Wood Fired Winter Vegetable Tagine
A delicious vegetable tagine from the wood fired oven – full of warming flavours and colours. We’ve used plenty of Winter veggies but you can ring the changes to add whatever you have available. The veggie version only takes about 40 minutes so you can rustle it up much quicker than a lamb or chicken version; an added bonus is that it’s not just vegetarian but vegan as well.
Do give it a go – you can check it out on our youtube channel here. Serves 6-8.
Wood Fired Winter Vegetable Tagine – Ingredients
Tagine –
1 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
5cm piece root ginger, peeled and chopped
3tbsp olive oil
1tsp each ground coriander, cumin and cinnamon
1tbsp harissa paste
1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into 2cm chunks
2 medium carrots, peeled and very finely chopped
1 small squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into 2cm chunks; we used half a medium squash and used the rest for something else
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into 2cm chunks
1 tin chopped tomatoes (400g)
300ml vegetable stock
1 tin chickpeas, drained
Salt and pepper
Cous Cous –
180g dried cous cous
1 large orange – finely grated zest, segments and orange juice
1 small red onion, peeled and finely chopped
60g dried apricots, dried and rehydrated if necessary, chopped
1 large ripe tomato, chopped
50g peppadew peppers, drained and chopped
Large handful fresh parsley, finely chopped
3tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 heaped tbsp crispy onion rings – bought or home cooked
Wood Fired Winter Vegetable Tagine – Oven State etc
200C or thereabouts – 5 Mississippi
A couple of small dampish logs, split lengthways
Pot for cooking the tagine – we used our Spanish ceramic pot with a lid on which is fine for these low temperatures
Wood Fired Winter Vegetable Tagine – Method
Tagine –
1. Put the oil with the onion, garlic and ginger into the pot and cook them in the oven until they start to soften and sizzle. Add the damp logs to the embers to create some smoke to flavour the onions. Leave the door ajar so the smoke can escape up the flue.
2. Stir in the dried spices and harissa and cook them for another minute. Season well with salt and pepper.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes, vegetable stock and all the rest of the chopped veggies. Put the lid on the pot and put it in the oven for 20 minutes with the door slightly shut.
4. Add the chickpeas and stir everything together. Put the pot with the lid on back in the oven with the door shut for another 20 minutes or until the veggies are tender and the chickpeas are heated through.
Cous cous –
1. Put the cous cous in a large bowl with a good pinch of salt and pepper and add one and a half times its volume of warm water. Stir well and let the cous cous absorb the water. Fluff it through with a fork when it’s ready.
2. Str in the chopped onion, peppadews, apricots, orange zest, juice & segments, tomato and finely chopped parsley. Season well and pile the cours cous into a serving bowl.
3. When the tagine is cooked and the veggies are tender, spoon it over the cous cous. Sprinkle over the crispy onion rings and drizzle over a little more oil. Serve at once.
Wood Fired Winter Vegetable Tagine – Wine Suggestion
Thanks so much to Suzie of Michael Sutton’s Cellar for suggesting an aromatic viognier like Hand-Picked Viognier from Franschhoek, South Africa to go with the tagine. Perfect!
Wood Fired Winter Vegetable Tagine – Alternatives
Change the veggies you use – root vegetables all work well – parsnips, swede, beetroot, potatoes etc – but may take a little longer to cook
Vary the squash you use.
add an extra veggie by stirring through a handful of spinach leaves at the end to wilt in the heat of the tagine.
Add some fruit to the tagine – raisins or apricots or figs.
Add some different herbs to the cous cous – mint and coriander are both super zingy.
Increase the amount of harissa if you’d like it more spicey or add some fresh chopped chillies.
Add some toasted seeds to the cous cous – pupkin and sunflower seeds both are delicious
Happy cooking and see you next time
David and Holly