Dehydrated Vegetarian Tagine Recipe

This Moroccan vegetarian tagine was a top seller when I was in the business of making dehydrated meals for sale. The food business is on hold [presently] but I don’t want to deprive you, because this veggie tagine rocks! I’m delighted to share the recipe so you can make it on your own. The dehydrating part is optional – the recipe in itself makes a superb vegetarian main dish to serve anywhere, anytime.

This tagine is a bit of a labour love, mainly due to the amount of vegetable chopping involved – just get into the rhythm and treat it as a form of relaxation. The result is a veggie-packed bowl of deliciousness. Just add some instant couscous on the side for a complete meal. (Find more quick cooking grains in my guide to wild camping food.)

Quick origin story

A version of this tagine was made for me by my dear friend Gloria many years ago at her home in the Wye Valley (pictured above with young Lucky dog). Gloria was a fount of knowledge on all things veggie food. This special number was based on Dennis Cotter’s recipe, which he originally called a “thingy, chickpea and whatsit tagine”. You can pretty much put any veggies you like in it – I often add kale or green beans. He added okra which I’ve omitted here – it’s not widely available in these parts and I’m not sure how well it would dehydrate / rehydrate. (If you find out, let me know!)

She served the tagine with a fragrant couscous with toasted almonds – I made a spiralled beetroot salad on the side. The salad wouldn’t travel well but the couscous would.

Now let’s get down to business with the recipe!

Dehydrated Vegetarian Tagine

• Makes 6 servings. Feel free to scale up / down to suit your energy needs.
• Nutrition info per serving: 435 kCal | 10g fat | 70g carbs | 22g protein

Ingredients

• 400 g butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cubed
• 4 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for tossing and cooking
• 200 g courgettes, halved lengthways and thickly sliced
• 1 large red onion, halved and thickly sliced
• 4 cloves of garlic sliced
• 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 6 green cardamom pods, seeds only, lightly crushed
• 400 g tin of chopped tomatoes, juice included
• 200 ml vegetable stock
• 2 oranges, rind only cut in large strips
• 10 dried apricots thickly sliced
• 400 g tin of cooked chickpeas, drained
• 2 fresh green chillies, deseeded and thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
• Garnish ideas: Fresh lemon, fresh parsley and/or coriander, toasted almonds, greek yoghurt, fresh chillies

At home:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F.
2. In a large roasting dish, toss the squash in a little olive oil and roast in the oven for 30 minutes. After 15 minutes, give the squash a stir, add the courgettes, and roast for another 15 minutes.
3. Heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot / casserole dish. Sauté the onion for 5 minutes over medium heat until soft. Add the garlic, chillies and spices and cook for another couple minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juice, the stock, orange rind, dried apricots and chickpeas. Bring to the boil, cover the pan and simmer for 40-50 minutes.
4. Remove the pan from the oven and stir in the chopped herbs and roasted vegetables.
5. Spread the tagine onto dehydrator trays lined with nonstick sheets or parchment paper. Dehydrate at 63C / 145F for 12-24 hours until totally dry. Vac pac or store in baggies until ready to use.

On the trail:

1. If you’re serving this with instant couscous – prep that first: boil water, pour over couscous, cover. Now prep everything else while the couscous hangs out…
2. Put your tagine in a pot and add water to cover. Bring water to boil.
3. Turn down heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes, until chickpeas are full rehydrated.
4. Add more water as necessary to achieve the desired consistency.
5. Serve with couscous or bread. Top with optional extras: yoghurt, squeeze of lemon juice, fresh parsley or coriander, toasted almonds, slices of fresh chilli.

make it a lamb tagine

We once had some leftover lamb kofta that we crumbled up and added to this vegetarian tagine, giving extra substance and flavour (if you like middle eastern lamb!). It dehydrated well, too. If you do this, note that lamb tends to be somewhat fatty so I wouldn’t recommend storing a dehydrated tagine with lamb for very long before using it (maybe a couple months).

Why don’t you want extra fat in your tagine? Fat doesn’t dehydrate well and can go rancid. Read my primer on how to make dehydrated camping food.

Other tagines to try

As I explain in my guide to making homemade dehydrated meals, many recipes can be adapted to the dehydrator. Just make sure you chop up the veggies finely enough and avoid excessively fatty ingredients or too much oil.

• Wonderful veg tagine with saffron and preserved lemons!
• How to cook the perfect vegetable tagine – Felicity Cloake includes olives which you may want to reserve from the cooking process and add on the trail (noting my comment on fat above)
• Aubergine, freakeh and cashew tagine – pack the roasted cashews separately