A couple of years back, we had the privilege to travel to Marrakech in Morocco, where we had some of the most amazing food. One of the dishes we really loved before we went plant-based was a chicken tagine with preserved lemon. I’ve loved the lemony-salty flavor of the preserved lemons and have long wanted to give this a shot in a plant-based version. I’d long thought chickpeas would be an obvious substitute, and I was not wrong.
1 bag chickpeas, soaked
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 preserved lemon, and the juice from the jar
10 green olives, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, crushed in salt, 1/4 water added
1 Tbsp finely chopped parsley
1 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp cumin
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp fresh ginger
1 tsp ground turmeric
pinch saffron threads
Soak some chickpeas in water in advance or use 2 cans of chickpeas.
Separate the rind from the pulp of your preserved lemons. Finely chop the pulp and set it aside. Cut your lemons into strips and nicely dice that up. Set it aside.
Bring your tagine or another large pan to medium heat and add the onion, lemon pulp, garlic and the rest of the herbs and spices, plus 1/2 cup of water. Stir to incorporate.
Add the chickpeas and 4 cups of water and allow to simmer, covered for 30 minutes. Depending on whether you’re using canned or dried chickpeas, this could be done in 30 minutes. My try with dried chickpeas that I didn’t even start at all with until this morning, took me about 2 hours of cooking and 10 additional cups of water in two refills.
Finish by adding the chopped lemon peel and chopped olives. Traditionally, this would be eaten over cous cous, which you can do according to package instructions. Alton Brown has a great recipe for making it on his site. He’s probably greasing things up a bit. I made mine today with quinoa. It’s worked out pretty good. Finally, the olives and lemons can be pretty salty. It is not recommended to add any additional salt when making this recipe.