Moroccan Vegetable Stew

Today was one of those rare occasions that I brought my lunch from home. Since it was tasty, cheap, and infinitely superior to those prepackaged cardboard sandwiches, I though I'd share it with you. When my girlfriend made her lunch yesterday she made enough to feed four people, so this was the leftovers from that — along with a large hunk of sun-dried tomato bread.

Preparation at work was as simple as adding a bit of water to thin it down, and nuking it in the microwave for a few minutes.

Recipe (serves 4)

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 400g chopped tomatoes
• 200g chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• large handful of raisins
  
• 200g butternut squash peeled and cut into 3cm cubes
• 1 courgette, cut into 2cm pieces
• 1 carrot, cut into 2cm pieces

Heat the oil over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 3–5 minutes. Add the butternut squash and carrot, and fry until slightly coloured. Add the spices, and cook for 2 minutes until fragrant. Add the tomatoes, courgette and raisins, and cover with water. Bring to the boil, then simmer (covered) for 30–45 minutes. Add the chickpeas in 5 minutes before serving. Season, and serve with some couscous or crusty bread.

This recipe was originally inspired by the one in Bowl Food. Bowl Food is a great little recipe book full of comforting bowl food, as you would expect. We've gotten a lot of use out of this book, and loved nearly every recipe we've tried — with a few of our own tweaks here and there. Well worth the £6.59 from Amazon (price accurate at time of posting!).