Chickpea Tagine with “Tomato Jam” and Roasted Delicata Squash
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Tara Kitchen, a nearby Moroccan restaurant, makes the most delicious chickpea and eggplant tagine. I discovered it a few years ago, shortly after we moved to upstate New York, but only recently tried to recreate it at home. I had been deterred by the prospect of having to make a tomato jam, an ingredient essential to the sweet-and-sour flavor of the tagine. Instead, I made preserved lemons and then, with my homemade preserved lemons, a chicken tagine with green olives after learning about the process at a cooking class at Tara Kitchen .
Recently I took a stab at making the chickpea tagine, taking a shortcut with the tomato jam. Instead of making the jam separately and adding it to the tagine, I make the tomato jam as I go by sweating onions first, then cooking the tomatoes down with a hefty pour of vinegar. The chickpeas and other ingredients cook with the jam. Make sense?
I’ve been serving it with roasted delicata squash — so good. Here’s a step-by-step guide for making it:
Gather your ingredients. I’ve used both cooked-from-scratch chickpeas and canned. I prefer from-scratch, of course, but canned chickpeas work well here. 
This is the ras-el-hanout from a local Moroccan restaurant, Tara Kitchen, which I’ve written about before:
Sauté an onion.
Add garlic.
Add ras-el-hanout.
Add cilantro.
Stir.
Add tomatoes.
Add cooked chickpeas and raisins.
Add water.
Simmer 30 minutes.
Add some more fresh cilantro for color and freshness.
Meanwhile, cut up delicata squash and
Spoon into bowls and serve with plenty of good bread, of course.
Chickpea Tagine with “Tomato Jam” and Roasted Delicata Squash
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 3 to 4
Description
This recipe is inspired by the chickpea tagine at Tara Kitchen, a Moroccan restaurant in Schenectady, New York.
Ras el hanout, which translates to “head of the shop” or “top of the shop,” is a blend of many spices, often including turmeric, paprika, cumin, coriander, cardamom, and cinnamon, to name a few. I purchase mine from Tara Kitchen, but you can find the blend from many sources or you can make your own.
I prefer cooking chickpeas from scratch, but you can use canned chickpeas here with fine results. You’ll need two 15-oz cans, drained and rinsed. If you use from scratch-cooked chickpeas, save the cooking liquid for the tagine.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced to yield about 1 1/2 cups
Kosher salt to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon ras el hanout
½ cup finely diced cilantro, plus a few tablespoons for sprinkling at the end
4 to 6 Roma (plum) or other tomatoes, finely diced to yield 2 heaping cups (or 2 cups crushed tomatoes, I like Pomi, finely minced)
3 cups cooked chickpeas
¼ cup golden raisins
¼ cup white balsamic vinegar
Bread for serving, optional
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When it shimmers add the onion and immediately turn the heat down to medium. Season the onion with salt. Cook until the onion softens, stirring occasionally, and turning the heat down if necessary to ensure the onion isn’t browning, about 10 to 15 minutes. (A little browning is fine.)
2. Add the garlic and cook for one more minute. Add the ras el hanout and cook for another minute. Add the cilantro and cook for another minute. Add the tomatoes, season with a big pinch of salt, and stir to distribute. Cook for another minute, then add the chickpeas, raisins, vinegar, and 1.5 cups of the chickpea cooking liquid (if you cooked the chickpeas from scratch) or water. Bring to a simmer, then adjust heat so mixture is gently simmering. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure the liquid hasn’t reduced too much. If it gets low, add water by the 1/4 cup.
