Fragrant Chickpea Tagine (Great For A Crowd)

Make a big bowl of this deliciously aromatic and fragrant Chickpea Tagine, and you'll be warm and comforted for hours. It works wonderfully when you're catering to large numbers, and you can pretty much put any vegetable in it that you like to bulk it out.

I love serving this chickpea tagine feasting style with a crispy roast leg of lamb, a flaked almond and pomegranate couscous salad, and some flatbread. It will satisfy both meat eaters and anyone plant-based at the table, and everyone will feel full.

❓How to cook dry chickpeas

Yes, you can just use pre-cooked chickpeas in a tin or jar. But they do taste SO much better when you cook dried chickpeas yourself. And it is very simple, you just have to do a bit of advanced planning to fit it into your cooking schedule.

First, soak the chickpeas overnight in a large saucepan of water with baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) in it. You'll need to use half a teaspoon of baking soda per 200g or 1 cup dry chickpeas. Make sure they soak for at least 10-12 hours. This process helps achieve tender chickpeas. Don't add salt yet; I find that it can sometimes counteract the soda and make them tough.

Now drain and rinse the soaked chickpeas. Add them back into the pan, cover with fresh water, and bring it to a boil. Simmer the chickpeas for an hour with salt and pepper, a garlic clove, a sprig of thyme, and some lemon peel for flavor.

Skim off any foam with a slotted spoon, and drain them when done. Perfectly cooked chickpeas should be tender and buttery but still have a slight firmness to them.

⚖️ Dried vs. cooked weight chickpeas (Garbanzo beans)

Roughly speaking, chickpeas double their weight when cooked. But to be specific, multiply the weight of dried chickpeas by 2.2 to get the weight cooked chickpeas. As an example, 100 grams dried chickpeas will yield 220 grams cooked chickpeas.

I generally allow around 200 grams of cooked chickpeas (or 1 cup cooked chickpeas) per person for a main course. If buying canned chickpeas, I use one can between two for this recipe.

📝 Tagine spice mix

There is much debate over what spices go in a tagine, and I am not Moroccan, although I definitely ate my fair share of tagine when traveling in Marrakech. Cinnamon is a given, and it also needs some sweetness, so I include nutmeg as well as honey (or date syrup). Too much cumin makes it taste like a curry, and too much heat can overpower the delicate flavors. Here is what I use:

• Cinnamon
• Coriander (ground seeds)
• Cumin (ground seeds)
• Ginger (fresh or ground)
• Garlic
• Grated nutmeg
• Smoked paprika

Then there are the fresh herbs (mint, coriander, and parsley) and freshly squeezed lemon juice that lift it at the end. But you'll find all the ingredients and processes in the printable recipe card below!

👩🏼‍🍳 How To Make Chickpea Tagine

Dice the onion, carrots, and bell peppers into chunks. You can decide how chunky you want them to be, but I like to keep them small so that they are roughly the same size as the chickpeas. Crush the garlic and measure out the dried spices. You can add other vegetables if you like, for example, some diced courgette (zucchini).

Heat some extra virgin olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan, and when it is shimmering, sautee the diced vegetables with a pinch of salt until they are translucent and tender. Add the crushed garlic for another minute, and then stir in the tagine spice mix. Let them become fragrant for 30 seconds to bring out the aromas.

Add the cooked chickpeas and saute them in the spices for a few minutes to let the flavors infuse. Then add the tomato puree, and finally, the canned tomatoes or passata.

Simmer the tagine for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, toast your flaked almonds. You can either do this by tossing them in a hot frying pan (no oil) or spreading them on a baking tray and putting them under the grill (broiler). They will turn fast, so keep an eye on them. Once you can smell them, they will be nearly done.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir the lemon juice and dried apricots into the tagine and sprinkle over the fresh herbs, lemon zest, and toasted flaked almonds before serving.

🍷Wine Pairing for Tagine

Serve a crisp Reisling with Tagine or a full-bodied red wine like a Grenache or Syrah (Shiraz).

❄️ Storage and Freezing

You can make this easy chickpea tagine in advance and reheat it when needed. Store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.

You can also freeze chickpea tagine. Again, transfer it to an airtight container; it will keep for up to one month.

🥣 Equipment

I make tagine in a large enameled casserole dish (or Dutch oven) with good heat distribution, like Le Creuset. I know they're expensive, but I am still using one given to my parents in 1975 as a wedding gift, so they really do last forever!

🙏🏻 If you try this recipe...

If you make this recipe, I'd love to hear how it went! Please leave a 5-star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on the recipe card and consider leaving a comment as well. Your feedback helps other readers and is greatly appreciated.

📖 Recipe