Tagine hummus — chickpea tagine — is one of the most common everyday tagines in Morocco, made when there is a little meat and a pot of soaked chickpeas. Chickpeas are the backbone legume of Moroccan cooking, eaten in couscous, in harira soup, and in tagines across the country. In this dish, they are cooked with chunks of lamb, onions, tomatoes and warm spices, particularly cinnamon, until the chickpeas are soft and the meat is tender. The chickpeas absorb the meat broth and become deeply savory, and the dish is always served with bread to soak up the thick sauce.
The chickpeas are silky and saturated with meat broth; the lamb is tender, the sauce is thick with dissolved chickpea starch and tomato. Cinnamon runs underneath, warm and faintly sweet.
Chickpeas thicken the sauce as they cook, their starch leaching into the broth and giving it body, the same mechanism that makes lentil tagine hearty. The long cook is necessary because chickpeas, even when soaked, need a full hour to become truly soft in a tagine; pressure-cooking cuts this to 20 minutes. Cinnamon, the dominant spice, is added early so it infuses the broth throughout the cook, and its cinnamaldehyde enhances the perception of the chickpeas' natural sweetness.
Variations
Some add preserved lemon and olives. A vegetarian version omits the meat. Smen stirred in at the end is traditional.
On the Palate
Where Tagine Hummus sits in the Moroccan flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 5
How it's made
6 steps · 20 min
- 18 min
Brown 500 g lamb chunks in 2 tbsp olive oil; add 2 sliced onions, 4 crushed garlic, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1 tsp paprika, salt; cook 5 min.
Watch outAdd the cinnamon early so it infuses the whole braise — its warmth is what lifts the chickpeas' natural sweetness.
- 25 min
Add 2 cups soaked chickpeas, 2 chopped tomatoes, and water to cover; bring to a boil.
- 320 min
Cover and simmer 50-60 min until the chickpeas are very soft and the meat tender.
Watch outCook until the chickpeas are truly soft, not just done — undercooked they stay chalky and the sauce never gains body.
- 45 min
Uncover and reduce 10 min if the sauce is thin.
- 53 min
Stir in 1 tsp smen if using; scatter chopped coriander.
- 63 min
Serve with bread.
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