Vegetarian Tagines & Couscous: 65 delicious recipes for authentic Moroccan food

I had invited friends over for our first post-vaccination dinner gathering. After a pandemic year of feeding only my husband and me, I thought it would be easy and fun to pull together a special dinner worthy of the occasion. Instead, my mind was blank: I couldn't think of a single dish to cook that would shout "special occasion." Anxiety began to overshadow the joy of cooking for friends. I considered, for the first time in my life, feeding our guests takeout. Then this gorgeous little cookbook arrived in the mail, and my life was brighter, lighter, and full of inspiration.In just a few hours, my husband and I cranked out roasted cherry tomato tagine with feta and preserved lemon, sweet potato tagine with green olives and orange blossom water, cauliflower and chickpea tagine with harissa and preserved lemon, and stuffed prune tagine with walnuts and rosewater. The next evening, we served the tagines alongside lavash, couscous and rice, and the dinner was a smash hit! Everyone loved the strong and exotic flavors.Wanting to try even more tagines, the next morning, I made onion, olive and egg tagine with zahtar for a delicious breakfast. I then started thinking about gifts and who would love this book as much as I do. Three more of the books are now sitting in my shopping cart destined for young and adventurous cooks in my life.Depending on how well-stocked your pantry is, you may need to buy some special ingredients such as preserved lemons, pomegranate syrup, rosewater, orange blossom water, and harissa. If you can't easily find these ingredients locally, they are readily available online. The book also includes recipes for some staples such as preserved lemons and harissa that you can make at home."Tagine" refers to both the teepee-shaped traditional clay cookware and the dishes that are made in them. You don't, however, need a tagine to cook the recipes in this book. My Dutch oven, cast iron skillet, and covered casserole dish worked just fine. I confess, that after coveting tagines (the cookware) for years, I finally ordered a traditional tagine from Tunisia shortly after our dinner party. Tagines are so beautiful that I am banking on my husband agreeing to get rid of some of his stuff to make room for ours because we so obviously need a tagine worthy of these delicious dishes. Don't you agree? Cook from this book, and you'll understand what I mean.Even if you don't like cooking, this cookbook is a feast for the eyes. In addition to the food porn, I love the photos of Moroccan markets and traditional tagine cookware. I didn't have trouble reading the recipes, but I can understand another reviewer's complaints that legibility was compromised by the background photos and relatively small font size. Users with vision issues might be challenged but good lighting and reading glasses might solve the problem for most. The end results of these recipes are certainly worth the effort.Thank you, Ghillie Basan, for bringing Moroccan food to our corner of the Earth! And for rescuing our dinner party.

I like the recipes provided. I wanted to try some Moroccan vegetarian dishes after my visit. I was able to find the correct spices and vegetables to use and how to make some of the sauces needed.

This is a great cookbook to page through since the photography is so nicely done. Be prepared to get hungry, however -- the photos really bring the dishes to life. It starts off with the basics, with instructions on making the building blocks, such as ras el hanout (I buy it already made, but it's nice to have the ingredient list should I want to make my own) and preserved lemons. It then moves into appetizers/soups, light tagines, hearty tagines, couscous and concludes with sales/pickles/preserves.There are some real winners in here, such as roasted pear with figs, walnuts and cardamom. Delightful!However, the book suffers from poor layout. The font for the recipes is thin and small, making it hard to read under the best of circumstances. It gets worse since the background on many of the pages is dark and patterned, making the small, thin, black font even harder to read. It can be frustrating. Additionally, the book itself is a small format (roughly 6.75 inches by 8.5 inches). This would have worked far better as a larger format book size. It would have made it easier to read, plus the photos would have been even nicer to look at.One star down for the format, but 5 stars for content.

Great recipes and images

As an American who lived in Morocco for 1.5 years and my husband is Moroccan, I love this book! My mother is vegetarian so we got her this book as a gift so she can try Moroccan food that fits her diet. She loves the book and we are happy she can have a taste of morocco that fits her food preferences 😀 also this book has a YUMMY Moroccan tea recipe which is a MUST in every moroccan meal and household. 🇲🇦

Great recipes, especially the couscous. Small font and colored background make the recipes hard to read, so prepare for that.

Cookbook I ever bought with beautiful photographs every recipe, the way a cookbook is supposed to be done.

I had borrowed a Le Creuset tagine from a friend, in order to try cooking with it before buying my own. The only problem was, that the vast majority of recipes were for meat dishes. Being a vegetarian, this saddened me greatly. Then, I saw "Vegetarian Tagines & Couscous..."! Saved! I am very happy with this little cookbook, and would recommend it to anyone avoiding meat and those who want to be amazed by delicious vegetables.