3. When the chickpeas have simmered for about 30 minutes, taste the mixture. Add salt to taste. Because I cook the chickpeas from scratch and use the cooking liquid, which has salt in it, I rarely need to add much salt at the end. If you are using water, you may need to add more salt at the end. Just taste it, and add salt as needed. Stir in the reserved chopped cilantro. - To serve, spoon chickpeas into bowls and serve with bread alongside.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Moroccan
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
32 Comments on “Chickpea Tagine with “Tomato Jam” and Roasted Delicata Squash”
Gah, such a winner! The white balsamic in there just takes it to another level. I added roasted aubergine and stirred in some spinach right at the end for extra veg. Beautifully simple recipe and greater than the sum of its parts… this received a disproportionate amount of praise at the dinner table this evening. You never let us down, Alex!
Alex, I’m so happy to hear this! I need to make it with eggplant — they’re still in season here, and the chickpea-eggplant combination is my favorite at Tara Kitchen. Spinach at the end sounds delicious as well! Thanks so much for writing. Always great to hear from you! xo
Can I use canned diced tomatoes and if so, should I drain the liquid from them?
Also made this including eggplant and it was incredible. I happened to have tomato jam sitting around (lucky). I doubled the recipe and used canned tomatoes and the jam. It turned out amazing. Thanks!
Yum and yay!! So happy to hear this!
Alex, came online to make this again but Food52’s site has been down for us Europeans for weeks now (due to the new data laws , I believe — very frustrating). Any other way I can get the recipe? The main quantitates I’m trying to remember are the ras-el-hanout, number of tomatoes and the white balsamic vinegar. Thanks!
P.S. Sorry, I fear this came across as abrupt! Just had my heart set on making this again, but I am improvising! 🙂 I guess the more general concern is not being able to access your recipes on Food52! Hope you are well xx
Not abrupt at all!! Thanks so much for letting me know. Here is the full recipe. Let me know if you are unable to access any other recipes. And I promise to try Nigella’s tray bake soon … shortly after you left that comment, the recipe appeared in Food52’s genius recipes column!! Did you see that??
Moroccan Chickpea Tagine with Tomato Jam
Serves 3 to 4
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced to yield about 1 1/2 cups
Kosher salt to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon ras el hanout
½ cup finely diced cilantro, plus a few tablespoons for sprinkling at the end
4 to 6 Roma (plum) or other tomatoes, finely diced to yield 2 heaping cups (or 2 cups crushed tomatoes, I like Pomi, finely minced)
3 cups cooked chickpeas
¼ cup golden raisins
¼ cup white balsamic vinegar
Bread for serving, optional
1. Prepare the chickpeas. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When it shimmers add the onion and immediately turn the heat down to medium. Season the onion with salt. Cook until the onion softens, stirring occasionally, and turning the heat down if necessary to ensure the onion isn’t browning, about 10 to 15 minutes. (A little browning is fine.)
2. Add the garlic and cook for one more minute. Add the ras el hanout and cook for another minute. Add the cilantro and cook for another minute. Add the tomatoes, season with a big pinch of salt, and stir to distribute. Cook for another minute, then add the chickpeas, raisins, vinegar, and 1.5 cups of the chickpea cooking liquid (if you cooked the chickpeas from scratch) or water. Bring to a simmer, then adjust heat so mixture is gently simmering. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure the liquid hasn’t reduced too much. If it gets low, add water by the 1/4 cup.
3. When the chickpeas have simmered for about 30 minutes, taste the mixture. Add salt to taste. Because I cook the chickpeas from scratch and use the cooking liquid, which has salt in it, I rarely need to add much salt at the end. If you are using water, you may need to add more salt at the end. Just taste it, and add salt as needed. Stir in the reserved chopped cilantro.
To serve, spoon chickpeas into bowls and serve with bread alongside.
I did not! It truly is genius though, so I’m not surprised. 🙂
Thank you so much for providing the recipe!
Of course!! xoxo
I made this tonight, w canned chickpeas but tomatoes and squash from the farmers market. I didn’t have cilantro, but didn’t miss it all; it was absolutely amazing. The creaminess of the squash with the zing of the tomato/chickpea mixture was amazing. I will be making this a LOT this winter!
So happy to hear this, Susan!
