Crock Pot Vegan Moroccan Stew

In an effort to try to maintain some kind of cognitive ability in this world where we don’t have to memorize anything anymore, if a word comes up as misspelled when I’m writing I don’t right click to see the correct spelling.  Instead, I backspace and type the word again until it’s spelled right.  

Except for Moroccan.  I tried three times and just failed.  

So, the point is that I suck at spelling but I try and that’s half the battle?  

Cognitive failures aside, this particular meal is a WINNER.  It’s healthy, easy, and full of flavor.  I love meals like this that are light but still somehow cozy at this time when the seasons are still changing but there are definitely still some cold mornings and nights BUT we start to realize that a whole winter of comfort food means JUST SAY NO TO BATHING SUITS so we really need to eat our veggies.  And this is a happy medium!  Ridiculously healthy but not straight up raw veggies.  

You need all the veggies your little heart can handle, basically.  Onion, garlic, fennel, carrots, eggplant, zucchini, chick peas, canned tomatoes, veggie stock, cinnamon, cayenne pepper,  cumin, salt, flour, and raisins.  The flour isn’t in this picture because I decided about 8 hours after I took this picture to use it.  

So, just like any crock pot meal the biggest task is chopping up all the veggies.  Cut everything into large bite-sized chunks – they’ll cook down a lot so don’t worry about the veggies being too big.  

Layer all the vegetables in the crock pot.  

Then, lightly drain the chick peas and add them to the pot with the tomatoes and all of their juices.  

Then sprinkle the spices right over top…

….and give a little glug of stock to keep things saucy.  You’ll actually use less stock than you’d find in some crock pot recipes because the veggies will release a lot of liquid as they cook.  

Give everything a stir, then sprinkle the dish with just a little bit of salt.  

NOW.  All of this can be done the night before, which is what I did.  Then in the morning you just press the button and wander off!  4 hours on high, 8 hours on low, give or take.  30 minutes to an hour before you’d like to eat, we start with our final round of preparations.  If you’d like to serve this with anything like quinoa or rice, get it started now!  Then, add the raisins to the dish.  They’ll need a few minutes to plump up.  

Then, mix a tiny bit more stock with some cornstarch – since there is so much liquid from the vegetables we want to thicken the sauce a little bit.  

Let the veggies cook on high for 30 minutes more to thicken the sauce a little bit.  

Then we eat!  I served this with quinoa, but you could eat it plain, with bread or rice – anything you can think of!  

The veggies are very soft in this dish, but the chick peas hold up really well and have great texture.  Then we have the spices and sweet raisins and it’s just GOOD, guys.  Healthy whole food that is easy to make and super tasty.  Done and done.