This Moroccan butternut squash and sweet potato tagine makes for a nutritious meatless meal! Make it any night of the week for a vegetarian staple!
This hearty vegetarian (and vegan) dish is jam packed with warm flavors! It is gluten-free, dairy-free, full of plant-based protein, and is pleasing for the whole family!
Have you ever cooked a meal in a Tagine? It was new to me until recently, too!
What is a Tagine?:
Tagine is both a style of food and a cooking tool that originates from North Africa. Moroccan and Tunisian cuisine is tagine-centric. The dish, was named after the instrument in which the food is prepared.
A tagine comprises a sauté pan with a wonderfully shaped hat, traditionally used to slow cook meat and vegetable dishes at low temperatures.
You can put the tagine in the oven or use it on the stove top. It’s wildly cool; beautiful billows of steam form while your food cooks and the hat used to cover the pan creates a sort of spa for your food.
This vegan dinner recipe is comprised of butternut squash, sweet potato, onion, chickpeas, and an array of warm spices. This aromatic dish makes your home smell amazing during the cooking process!
Once the vegetables and spices are stewed together, the result is a hearty, rich meal that is filling, comforting, and pleasing to the belly.
Can I Use a Skillet?:
While I am exuberant about the tagine as a cooking implement, you do not need one in order to make this dish – A large sauté pan or wok with a cover will work too.
I adapted this recipe from Katherine Martinelli’s blog and thought I would end up changing a lot more of the recipe than I did.
Specifically, I was worried about the cinnamon and the dried apricots but they truly add a nice warmth without being super distinguishable. I was very happy with the recipe, that Katherine did a great job! Moroccan Butternut Squash & Sweet Potato Tagine will forever be one of my favorites!
More Healthy Vegetarian Dinner Recipes:
- Moroccan Spiced Beet Veggie Burgers
- Jamaican Chickpea Stew
- Quick and Easy Chana Saag
- 30-Minute Thai Green Curry with Avocado
My cookbook, Paleo Power Bowls, is now available! CLICK HERE to check it out. Thank you for your support!
If you make this recipe, please feel free to share a photo and tag @The.Roasted.Root on Instagram!
Moroccan Butternut Squash & Sweet Potato Tagine
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp avocado oil
- 1 medium-sized yellow onion diced
- 1 medium-sized sweet potato chopped into 1/2” cubes (2 cups)
- ½ medium butternut squash peeled and chopped into ½” cubes (3 cups)
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- ¾ cup vegetable broth separated
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 cup dried apricots chopped
- 1 can garbanzo beans drained
- 1 cup brown rice uncooked
- 2 cups water
- ½ cup chopped cilantro optional
Instructions
- Start by preparing your rice, as it takes longer than the vegetables. Follow instructions on the package of rice.
- Add oil to a tagine or skillet and heat to medium-high.
- Sauté onion and sweet potato for 3 minutes. Add butternut squash, stir.
- Add ¼ cup vegetable broth, all the spices and salt, stir, cover tagine and cook 5 minutes
- Remove the cover, add remaining vegetable broth, garbanzo beans, lemon juice and dried apricots.
- Continue to cook 5 to 8 minutes until butternut squash and sweet potato are soft but not mushy.
Notes
Nutrition
I am so so glad that you liked the recipe! I know, the cinnamon and apricots can sound off putting but I’m happy you gave it a shot and enjoyed it 🙂 Thanks for the shout out!
I absolutely loved it and thank you for such a wonderful recipe!! I did some research on Moroccan style versus Tunisian style tagines and looks like they use dried fruit quite a bit in their dishes. I think the apricots added a ton of character to the dish and really loved it! I ate the leftovers for like 4 meals in a row!!
@Julia, love our local Moroccan restaurant . The combo of sweet and spicy . I m goi g to try this this weekend ! Love all your recipes
wow this sounds fantastic!! I’m so interested in the tagine now, I always thought it would take forever to cook in one of those but this looks quick and easy. And gorgeous photos btw, high five!
Go for it girl! Go for the tagine glory! You really don’t have to own a tagine to make the dish…the basic idea is to cover it and let the veggies steam, but I gotta tell you, using the tagine makes you feel so exotic, like you really understand the culture of the dish (which I really don’t, but we can pretend 😉 Lots of fun and let me know if you try it!
What a delicious-sounding combo of spices for the butternut! Gorgeous photos too! 🙂
Why thank you, Jen! Katherine did a phenomenal job with the recipe, so I have much credit to send her way! 🙂
This looks delicious, and so, so perfect for fall! I love everything in this!
Oh my, this sounds so good! I can’t get enough of squash and sweet potatoes this time of year so this is calling me!
Discovered the tagine on my honeymoon to Spain, although my husband was well aware of how awesome they are after living in Morroco for a year. Happy to find this recipe and can’t wait to dust mine off, it’s been a long time since I’ve used it!
Wow! This was delicious! Everything blended together and the taste was not the sum of the total, but unique and memorable. Only change I made was to substitute raisins and cranberries for the apricots. 5 stars!
