A tagine is an excellent piece of cooking equipment you’ll definitely want to have in your kitchen. You can create lots of different meals in a tagine, and it makes a beautiful centerpiece for serving food too.
Here are various reasons why you need a tagine pot as an integral part of your kitchen.
1. Tagine dishes are easy to make
It’s easy to put together a tagine dish. You can use just about any vegetables that you’ve got on hand and put them into your tagine with the meat of your choice for a quick dinner.
When you make a tagine, you only have to use the tagine pot, so cleaning is fast and easy. No stacks of pots and pans to wash after dinner!
2. Tagine dishes are healthy
Most tagine recipes use olive oil, which is a healthy source of fat. You only need a small amount of oil for tagine dishes, as most recipes don’t involve frying. The food is cooked thanks to the steam that builds up, with even heat distribution thanks to the tagine lid’s conical shape.
The pot seals in the ingredients and the flavors. The moisture from the sauce and veggies travel up the sides of the conical lid and back down again to baste the food for maximum flavor.
3. Tagine dishes offer a unique flavor
Anyone who regularly uses a tagine will tell you that the earthy taste of meals cooked in a tagine is far superior to anything cooked in standard pots or pans. The aroma of the fired earth tagine will infuse your dish with a smoky and exotic freshness that’s hard to replicate otherwise.
4. You can use cheaper cuts of meat
The cheaper – or tougher – cuts of meat become infused with flavor when you cook them slowly. You can use budget cuts of meat such as shank, bone-in short ribs, oxtail, chuck roast, or lamb on the bone.
5. Veggie dishes are simple to make
If you are vegan or veggie, tagine dishes are simple to make without meat. You can use a mixture of eggplant, peppers, chickpeas, and potatoes with a delicious sauce.
You can serve tasty side ingredients such as fresh lemon, fresh herbs, olives, diced apricots, or pine nuts.
6. Tagine dishes can go from stove to table
Once you have finished cooking your dish, you can bring it straight to the table to serve it from the tagine. Tagines are beautiful, and some have even been devised for serving only, but you could use any cooking tagine. Putting a colorful dish in the middle of the table is an effortless way to provide family-style meals without sacrificing on look.r
If you want a tagine dish that can go from stove to table, look for one that is cast iron. Some cast-iron tagines are enameled, some are not.
For bare cast-iron tagine pots, be sure to season them properly first.
7. Tagine dishes are rich in history
The use of tagine dishes goes back for centuries. The Berbers first used tagine pots, but the dishes have transformed over time from Arab and Ottoman influences and changes when Moorish refugees left Andalusia and France.
Not only are you bringing a taste of Moroccan culture into your home, but you are also honoring a tradition that started in the ninth century.
8. You can make delicious dishes
To get the most out of your tagine pot, you typically have a layer of garlic and onions, a layer of meat, another layer of vegetables, and then the spices and oil with some water.
You don’t have to brown the meat beforehand since everything steams together and caramelizes. As the tagine cooks, you get a thick stew with a sauce packed full of flavors, which is very tasty to pour over couscous or to soak up with bread.
Tagine recipes are often sweet and savory, using preserved lemons for added flavor. The spices are crucial to the recipe and usually include ginger, saffron, coriander, cinnamon, and paprika.
Some example tagine dishes are:
- Chicken tagine with lemons and olives
- Chicken and apricot tagine
- Beef or lamb tagine with prunes
- Fish tagine
- Pumpkin, cranberry, and red onion tagine
- Moroccan lamb meatballs
- Lamb shanks with chickpeas
Tagine dishes are excellent for other recipes, too. Besides tagine, you can also make stews, such as:
- Lamb stew with root vegetables
- Seafood stew
- Beef stew in red wine sauce
- Black-eyed pea stew with sausages
- Ham hock stew
- Pork stew with chili and lime
- Coconut chicken stew
The only limits to your tagine pot are your imagination!