Ingredients
Harissa sauce
- 1 tspn dry harissa paste mix
- 1 tspn ground cumin dry roasted
- 1 tspn ground coriander dry roasted
- 4 cloves garlic chopped roughly
- ½ bunch fresh coriander chopped roughly
- 2 tspns dried mint
- 1 tspn salt
- 25 ml red wine vinegar
- 10 ml orange flower water
- 50 ml olive oil
Vegetables
- 250 gms carrots sliced thickly
- 250 gms zucchini sliced thickly
- 500 gms orange sweet potato in 2 cm chunks
- 250 gms Spanish onion chopped into large wedges
Quinoa
Moroccan roast vegetables with quinoa
Although typical modern Moroccan cuisine is considered to be meat based, the ordinary folks in the region seldom eat meat at home, and their famous cous cous dishes are actually vegetable based.
Harissa is a bold spice combo made up of chilli mixed with garlic, paprika, coriander, cumin, caraway and mint, and is perfect for robust organic root vegetables. You can make it yourself, or buy it as a paste or in dry form, adding water to reconstitute. In this recipe, use Herbie’s dry harissa blend and add some other favourite Moroccan flavours to the blender.
Quinoa is a grain originally from South America; it is gluten-free and high in protein. In fact, it’s so nutritious that the United Nations has declared it a super crop! It has a great nutty flavour and makes for a tasty alternative to the usual cous cous.
Method
To make harissa, whisk all the ingredients together in a blender until combined.
Toss the harissa sauce through the vegetables and bake them covered in foil in a moderate oven for around half an hour.
Take off the foil, stir gently to mix in the flavours, and then bake again for another 10-15 minutes, or until the veggies are tender but not so.
Stir the vegetables, fresh mint, lemon juice and apple juice concentrate through the quinoa, then check seasoning.
Serve on a large white platter with more mint leaves scaered on top.
Alternatively, instead of mixing the quinoa into the veggies, make a grain bed for the vegetables by stirring in a tin of organic chickpeas, a handful of toasted pine nuts and some flat leaf parsley and fresh coriander leaves into the cooked quinoa.
Add some lemon juice and olive oil to taste, season with salt and pepper and spread around the boom of the white serving plaer, then heap the roasted veggies on top.
Submitted byChristine Butler
