vegetable and chickpea tagine

my attempt to recreate the vegetarian tagine from cafe mogador

Feb 19, 2023

∙ Paid

A trip to visit my older sister who lived in Williamsburg at the time would never be complete with a visit to Cafe Mogador, a cozy Moroccan-inspired restaurant serving traditional mezze (think hummus, eggplant with tahini, spicy carrots, falafel), couscous dishes, and fragrant tagines. If we were lucky enough, we would be dining in on a night when the vegetarian tagine would be a special.

Unlike many tagine recipes, the vegetarian one from Cafe Mogador’s is not tomato-based. Their “Casablanca” vegetable tagine is a marriage of melt-in-your-mouth vegetables and hardy chickpeas cooked in a rich broth flavored with onion, warming spices, and raisins. I love the combination of vegetables used - zucchini, celery, carrots, squash, and turnips. They garnish the tagine with frizzled onions and serve it alongside your choice of couscous or rice.

Unfortunately, Cafe Mogador no longer serves their vegetarian tagine. I recently tried their vegetarian couscous (with a side of the Casablanca sauce), hoping it would satisfy my tagine craving but was left disappointed. So, I took it upon myself to re-create Cafe Mogador’s vegetarian tagine. As I wrote up the recipe, I was unsure how it would turn out. My confidence was low. Luckily, it turned out to be absolutely delicious and very reminiscent of the tagine from Cafe Mogador. I recommend making this on a night when you want a cozy, warming bowl of plant-based goodness. I also love the ease and straight-forwarded nature of the recipe (plus it’s ready in under an hour which we love).

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