Question: Was I supposed to crush the coriander seeds? They were hard and bitter to chew.
So glad you made it, Joyce! I used ground corriander, not corriander seeds – my apologies, I should have specified “ground” in my recipe! Making that change now! xoxo
This sounds lovely Julia, how many people is the recipe for? Thank you!
Hi Lila,
The recipe serves 4 to 5. Hope you enjoy! 😀
Very easy and delicious recipe!! Will definitely be making again. Any brits who are looking at this I converted the 1 cup of sweet potatoe to 200g, 1/2 cut of butternut squash to 100g and 1 cup apricots to 200g. With the vegetable broth I just used vegetable stock cube and added around 300-400ml altogether but just added it by eye.
Thank you so much for the conversions, Amy! I’m so glad you enjoy the recipe! xo
Haven’t tried substitute vessels for ravines. All I know is that food cooked in one seems to be flavorful with just the right degree of moistness. .
It’s not 2:01 am here it’s 5:01 am and I meant takings not ravines.?
My roommate and I tried this tonight.
Even with the slight changes I made it was AMAZING !!!
I used butter beans instead of garbanzo and made extra spice mix & cooking liquid so I could roast some chicken pieces to add to the mix. It really made for a full non vegetarian meal. Thank you for the recipe it’s going in my regular rotation and I can’t wait for next Tuesday when we have company. They are going to love this !!!!!!!
I’m so happy you and your roommate enjoy it, Logan! I love the idea of using butter beans…I’ll try this next time I make it! Many thanks for the sweet note! xoxo
When the recipe calls for 2 cups of water, was that supposed to be added into the meal, or was that for the rice?
Hi Meghan, the water is used to cook the rice and vegetables 🙂
Delicious! Made this for Meatless Monday with a large amount left over. Second day I browned 1# of ground turkey, seasoned with 1/2 of the amount of seasonings for original recipe and added 1qt of vegetable broth along with the leftover vegetable bean mixture. My husband RAVED! It was a winner “leftovers” night.
I’m so thrilled to hear you guys enjoyed it! I love the idea of incorporating ground turkey too…sounds amazing!
Thanks, Good recipe, pretty easy, but not as quick as advertised !
Ingredient-wise, next time I will use fresh ginger, I will use the suggested tsp of salt (which I reduced first time), and I will add ground pepper.
I just wonder, really, 10 minute prep time??? Can someone please tell me how to peel and cube a b-nut squash, peel & chop an onion, clean & cube a good sized sweet potato, chop a cup of dried apricots, rinse rice ’til clear and get it started (babysitting the pot for boiling water twice), find and measure out 8 spices, clean, spin, trim, and chop 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, all in only 10 minutes??
For me, the b-nut squash alone took 10 full minutes. The whole prep was easily more like 40 minutes, and so total time was over an hour.
Made this today…. Didn’t have dried apricots but added a couple of tablespoons of apricot jam….. utterly yummy! The two of us ate the four portions!
I love the idea of using apricot jam! Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
I’m going to try this tonight. I know this would take away from the Tagine affect, but I am wonder how this would be roasted (sheet pan style)
Hi Susan! You could definitely try roasting! I would toss everything but the apricots and rice together in a large bowl, omitting the water. I would also add another 2 tablespoons of avocado oil or olive oil (for a total of 1/4 cup, up to 1/3 cup). I’d roast at 400 degrees F on two sheet pans for 25 to 30 minutes or until everything is cooked through. Once everything is roasted, then you can toss in the dried apricots and serve with rice. My one cautionary note would be that the vegetables will turn out similarly to standard roasted vegetables and will be dry versus moist. If you’re fine with that, I’d say go for it!
Do you think this can be made in a slow cooker?
Hi Amy! I think so! I would try 1 to 2 hours on high heat and see where that lands me. I would chop the vegetables into larger chunks so they don’t get too overcooked or mushy. Hope you enjoy!
Did you mean to say cooked brown rice instead of uncooked brown rice in the recipe?
Hi there! It’s one cup of uncooked (dry brown rice) 🙂 In Step One, you cook the brown rice – you can use the instructions on the package if you’d like, as some rices require varying cooking times. Hope this helps! xo
I have made this many times. I always use more broth than the recipe calls. I usually make cous cous instead of rice. Tasty vegan dish that non vegetarians enjoy.
Thanks so much for sharing this, Sharon! Couscous sounds like a delicious pairing and I always love the idea of more sauce. Appreciate you following up with your feedback!
This has become one of my all time favorite recipes. My ultimate comfort food!!! I bought a tagine pot just for this! My daughter even asked to take some to school for lunch today! Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe! I often substitute quinoa for the brown rice which cooks up quicker and if I’m not mistaken is higher in protein and several other nutrients. Thank you again!
My pleasure, Tami! I’m so happy to hear you and your daughter enjoy the recipe! I love the idea of enjoying it with quinoa too. Thanks so much for sharing your experience! xo