpea kind-of tagine, but not tagine

 A good friend recently had a dinner party and served a delicious true tagine which inspired this experiment with leftover ingredients in the fridge and pantry. Allons-y!

Ingredients:

This was made on the fly with ingredients added as I went, so I don’t have my usual class photo of ingredients, but instead, a list:

- leftover canned chickpeas

- leftover canned tomatoes 

- a peeled and cubed sweet potato 

- a peeled and chopped carrot 

- 4-5 finely chopped garlic

- a chopped onion 

- chopped dried apricots 

- chopped prunes

- many spices: salt, ground cumin, ground coriander, ground cinnamon, turmeric, saffron, smoked paprika 

- olive oil

Directions:

Heat up a few gluts of olive oil in a soup pot and start frying the chopped onion:



Add the chopped garlic, stirring often, until golden, and maybe a little browned:


Add the chopped sweet potato:


And chopped carrot:


Keep stirring so nothing sticks or burns!

Add all those lovely spices:


Stir a minute or two until fragrant then add the almost-full-but-not-quite-full can of tomatoes and their juice:


Add enough water to cover everything, bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer to cook the vegetables:


Add the chopped dried fruits:



Add the almost-a-can-but-not-quite-a-full-can of drained chickpeas:



Stir everything together and let it simmer while preparing a nice side carb. Today I’m making slightly expired quinoa that has got to move before it’s ridiculously expired:


I’m cooking the quinoa in a big pot of water like pasta, following the instructions on the bag, which I believe I’ve shared in an earlier post:



Tasting as I go, because as I’ve mentioned, this is an experimental recipe as I go, I notice the flavour balance is a bit off and bland, so I bring in the usual suspects to remedy the situation:


Salt and (brown) sugar! What can’t these two ingredients fix?

Stirring every so often to prevent sticking and burning, and watching as the mixture thickens, waiting for the quinoa to finish cooking, the kitchen is filled with wonderful warm and spicy Moroccan smells and vibes…

And when it’s nicely thickened and the flavours melded, paired with the fluffy quinoa and all plated up:


With a side clementine, it’s a perfect cold weather meal!

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