Saturday, February 13, 2010

Moroccan Vegetable and Chickpea Stew


When the weather is cold, like it is today we seem to crave soups and stews. My husband has always loved my Moroccan chickpea stew. Today I decided to make a version of that stew with added vegetables so that it would be a one dish meal with a salad. By adding a lot of veggies to the stew I have increased the nutrition. I added the vegetables at the end of cooking to minimize the nutrient loss. Here is the soup we had tonight for dinner.

Moroccan Vegetable and Chickpea Stew
Makes 8 large servings

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion, peeled and finely diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled, smashed and finely diced
1 cup water
28 ounces peeled diced tomatoes, no salt added
3 cups no salt added vegetable stock or water
2 cinnamon sticks
1 ½ teaspoons cumin seeds
1 ½ teaspoons coriander seeds
1 ½ teaspoons fennel seeds
1 pinch saffron threads
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
½ cup golden raisins
1 preserved lemon, rinsed and finely diced
8 cups frozen mixed vegetables (corn, peas, carrots and green beans)
3 ½ cups chickpeas, cooked without salt (equivalent of 2 – 15 ounce cans)

Accompaniments:

Quinoa, millet, or couscous – optional

Directions:

Water sauté the onion and garlic until tender. Add the tomatoes, vegetable stock, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, fennel seeds, saffron, paprika, raisins and preserved lemon and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the vegetables and chickpeas 5 – 10 minutes before serving. You only need to heat up the veggies and chickpeas.

Serve over a starch if desired. We had quinoa tonight with our stew.

Nutritional information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 477.7
Calories From Fat (8%) - 39.52

Total Fat - 4.87g
Saturated Fat - 0.73g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 1103.25mg
Potassium - 1546.43mg
Total Carbohydrates - 98.61g
Fiber - 28.35g
Sugar 12.12g
Protein - 23.41g

Comments:

This was another one of my food experiments. I was not certain what we would think of vegetables in this stew, but both Dan and I liked how this turned out. It is a very filling stew packed with fiber. We had this tonight with a baby spinach salad dressed with a little lemon juice, lemon zest, oregano and flax seed oil. Much to my surprise even my 80 year old father liked both the salad and the stew. I don’t think he is ready to eat vegan for every meal, but he has come a long way in his appreciation of vegan food. My mother is another story entirely. She would be happy to never have vegan food again. Too bad that isn’t going to happen unless she opts to not come over for dinner on the weekends any more.

Unrelated Note:

I made an interesting flax cracker with broccoli and onion that I need to post for you all soon. Both Dan and I thought they were quite good so I want to share.

This will probably be my last post for tonight. Dan and I normally watch a movie on Saturday night. We are such an old married couple. I will be back tomorrow with a recipe or two. I hope you are all having a great weekend.

10 comments:

  1. The stew sounds wonderful with the spices plus lemon and cinnamon.

    Great news that your Dad's opening up to the world of vegan food...

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  2. Yummy. That looks so comforting. So do you have a special menu planned tomorrow????

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  3. Rose,

    Thanks! We really liked it. I am still shocked my father is so open to my healthy vegan food. But I agree, it is good news.

    Heather,

    Thanks! I have no idea what I am making tomorrow. Since I am running out of time I had better figure it out soon. Your idea was a good one to use beets for the color. I may borrow that idea and use beet somehow.

    Alicia

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  4. Yummy yummy yummy!!!!!! This looks super easy! I HAVE TO MAKE THIS!!!! You rock my vegan socks!!!

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  5. Hi Alicia. Yummy looking stew! I was planning on having humous tonight but will maybe change my mind... BTW what is sweet paprika as opposed to er just paprika?

    Also been reading about your flax seeds over the last few days and am making some cookies with ground flax seeds in right this moment... I envy your big bag of pre-ground ones, I just have a ceramic pestle and mortar to grind mine in and they jump about all over the place - pogoing rather than grinding ha ha. Oh well. Onwards!

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  6. Vivacious,

    Thanks. This is really easy but packed with flavor. I like that it is different from the norm. The original recipe is also excellent if you want to make the all chickpea version.

    Jenny,

    I hope you are going to post the cookie recipe. It sounds like something I would like. ;)

    I have sweet, hot and smoked paprika in my spice cabinet. I think the sweet is the most common and also called Hungarian. Sorry for the confusion.

    When I buy whole flax seeds (which is most of the time), I grind them in a little coffee grinder that I use just for spices and seeds. If don't know what I mean let me know and I will post a link to one. They are very common in the states but maybe not in Paris. It makes grinding flax seeds very quick, 15 seconds.

    Alicia

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  7. Can't wait to see what you make tonight;-)

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  8. SV,

    Thanks! The hubby and I were just discussing dinner tonight. He wants me to make seitan cultets (big surprise huh?). I am going to make some mushroom powder and add that and then top the cutlets with fresh mushrooms. The other dishes still need more thought. Although I better get moving on that since dinner isn't that far away now. Nothing like planning. ;)

    Alicia

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  9. This looks like a wonderful, comforting meal. I love the lemon in it. I make a lot of bean and veggie meals, one dish meals are great aren't they?! I will be glued to the olympics for the duration, so we'll be eating a lot of this type of meal along with salads for the next two weeks:)

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  10. Janet,

    I really love preserved lemons. They add such a nice flavor to food.

    One dish meals are my favorite too. During the week I often want something low maintenance like this for dinner.

    Enjoy the games,
    Alicia

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