Taking you all the way to the sleepy shores of Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, where the sun kissed beaches meet the fabulous Rif mountains, this epic Prawn and Butterbean Tagine is one of my new fast feasts. It’s packed with fragrant flavours, including preserved lemon and ground ginger, which has the most amazing warmth, and is guaranteed to bring a ray of sunshine into your kitchen any time. I use Belazu preserved lemons. I love them. They are sweet and fragrant. If yours are a little bitter, add ½ and see where you get to and you can always add 1-2 tsp of running honey to balance everything out.
Method
- Put the couscous into a mixing bowl and pour over enough just boiled water to just cover. Cover with cling film and set to one side.
- Heat the oil in a large non-stick pan over a high heat. Chuck in the onion and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes until golden.
- Meanwhile, cut the preserved lemon in half and remove any seeds. Pull off the flesh from both halves and finely chop. It’s a pulp really. And then finely chop the skin, keeping them separate.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add the garlic, cumin, paprika, ginger, tomato passata, lemon juice, preserved lemon flesh and a good pinch of salt. Mix well and bring to the boil.
- Put the prawns, butter beans and 2 tbsp of water into the pan and mix well. Bring to the boil, cover, reduce the heat to low and cook for 5-6 minutes until the prawns are coral pink. Add a splash more water if it looks to dry.
- Fluff the couscous with a fork and divide between four serving plates. Top each with the tagine. Scatter over the preserved lemon skin and coriander and serve immediately.
Ingredients
Serves 4
200g couscous
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 preserved lemon
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground ginger
350g tomato passata
The juice of ½ a lemon
400g tin butterbeans
330g raw peeled king prawns
A handful of coriander leaves
Salt
