Winter Roots Tagine

As a way to make our meals more healthful and be a little more environmentally friendly, I've been trying to cut some of the meat out of our daily meals. I'm starting to do "Meatless Sundays", "Less Meat Wednesdays", and "Sustainable Seafood Thursdays". In a few weeks, when the farmers' markets open, I am going to do "Locavore Tuesdays" too. The rest of the days of the week, I try to source my groceries as locally as possible and as organic as possible. The new Yes! Organic grocery store in our neighborhood has been a boon. (http://www.yesorganicmarket.com).

Along those lines, I made a great Winter Root Tagine with couscous last night (to offset the delicious flatiron steak we had the night before from the Springfield Butcher (http://www.springfieldbutcher.com).

In addition, my partner was in New York last week and brought home a bunch of exotic spices from Kalustyan's (http://kalustyans.com/), including a packet of Tagine spice mix.

My tagine was inspired by the Root Vegetable Tagine recipe at epicurious, but only loosely as I used my new spice mix and a 3lb bag of seasonal root vegetables from Yes! that included a couple orange and yellow carrots, parsnips, and white and red turnips. I stirred in some butter at the end for added richness, but you can leave it out if you want to go vegan.

Winter Root Tagine

Prep time: 30-minutes (its a lot of peeling and chopping)
Cook time: 45-minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
3 pounds mixed root vegetables of your choice (carrots, yams, potatoes, turnips, parsnips, etc.), peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 red pepper, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons Tagine spice mix (or 1 teaspoon coriander seeds, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 1 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper, mixed together and ground in a spice grinder.)
3 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1 teaspoon course-ground black paper
1 cup vegetable
1 cup water
1 tablespoon butter

Instructions:

1. Heat half of the olive oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion; sprinkle with salt, black pepper, and spice mix and sauté until the onion softened and beginning to brown and spices are toasted and fragrant, about 7 minutes.

2. Move the onions to one side of the pan and add the remaining olive oil and half the root vegetables and red pepper. Sauté for 5 minutes without stirring, allowing the vegetable to begin to brown.

3. Stir in the remaining vegetables, garlic, ginger, broth, and water and bring to a boil.

4. Reduce heat to a low simmer, cover and cook for 45 minutes or until all the vegetables are soft (but not disintegrated). Stir about every 15 minutes and adding more broth or water as needed. As the vegetables cook some of them will break down and thicken the sauce.

5. When done, stir in the butter and serve over couscous or rice.

Cook's Note: For added protein you can add ½ cup dry lentils or a can of chick peas at step number 3 above. If using lentils, they will absorb a lot of moisture, so be sure to check the stew doesn't get to dry while cooking, add more broth or water as needed.