Root Vegetable Tagine with Pickled Baby Lemons and Pomegranate Salsa

Name: Root Vegetable Tagine with Pickled Baby Lemons and Pomegranate Salsa
Yield: Serves 4–6
Cuisine: Tunisian
Ingredients: 1 sweet potato, halved and sliced at an angle; 2 fennel bulbs, cut into batons about 1 cm (½ in) thick and 2–2.5 cm (¾–1 in) long; 1 red chilli, seeded and chopped; 6 garlic cloves, crushed; 100 g (3½ oz) grated fresh root ginger, grated; 1 tbsp ground turmeric; 1 large Spanish onion, finely chopped; 100 g (3½ oz) dried dates, puréed; a little olive oil; 1½ tsp cloves; 2 cinnamon sticks; 3 tbsp coriander seeds; 1½–2 x 400 g tins chopped tomatoes; pickled lemons, to serve; 1 recipe quantity couscous, to serve; handful of coriander leaves, chopped; 150 g (5½ oz) fresh spinach leaves; 1 celeriac root, cut into batons as above; pomegranate salsa, to serve

Preparation info

Serves
4–6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Gate Vegetarian Cookbook

By Adrian Daniel and Michael Daniel

Published 2004

About

We love this rich, spicy, aromatic and fruity dish, which is almost as comforting to cook as it is to eat. The tagine is one of those classic dishes that we always wanted to re-create for vegetarians.

Ingredients

2 cinnamon sticks
1½ tsp cloves
3 tbsp coriander seeds

Africa
Tunisia
Main course
Gluten-free
Mediterranean
Spicy
Vegan

Method

Toast the cinnamon sticks, cloves and coriander seeds in a dry frying pan until their aroma rises. Grind finely using a mortar and pestle (or a coffee grinder). This preliminary exercise is well worth the trouble as the flavours and aromas of the spices really come to life compared to those of pre-ground spices.
Heat a little olive oil in a heavy-based saucepan an