Here is featured Vanlifers Alex & Amy’s recipe for Moroccan Inspired Stew.
This is what they have to say. ‘Our favourite meal to make in the van is a butternut and chickpea stew, or as we like to call it – our No Tagine, Tagine. Inspired by all the flavours of the Moroccan dish and served with almond and coriander couscous. It takes a while to cook, and uses lot’s of different ingredients, but the end result is SO worth it. We usually batch cook and eat it for a couple of days afterwards; it’s even better the next day!’
Read their feature here!
Moroccan inspired stew
A delicious stew which is great for using up leftovers. Although it takes a while to cook, it's definitely worth it!
Equipment
- Tagine
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
- 1 Large Onion
- 4 Cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
- 1/2 tsp Ground Cumin
- 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp Ground Paprika
- 1/4 tsp Ground All Spice
- 1 tsp Fresh Ginger (finely chopped)
- 1 tsp Fresh Coriander (finely chopped)
- 1 fresh chilli
- 2 large tomatoes
- 1 Slice of lemon
- 1 tin of tomatoes
- 4 Cardamon Pods
- 3 Bay leaves
- 1/2 Butternut Squash
- 1 Medium / large potato (cubed)
- 1 Tin of chickpeas
- 1/4 cup Raisins
- 3 Chopped dates (can use date syrup instead)
- 1/4 cup Almonds
- 2 cup Fresh Spinach
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- Couscous to accompany
Instructions
- To make this a one-pot wonder you can cook the butternut and potatoes in the stew, but this can take a while so we prefer to bake in the oven for 25 mins to make sure they’re extra soft. Or parboil them for 5-8 mins if an oven isn’t available.
- Heat up the oil in a heavy-bottomed pot that you have a lid for.
- Add the chopped onion and fry on a low-medium heat until they turn almost translucent (8-10 minutes), stirring occasionally.
- Add the chopped garlic. Keep frying gently until the garlic softens completely (about 5 minutes).
- Stir in all of the ground spices as well as the fresh chilli, coriander and ginger. Fry them off on a low heat for a minute or two (stirring the whole time – if they burn they’ll taste bitter).
- Add the fresh tomatoes and squeeze the slice of lemon over the mixture. after a few minutes stir in the chopped tomatoes & 2 tins worth of water, also throw in the cardamom pods, bay leaves, raisins and salt. Cover and simmer, until the tomato chunks fall apart and become part of the sauce (about 45 minutes).
- Remove the lid and add the butternut, potato and chickpeas. Keep cooking the stew on low-medium heat to allow excess water to evaporate so that it thickens.
- Once the sauce thickens, taste it and season with black pepper, more salt if needed and add the chopped dates/date syrup.
- Chuck in the spinach and almond halves for the last 10 minutes and cover the pot with a lid to allow them to cook into the sauce.
- Serve over cooked couscous (which we make with a good shake of cinnamon and left over coriander almonds and raisins.
Nutrition
Calories: 285kcalCarbohydrates: 44gProtein: 6gFat: 12gSaturated Fat: 6gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 1gSodium: 29mgPotassium: 1094mgFiber: 8gSugar: 10gVitamin A: 12132IUVitamin C: 65mgCalcium: 138mgIron: 3mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Hi, these recipes look amazing! Question: What is the best cooking method for these longer recipes that require simmering for upto an hour? Gas? (just started looking into vanlife so not sure on a lot of things haha) I love cooking indian dals at home but I have an electric stove so never thought what it would be like to make outside of the house. Thanks a lot
Hi Jake, thanks for your comment. We use gas in our van and use it every day (although not for longer recipes all the time) Our 6kg bottle of gas lasts around 6 months. Most of the people that have added recipes to our site use gas also. We have seen people use induction hobs in their van too which could be an option with a good power supply :-) Hope that helps.