Hi there, I’d like to make this and keep most of the ingredients in my pantry, minus the white balsamic vinegar. I’m hesitant to buy a bottle as well since it’s never come up in any of the recipes I’ve tried before. Can you recommend a substitute? Maybe white wine? I’m much more likely to use a bottle of that haha.
Hi Gabrielle! Do you have any vinegar on hand? I would start with a vinegar you have on hand… let me know!
Hi, sorry about the delay – I have regular/dark balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, red wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar. Which would you try?
I never got a notification that you replied and when I remembered I wanted to make this (or really the moment was like – I left a comment on one of Alexandra’s recipes! which was it?) I had to search your recipes for ‘white balsamic vinegar’. Is there a way to get alerted about follow up comments? Btw, I’ve made a couple recipes since this question and have enjoyed and shared them all. Thanks!
Hi Gabrielle! I would use rice vinegar.
And you know what, I don’t think I do have a notification system regarding comments, which I absolutely should. I’m about to go through a site re-design, so I will add this to my list of “wants/needs”. Thanks!
So happy to hear you’ve had success with some of the other recipes 😍😍😍
Made it this evening w/the rice vinegar- so good! Love the depth of flavour even though the ingredient list and time commitment are minimal. I’ll definitely be making it again. Thank you!
Also yes, the notification system would be gold for us readers. And for you too because it would make sure all your time spent replying isn’t wasted!
So nice to hear this, Gabrielle! Thanks for reporting back. And I am definitely looking into the comment notification system… it would be SO nice. Thank you.
Loved this! I meant to try this ages ago, but couldn’t find Ras El Hanout at the grocery store– ordered it online and then couldn’t remember why until I started browsing for some new Meatless Monday ideas. Perfect for a gloomy, blustery day. I didn’t make the squash because we are working our way through an abundance of butternut squash from our garden, and I am using squash and kale tomorrow. Other than the squash and fresh cilantro, this recipe uses items I always have on hand .
So great to hear this, Mira! I wish ras-el-hanout were easier to come by … I should really suggest an alternative with a few more readily available spices. So great to hear you have been able to adapt this to the squash you have on hand. Kale sounds delicious!
I reviewed this earlier, but wanted to add that this is now a regular feature in my meal rotation. My husband has even offered to try to prepare it next time. Thanks to your clear directions. I may not have to do too much coaching. Tonight we enjoyed this with roasted sweet potatoes– compliments of my daughter who was recently gifted with a bushel of farm stand sweet potatoes that she shared with us.
So nice to hear this, Mira!! Roasted sweet potatoes sound lovely here. I still have a bag of sweet potatoes that have stored perfectly from my winter CSA. Must make this soon. Thanks for writing.
How would you go about adding the eggplant mentioned in the text ? Roast separately or saute early in process?
Thanks.
I think you could do either, but I like the idea of roasting them and having them in the oven while you get going with the tagine; then you can add the roasted eggplant at the very end… sounds delicious! I like the eggplant-roasting method in this post.
Needed to review this, again because I am in the midst of a kitchen remodeling and this recipe yields a wonderful dinner with minimal ingredients, kitchen equipment and time. Didn’t have any cilantro, and the onions browned a bit while I figured out the electric skillet, but we enjoyed a tasty, cozy dinner.
Wonderful to hear this, Mira 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thanks so much for writing. Hope you are surviving your kitchen remodel … it’s not easy, but it’s so worth it in the end. HAppy New Year!
Do you think this would freeze well?
Definitely!
My husband and I love this recipe! I served it again tonight, this time with brown rice, roasted butternut squash, sauteed cabbage and kale, and a dollop of Greek yogurt. I only had regular balsamic vinegar, and it was still delicious.
Great to hear, Alison! Thanks so much for writing and sharing all of your notes 🙂 🙂 🙂
I love your cooking style, the focus on vegetables and legumes meshes so well with my own. This was fantastic and froze so well!
Great to hear! Thanks so much for writing 🙂