How to cook the perfect vegetable tagine | Felicity Cloake

How to make the most succulent vegetarian version of this quintessential Moroccan stew

The idea of there being a single perfect formula for vegetable tagine is as absurd as there being just one way to make a good chicken casserole. A tagine is simply the name of the cooking pot in which the stews are traditionally made, rather than the name of a specific recipe (though these days, I’m assured, a saucepan or pressure cooker are more common in Moroccan homes).

And, as Nargisse Benkabbou explains in her book Casablanca, there are four popular styles, regardless of whether the main ingredient is goat, sardines or artichokes. These are mqualli cooked with olive oil, turmeric, ginger and saffron; mhammer made with butter, cumin and paprika; mchermel cooked with chermoula, a zingy herb paste; and one made with tomato, cumin and paprika. Each, Benkabbou says, “can be customised with seasonal vegetables, dried fruit, preserved lemons, olives and nuts”.

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