Recipe: Chicken and butternut squash tagine

I love the aromatic flavours of a tagine and it is a great way to hide fruit and vegetables for fussy children. It is a Moroccan dish, a mixture of vegetables, chicken or lamb and dried fruit which would be cooked slowly in a tagine - a glazed earthenware pot with a conical lid with a knob on the top which was traditionally used by nomads as a portable oven over a charcoal brazier. My version is simple and quick to prepare and I love the rich flavours that come from the combination of butternut squash, korma curry paste and dried apricots. I like to use organic dried apricots, they have a much better flavour than ordinary dried apricots which are treated with sulphur dioxide to preserve their bright orange colour.
You can serve this with couscous or with fluffy white rice.

Makes four portions. Suitable for freezing

Ingredients

● 1 tbsp olive oil
● 1 red onion, chopped
● 1 small carrot, peeled and grated
● ¼ small butternut squash peeled and grated
● 1 tbsp Korma curry paste
● ¼ tsp cumin
● Pinch each ground cinnamon and ground ginger
● Pinch dried onion flakes (optional)
● 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
● 1 tbsp tomato puree
● 250 ml vegetable stock
● 1 tsp honey
● 300g skinless, boneless chicken thigh or breast cut into bite sized pieces
● 8 organic dried apricots cut into half cm pieces
● 1 tbsp light olive oil
● 1 small red onion, diced
● 200g couscous
● 400 ml chicken stock
● 2 spring onions, chopped
● 2 tbsp chopped coriander (optional)