Mum's Vegetarian Tagine

I should make it clear from the start, I am not North African and neither is my mum. We were both born and raised in the UK. However, my mum has been vegetarian since her early childhood and, as anyone who was also vegetarian during the 1970s knows, you had to look far and wide to be able to sustain such a dietary choice. Thanks to this necessity, my mum looked to cuisines outside of the UK and Europe, and developed a repository of vegetarian recipes that are still some of my favourite meals to this day! This beautiful dish is one of them, and I hope my North African friends allow any non-authentic deviations. It is designed to be cooked easily and quickly on a weeknight, but the authenticity can be easily enhanced by the addition of some classic North African ingredients, including preserved lemons and dates, or by cooking in a tagine rather than a casserole pan.

1 onion

5 garlic cloves

1 pepper

3 carrots

1 parsnip

1 sweet potato

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tin of tomatoes

1 tin of chickpeas

1 tsp vegetable stock

1 tsp tamarind

6 dried apricots

1 tbsp ground almonds

5 black olives

1 lemon

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C/355°F.

2. Heat a splash of olive oil in a casserole pan over medium heat, then add the diced onion and cook for five to ten minutes until they begin to go translucent. Crush the garlic, add to the pan and cook for a further ten minutes.

3. Meanwhile, roughly chop the carrot and parsnip and add to a pot of cold water. Bring the water to a boil, and cook for ten minutes. Roughly chop both potatoes, and add to the other root vegetables. Continue to cook for five minutes.

4. Add the dried spices to the cooked onion and garlic, cook for a couple of minutes until aromatic, then add the tomatoes, chickpeas and cooked root vegetables. Stir until everything is well incorporated in the spices and tomatoes.

5. Add enough water to the pan to just cover the vegetables, then add the vegetable stock. Finely slice the dried apricots and olives, and throw into the pan with the ground almonds. Give everything a good stir, put the lid on, and slide into the oven for 20 minutes.

6. Remove the pan from the oven. Cut the lemon into quarters, squeezing two quarters into the tagine, then placing the other two quarters whole into it. Replace the lid and cook in the oven for a further ten minutes.

7. Remove from the oven and allow to stand without a lid for ten minutes. Serve with couscous, harissa yoghurt and plenty of pickled/fermented vegetables.