Make this vegan tajine

As anyone who admits to eating escargot knows, an elegant name transforms pedestrian food. It’s why “Champagne” is more appetizing than “rotten grape juice” and “tea time” is more socially acceptable than “afternoon Oreo bingeing.” So when my favorite carnivores (that is, my husband and three kiddos) rolled their eyes at the concept of a meatless autumn stew, I knew I didn’t need better ingredients. I needed better marketing.

Tajine (tah-zheen) is a Moroccan stew cooked and served in a two-piece, earthenware dish which, conveniently, is also called a tajine. Traditional touajen (the fancy plural form of tajine) are slow-cooked kaleidoscopes of meat or fish, vegetables, fruit and spices that warm all the senses. Hoping a vegetarian stew by another name would soften the hearts of my meat-loving family members, I visited Baida Moroccan Restaurant on South Grand Boulevard to learn the secrets of tajine cuisine.

Chef-owner Assia Meskine and her husband and co-owner, Abder Meskine, explained how the tajine’s conical lid is designed to return moisture to the meat in their best-selling chicken and lamb stews. The lid shape also enhances the flavors in their vegan tajine, which is made with generous hunks of zucchini, butternut squash, green peas, garbanzo beans, tomatoes and spices. As an aside, Abder mentioned that Moroccans historically called vegetarian touajen “Berber touajen” after the Berber people, who often couldn’t afford meat for their meals. This gave me pause – another reminder that on my side of the world, a plant-based diet is a privilege, not an economic necessity.

For my own vegetarian tajine, Assia advised cutting the vegetables into large chunks, so their texture didn’t disintegrate as they roasted in the tajine. She also suggested sauteing the vegetables in a skillet before roasting, since a clay pot will crack if it’s placed on a stovetop burner without a heat diffuser. The vessel can also crack if it’s placed in a preheated oven, so turn on the heat after the tajine is inside. In other words, this is the one time you can haphazardly chop your veggies, forget to turn on the oven and still do everything right.

I sauteed halved shallots and chunks of bell peppers with garlic and ginger, seasoning them with paprika, cayenne pepper and my new favorite spice mix, ras al-hanout. It’s a North African spice blend that smells like mulled cider on a sharp winter night. If you don’t want to buy a spice just for this recipe, you can approximate with dashes of ground cinnamon, cumin and cloves. I poured the mixture into my tajine, added sweet potato and roasted the whole shebang. After 30 minutes, the shallots and peppers were roasted to al dente perfection, but my sweet potatoes were still hard as rocks. Assia suggested parboiling the potatoes for 10 minutes before adding them to the tajine, but I found that microwaving them in a little vegetable broth achieved the same result with less effort and more flavor.

In the end, my tajine was more than a meatless stew. It was a colorful, spicy-sweet and filling international experience.

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Ready to board the Marrakesh Express to Moroccan cuisine? These will get you started.

11-inch terra-cotta tajine
$20. World Market, 24 Brentwood Promenade Court, Brentwood, 314.918.7800; 238 THF Blvd., Chesterfield, 636.728.0011, worldmarket.com

Ras al-hanout spice mix
$3. Global Foods Market, 421 N. Kirkwood Road, Kirkwood, 314.835.1112, globalfoodsmarket.com

Sweet Potato Tajine

8 servings

1 lb. sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1½ cups vegetable broth, divided
2 Tbsp. ghee or olive oil
6 small shallots, peeled and halved crosswise
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks
2 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. grated ginger
2 Tbsp. honey or brown sugar
2 tsp. ras al-hanout
1 tsp. turmeric
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
¼ tsp. kosher salt
¼ tsp. paprika
1 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes, drained
1 15-oz. can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
½ cup pomegranate seeds
2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro
4 cups prepared couscous

• Remove enough oven racks to make room for the covered tajine.
• Place the sweet potato chunks in a microwave-safe dish with ¼ cup vegetable broth. Cover and microwave on high until the potatoes begin to soften, approximately 4 minutes. Set aside.
• Melt the ghee in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and saute 1 minute. Add the bell peppers and saute 4 minutes, until the shallots and peppers start to brown. Lower the heat to medium, add the garlic and ginger and saute another 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add the honey, ras al-hanout, turmeric, cayenne pepper, salt and paprika, stirring to coat the vegetables evenly.
• Pour the vegetable mixture and any pan drippings into an 11-inch tajine base. Layer the sweet potato chunks on top of the vegetables, followed by the tomatoes and garbanzo beans. Pour the remaining 1¼ cups vegetable broth over the top. Place the tajine lid on the base and slide the dish into the cold oven.
• Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Bake until the shallots and sweet potatoes are fork-tender, about 30 minutes.
• Serve in the tajine, garnished with pomegranate seeds and cilantro. Serve with prepared couscous on the side.