Recipe Friday: Spring Vegetable Tagine

I found this recipe in Vegetarian times and thought it looked interesting. To be honest, I didn't think it would really be that great, but wanted to give it a chance.  I cut the recipe in half so I wouldn't waste a ton of food if it was a bomb, but I was pleasantly surprised!  I really liked it and so did Evan!  It takes awhile to bake, but it's similar to crock pot prep-just throw it all in the pot, put the pot in the oven and stir once.  It includes a lot of ingredients I don't normally use, like Fava beans (I couldn't find fresh or frozen like the recipe called for so I just had to use dried, which I soaked and cooked), radishes and fennel.  I don't have a tagine so I just used a covered casserole dish, which worked great for cleanup and leftover storage as well.

Spring Vegetable Tagine

1 large fennel bulb, quartered, cored, and sliced (1 1/2 C)
8 medium radishes, quartered
2 C fresh or frozen shelled fava beans
1 medium onion, sliced (1 1/2C)
1 c chopped parsley, divided
2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tsp)
1/4 C olive oil
1 TBSP ground coriander
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 c vegetable broth
24 asparagus spears, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 C fresh or frozen green peas
1 TBSP lemon juice
2/3 C toasted sliced almonds

Combine fennel, radishes, fava beans, onion, 3/4 C parsley, and garlic in 3.5 at tagine or dutch oven.  Stir in oil, coriander, ginger and turmeric and season with salt and pepper if desired.  Pour in broth.

Place in cold oven, adjust the heat to 300 F and cook 1 1/2 hours, stirring once at the 45 minute mark.

Stir in asparagus and peas, return to oven and cook 30 minutes more or until asparagus is tender.  Remove from oven and stir in lemon juice.  Serve sprinkled with almonds and remaining 1/4 C parsley.