Recipe: Stewed Root Vegetables with Moroccan Spices
To make this into an even more substantial one-dish meal, you could add cooked or sprouted garbanzo beans to the stew, and serve it in generous bowls over couscous.
1 lb. turnips (450 g.)
8 oz. parsnips (225 g.)
8 oz. carrots (225 g.)
8 oz. yellow potatoes (225 g.)
1 medium butternut or kabocha squash, 1½ lbs. whole, 1 lb. pieces (450 g.)
1 lb. green tomatoes (450 g.) or 12 oz. tomatillos (350 g.)
1 large fennel bulb (280 g.)
1 Tbs. cumin seed
2 large yellow onions (450 g.)
3 large cloves garlic
3 Tbs. olive oil
1 tsp. turmeric
1½ tsp. cinnamon
1½ tsp. salt, more to taste
¼ tsp. cayenne
2/3 cup raisins (100 g.)
3 cups vegetable broth, more if needed (homemade or a good canned broth) (750 ml.)
1 or 2 fresh green chiles, seeded and chopped
2-3 Tbs. fresh lemon juice, more to taste
1 small bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped
garnish: Harrissa
Peel the turnips, parsnips and carrots, and scrub the potatoes. Cut the squash in half, scrape out the seeds and strings, and cut away the skin.
Cut all the vegetables into pieces of a similar size - cubes of about an inch for the squash and turnips, thick slices or short chunks for the carrots and parsnips. If you have fingerling potatoes, cut each one into two or three pieces, or leave tiny ones whole. Wash and trim the fennel bulb, quarter it lengthwise and slice it thickly. Cut the green tomatoes into wedges, and cut large wedges in half crosswise. If using tomatillos, peel off their husks and cut them in half or in quarters if they are large.
Toast the cumin seed lightly in a pan, until it releases its fragrance, and grind it roughly in a mortar or a spice grinder.
Coarsely chop the onions and the garlic. Heat the olive oil in a large, deep sauté pan or Dutch oven and add the chopped onion, stirring over medium heat for about ten minutes or until it softens and begins to color. Add the garlic and sauté for a few minutes more. Add the cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, salt and cayenne, and stir over heat for another minute, just long enough to warm the spices.
Add all the prepared vegetables and stir them around in the pan until they are evenly coated with the spice mixture. Stir in the raisins, vegetable broth and chopped green chiles.
From this point, the stew can be finished on the stovetop or in the oven. To stay on the stovetop, lower the heat to a simmer and cover the pan. Leave the vegetables simmering for about forty-five minutes to an hour, stirring and checking the liquid a few times.
The oven method is even easier: if you’re working with a sauté pan, transfer the stew to a large, covered baking dish, such as a Dutch oven or a big casserole, and put it into a 350˚ oven for an hour to an hour and a half, until the vegetables are tender and the liquid thickened. If your baking dish is tightly covered, you don’t even need to check and stir – the stew will simmer gently, flavors will marry, and it will be delicious.
When everything is tender, stir in a little lemon juice, taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt if needed. Add a little more broth or some water if the mixture seems at all dry. There should be a rich broth around the vegetables, lightly thickened with the squash, which begins to soften and come apart at this stage.
Add the cilantro leaves just before serving, and ladle the stew over couscous or rice. Pass the Harrissa at the table – and warn novices that a small dab might do.
Serves 6-7.
Page 4 of 4
