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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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate and comment below!
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!
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 🙂
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.
I find this sort of timing an issue with all recipes. I think they time it from having all of the ingredients prepped in bowls – like on a cookery programme! Would be interested to know from Julia how she times herself.
Hi Max! I often put the timer on my cellphone on during the prep phase of a recipe. For recipes where ingredients go in a skillet/pot at different times, I prep as I go. For instance, while an onion is sautéing, I’m peeling/chopping other veggies. For recipes where everything goes in at the same time, I prepare all of the ingredients ahead of time 🙂 Let me know if you have any questions.
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!
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 🙂
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
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.?
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
This sounds lovely Julia, how many people is the recipe for? Thank you!
Hi Lila,
The recipe serves 4 to 5. Hope you enjoy! 😀
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
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!
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!
This looks delicious, and so, so perfect for fall! I love everything in this!
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! 🙂
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!
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