Speedy Moroccan Chickpea Stew with Apricots
A vegan Moroccan chickpea stew that’s speedy enough for weeknights, with all the exotic flavour of a tagine.
It’s January, and it’s not even doing anything exciting like snowing here in York. The Christmas chocolate is running out and your summer holiday is a long way away. Maybe I can cheer you up with a healthy, filling and inexpensive bowl of Summer sunshine.
This quick vegan skillet meal isn’t an authentic Moroccan dish, it’s my weekday version of a tagine. A tagine is cooked slowly in a traditional dish – you can find my own version here. This meal is cooked in just 30 minutes. This cooking time is long enough for the vegetables to soften and the apricots to melt deliciously throughout the sauce, but not so long the kids have started gnawing on the furniture.
Don’t go looking for chunks of apricot in the finished dish. You will most definitely taste them, but they tend to semi dissolve in the sauce, becoming little hidden points of sweetness. This dish has been designed as a vegetarian main course, but if you must have meat you could serve it as an accompaniment to a lamb kebab.
Cooking Notes
I often use ready chopped dried apricots. If you don’t have these available try popping some dried apricots in the blender or chopping them with scissors. You can add the leftovers to porridge – or just eat them. My two year old scoffed a couple of handfuls while this meal was cooking.
If you want to be authentic serve this Moroccan chickpea stew with a North African style flatbread or couscous. However, rice or pasta would serve just as well if that’s what you have in. If you don’t have ground cloves or allspice it will still taste yummy. If you can’t get hold of peppers or courgettes, mushrooms or frozen peas would make a good sub as they don’t need peeling.
Moroccan Chickpea Stew – Step By Step
Chop the peppers into chunks and the courgette/zucchini into quarter-slices. Chop the onion.
Chop the apricots straight into a measuring cup with scissors if needed. You could buy ready chopped or use a blender if you prefer.
Begin sauteeing the veg. You can measure out the spices while you do it.
Add the spices to the sauteed veg and apricots.
Stir in the chickpeas and tinned tomatoes and simmer.
Ready to eat! Grab your flatbreads or couscous!
Originally published 19 Jan 2017, updated with photos added 7 July 2018
A quick Vegan tagine style dish
- 1 courgette/zucchini
- 2 peppers
- 1 onion
- 1/4 cup dried apricots 10 teaspoons
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1 generous pinch allspice
- 1 generous pinch cinnamon
- 1 generous pinch ground cloves
- 1 small pinch extra hot chilli powder
- 2 cans chopped tomatoes 200g or 14oz cans
- 2 cans chickpeas 200g or 14oz cans
Dice the onion and chop the peppers.
Cut the courgette into chunks by quartering lengthways then slicing.
If necessary chop the apricots.
Allow to soften for a couple of minutes then stir in the apricots and spices.
Add the tinned tomatoes and chickpeas and simmer until you are ready to serve.
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