Tagine with Sweet Potatoes, Carrots and Prunes

Well, after a brief Facebook poll, the Moroccan dish was the winner for the first recipe back on the blog in a few weeks! Bet you wouldn't have guess it involved prunes, would ya? These little guys get a bad rap for being for old people who need to drink their prune juice, but honestly, they are super similar to figs and added a really nice, sweet touch to this tagine recipe! This was a great new recipe to try, as it involved different veggies than we typically involve in tagine recipes. This was the perfect recipe to try for winter, since it involved sweet potatoes and carrots, which are both plentiful and hearty in the colder season. We highly recommend you give this recipe a shot (even if you're nervous about the prunes) because it is sustaining, flavorful and makes wonderful leftovers. If you don't have a tagine, then a Dutch oven or any other casserole dish with a lid, will work just fine!


I'm sure you're wondering when we had time to make a tagine recipe, when we seemingly fell off the face of the Earth. Well, Will has been home cooking up a storm while I have been all over the place with a major event weekend, a conference and now multiple nights of shows in a musical theatre performance. So the cook is doing his job but the blogger is falling seriously behind! But alas, even in our busy lives, we love sitting down together to meal plan, for Will to cook, and for me to share with you what he's up to in the kitchen. Thankfully the travel is all wrapped up for the next few weeks and events don't really kick back up again until April/May! That means plenty of time to catch up on blogging (hah) and get back to the normal routine. Stay tuned!

Cooking Notes: The original recipe called for yams, Will used sweet potatoes instead. He also used pearl onions that were frozen, not fresh, so they were pre-peeled and blanched. If you wanted, you could cook this in a Dutch oven instead of a tagine (if you don't have one!)



Tagine with Sweet Potatoes, Carrots and Prunes (adapted from The African and Middle Eastern Cookbook; serves 4-6)
3 tbsp olive oil
A little butter (~1 tbsp)
25-30 pearl onions, peeled and blanched
2 lb. sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bitesize chunks
2-3 carrots, cut into bitesize chunks
1/2+ cup of ready-to-eat pitted prunes
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp clear honey
2 cups veggie stock
Fresh cilantro, finely chopped
Fresh mint, finely chopped
S&P




Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Heat the olive oil in the base of your tagging, with the butter and stir in the onions. Cook for about 5 minutes until the onions are tender, then remove half the onions from the pan and set aside. Add the sweet potatoes and carrots, cooking until lightly browned. Stir in the prunes with the cinnamon, ginger and honey, then pour in the sock. Stir well, then place the lid of the tagine on and transfer to the oven for about 45 minutes.

When done in the oven, stir in the reserved onions and bake for 10 minutes more. Make couscous while the tagine finishes baking. When the tagine is complete, gently stir in the chopped cilantro and mint to both the tagine and couscous. Place a scoop or two of couscous in a bowl, then serve tagine over top. Enjoy!