Get Greens In Your Diet With Market Vegetable Tagine

Few joys in this world sweep over a chef quite like the unbridled arrival of spring. That chef might experience bliss beyond measure if he is lucky enough to live in a town with a great Farmer's Market.

is open in Rockaway Beach on Wednesdays again and all of that pristine picturesque produce has beckoned me to do vegetarian this week in Seed to Feed. 

Getting enough vegetables in your diet can be hard and this difficulty is compounded if your sole cooking method is microwave-steamed. But flavorful satisfying vegetable dishes can be simple and fast to prepare. North African vegetable tagine is just such a dish.

Robust flavors of spices and fresh herbs in the tagine base wrap whatever vegetables you choose in a sumptuous embrace, creating main course flavors in a side dish that can accompany anything coming off the grill.

Today's tagine evolved from various types and vegetable preparations I cooked while working for Joyce Goldstein at her groundbreaking restaurant, Square One. It was at Square One that I fell in love with greens, and all the bounty of a Farmers Market. New found passions for all things harvested were fueled by easy dishes like this one.

Make this dish all summer long and play with the flavor profile. While the inspiration is North African, you can do a pesto version or rosemary and lemon or any combination of flavors you enjoy together. Spicy one day, herbaceous and acidic the next, North African vegetable tagine is the perfect potluck dish. No more dejected vegetarians at a party where this tagine shows up.

Serve North African Vegetable Tagine with some cous cous (recipe follows) or grilled bread if you make it with a European flavor profile.

One last note: If you don't already get Erin Tormey's weekly newsletter for Farmer's Marketeers, consider signing up this week at the market! Erin runs both the Pacifica and the Half Moon Bay Coastside Farmer's Markets and her writing is witty and informative.

North African Vegetable Tagine

• 1 onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
• 2 cups chopped tomato
• 1/4 cup chopped mint
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• zest of one lemon and the juice of 3 or 4, combined
• 5 to 6 cups cooked vegetables of your choosing--that's the whole point of the recipe!
• salt and pepper to taste

In a large pan over medium heat, cook the onions with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Stir occasionally for 5 to 10 minutes until onions begin to become translucent. Add garlic and spices and stir to coat the onions and the bottom of the pan. Add the tomatoes and juice, stir and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in 2/3 of the mint and 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice. Set aside.

Cook all your vegetables until just done. We will add the vegetables to the base we just made. You can grill, sauté, boil, steam or microwave your vegetable assortment. I sauté the greens with some garlic and lemon for today's tagine while everything else is steamed or blanched.

Heat cooked vegetables in the base and adjust the seasoning, add the remaining mint, half of the cilantro and lemon juice to taste.

Serve with cous cous (demonstrated in video 1) and a sprinkling of cilantro. Spice it up with harris a if you like it hot.

Next week in Seed to Feed: Darin Peterson takes us to the islands with Kalua Pig.

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