Vegetable Tagine

If I had to rank my favorite cuisines in the world, Moroccan would definitely be in the top 5.

It's always so difficult to rank food.  My friend once said, "food is like children, you can't have a favorite."  And that's true.  I like everything, there really isn't anything I don't like.  Ok, I'm not the biggest fan of Eastern European food, but they have a couple of nice dishes that I really like.

Moroccan, Italian, Thai, Malaysian and Chinese would probably be my top five.  They're in no particular order.  I also love Indian and Lebanese...And French, and Japanese, and Korean...

Anyway.  I don't have Moroccan food enough.  There just aren't any around.  Back home in Beijing there used to be a really good one, the owner was half Moroccan, half Spanish.  Oh their lamb and prune tagine was just sensational.  I wish I knew more about Moroccan food.

I got the following recipe from BBC Good Food.  I'm not going to call this Moroccan in any way, I'll call it Moroccan-inspired, as i have absolutely no confidence in the authenticity of the dish.  But it's pretty tasty.  And it's pretty healthy, which just makes it tastier.

Adapted from here
Ingredients
4 carrots, cut into 1 inch chunks
4 turnips, cut into 1 inch chunks
3 red onions, cut into wedges
2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into 1 inch chunks
100g canned chickpeas
2 bay leaves
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp chili
1/2 tsp coriander
400g canned tomatoes
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup raisins
1 tbsp honey

Method
Heat oven to 200C.  Spread the vegetables on an even layer on a baking tray.  Season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with olive oil.  Roast for about twenty minutes.
Meanwhile, fry the garlic in a large pot for about a minute, before adding the bay leaves and all the other spices.  Add the tomatoes, raisins, apricots, honey, and 1 1/2 cup of water.  Add the roasted vegetables and turn the heat down.  Let it simmer for 10 minutes.