Garbo's Winter Soups - Moroccan Roast Vegetable Stew

[Juana]

I forgot to take pictures today, but first up: spicy chickpea potato stew. The link has the original version, of course, but here's my tweaked recipe. This feeds about four people.


2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, rinsed, divided
3/4 cup water
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tin green chilis, drained and finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp spicy curry powder
harissa to taste (I used about a teaspoon but I made my harissa with garden variety dried red chilis, which aren't super hot)
12 ounces tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped
3 yellow potatoes, cubed small
1/2 tsp salt and pepper to taste   
cayenne pepper to taste


Place 3/4 cup of the chickpeas and water in a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Set that aside.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until sizzling. Add chopped onion, garlic and green chilis and saute until the onion is lightly browned on the edges. Stir in the cumin, harissa, curry powder, and turmeric before adding the tomatoes and the reserved chickpea puree. Bring that to a boil before adding the potatoes. When you do so, reduce the heat and simmer covered until the potatoes are nearly done, which takes about 20 minutes.
Stir in the remaining chickpeas. Cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender and the stew is heated through, which is about another 5 to 10 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

The stew is very, very thick, reheats well, and is a very solid meal.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

Wow, that sounds amazing. I'm salivating just thinking about it.

[Juana]

It totally is. And it's, y'know, a pretty easy recipe.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

It is! I might even be able to get permission to use the kitchen for this. It might not even turn into another Catastrophe Cook episode. I think I know what I'm doing this weekend.

[Juana]

DO IT. Make enough to share and I'm sure you'll never have to ask twice again.

Also, here's the harissa recipe I use:
    10-12 dried red chili peppers
    3 cloves garlic, minced
    1/2 teaspoon salt
    2 tablespoons olive oil
    1 teaspoon ground coriander
    1 teaspoon ground caraway seeds
    1/2 teaspoon cumin

Soak the dried chilies in hot water for 30 minutes. After draining them, stem and seed each pod. Stick the chilis in a food processor with the rest of the shit until you get a smooth paste. Drizzle some olive oil on top to keep it fresh, and you can keep it up to a month in the fridge.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

Duly noted! *salutes* I will report back should shenanigans occur!

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

It sounds fucking delicious!

[Juana]

Feeds about five. Here's a link to the original, but my recipe is as follows:

    3 tbsp olive oil
    1 medium onion
    3 large red bell peppers
    2 garlic cloves
    4 average potatoes
    4 cups vegetable stock
    1 tbsp harissa (recipe for which is two posts above this one)
    1/5 tsp salt
    1 tbsp black pepper


1. Heat the olive oil over medium hot, then dump the chopped onion, coarsely chopped red pepper, garlic, and diced potato.
2. Cook for about twelve minutes.
3. When they've started to brown a bit, add the stock and harrisa. Bring that to a boil before dropped the heat to low. Simmer gently for twenty minutes.
4. Taste the soup for salt, adding more if needed. Add the black pepper to taste.
5. The original recipe calls for putting the soup through a food processor and straining it, but I choose not to either process all of it or strain it. You lose a lot of the potato when you do that, and if your household eats like mine does, you need all the potato you can get in there (it changes the texture a hell of a lot if you strain it, though). I prefer chunks of potato and pepper in my soup as well.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Sounds lovely!

[Juana]

It is! My parents always buy three or four extra red peppers on grocery runs now, in hopes of coaxing me into making this.

[Juana]

This one's pretty involved, but the results are worth it! My tweaked version that can feed six:

    A little olive oil
    2 medium-sized onions, in 1-inch chunks
    8 carrots, salted and cut into same-sized chunks
    1 tablespoon cumin
    1/2 tablespoon tumeric
    1/2 tablespoon ground ginger (I think? This is a cook's recipe, rather than a chef's. If that seems like too much, y'know, adjust it)
    1 tablespoon mustard seeds
    1 medium-sized garlic bulb
    6 medium-sized tomatoes, not too ripe
    10 small sweet peppers (because bell peppers are fucking expensive right now)
    1 cinnamon stick
    1½ cups cooked chickpeas (1 15-ounce can, rinsed and drained)
    3 tablespoons or more of fresh lemon juice
    Black pepper


Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line two or three large baking trays with foil, and brush them with olive oil. Scatter the onions and carrots onto one tray, drizzle them with extra oil, and sprinkle with cumin, mustard seeds, and a little salt. Place the garlic bulb on one corner of the tray.

Core the tomatoes, and arrange them on a second tray, and use a third tray if necessary for the peppers. I chose to stem and seed them before I cooked 'em.

Place the first tray on the lower rack in the oven, and the other(s) tray on the upper rack. Bake the onions, carrots, etc., for about 30 to 35 minutes, stirring a few times, until the carrots are just tender. Remove the tray from the oven and set aside to cool.

Bake the tomatoes and peppers for about 45 minutes, turning the peppers with tongs every 10 minutes or so, so they blister evenly. (You don't have to turn the tomatoes.) Transfer to a large, heatproof glass bowl, and add the cinnamon stick. Cover the bowl with foil or a plate, and let stand for about 30 minutes.

Carefully lift out the peppers, leaving as much of their liquid in the bowl as possible, and remove their skins. Cut the peppers into strips and return them to the bowl.

Then lift out the tomatoes, and pull off and discard the skins. Chop the pulp if yours didn't practically dissolve like mine did, and return it to the bowl. Fish out and discard the cinnamon stick.

When the garlic cloves are cool enough to handle, separate them and squeeze the pulp into the bowlful of peppers and tomatoes. Dump in the onions and carrots and stir in the chickpeas and lemon juice. The original recipe called for you to scrape the spices off the carrots and onions, which I chose not to do with no ill effects.

Taste to adjust the salt (you probably won't need much) and lemon juice, and grind in some black pepper. Mix well.

Cover the bowl, and heat the stew in a 350°F oven for about 30 minutes, or in a microwave for 5 to 10 minutes if you're as impatient as I was by the end of this.

Serve hot, over or next to couscous, and enjoy! The leftovers - and I'm sure you'll have some - keep just fine for several days.

[Juana]

red pepper soup does not keep well in the freezer for more than a week or so, fyi. It's still edible, but not as good.