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This Moroccan chickpea stew is a hearty dinner packed with sweet potatoes, warming spices, and nutritious vegetables. It’s the perfect plant-based comfort food for busy weeknights!
Here’s a healthy dinner idea that’s so hearty and satisfying, it will please everyone around the table: this Moroccan Chickpea Stew! It’s ultra flavorful: the sweet potatoes get tender and creamy, the chickpeas soak up all those gorgeous spices, and everything comes together in one pot.
I love serving this stew with quinoa for a tasty plant based dinner that’s also gluten free. If you like, a dollop of Greek yogurt: and most definitely a squeeze of lemon to brighten the flavors!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This Moroccan chickpea stew has become a reader favorite, and I hope you’ll love it for these reasons:
- Cozy, comforting flavor: The warm blend of cumin, coriander, turmeric, and cinnamon is so satisfying
- Packed with nutrients: Every bowl delivers protein from chickpeas, fiber from sweet potatoes, and vitamins from fresh spinach
- Simple, one-pot meal: Everything simmers in a single pot, and it’s ideal for meal prep and weekday lunches
5 Star Reader Reviews
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I made this delicious Moroccan Chickpea Stew for dinner tonight. WOW!!!! The flavors are fantastic! My husband and I both had seconds and agreed this is a keeper!” -Carolyn
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “This was absolutely delicious! I will definitely be adding this to my weekly rotation of recipes. I used white beans instead of chickpeas and tricolor quinoa. Really yummy!” -Grace
Ingredients You’ll Need
This Moroccan chickpea stew plays on flavors from Moroccan cuisine that make it taste complex and fresh: it’s full of cumin, ginger, a bit of cinnamon, and topped with fresh cilantro, a squeeze of lemon and a touch of Greek yogurt. Here are the major ingredients in the base stew:
- Onion and garlic: Aromatics that build the foundation of flavor
- Sweet potatoes: Look for firm, unblemished potatoes, which create natural sweetness: no need to peel! Butternut squash also works.
- Canned tomatoes: Fire-roasted tomatoes add extra depth if you have them.
- Chickpeas: I like using canned chickpeas for convenience, but 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas also works.
- Spinach: Fresh spinach wilts into the stew at the end, adding color and nutrients.
- Olive oil: Hearty-healthy oil used for sauteing.
- Vegetable broth: I always use regular sodium broth; you can also make homemade vegetable broth.
- Moroccan spice blend: A blend of savory and sweet spices: paprika, cumin, coriander and turmeric on the savory side, and ginger and cinnamon on the sweet side. Cinnamon in particular is traditionally used in Moroccan savory stews.
I also like to add a squeeze of lemon and a handful of fresh herbs at the end as a garnish. The acid brings a brightness to the dish that’s the perfect counterpoint to the darker, savory flavors in this chickpea stew.
How to Make Moroccan Chickpea Stew
This Moroccan chickpea stew is very simple to put together and a hearty vegan sweet potato recipe everyone will love. The ingredient may seem long, but that’s mainly due to the spices, most of which are probably already on hand in your pantry. The process is ultra simple: sauté the veggies, add spices and broth, then simmer until the potatoes are tender and your kitchen smells amazing.
This chickpea stew recipe is a fan-favorite that’s been a hit with readers for years; we even put a version in our cookbook! It’s vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free, so hits many diet requirements. Serve it anytime you need a cozy, plant-packed meal!
Serving Suggestions
This Moroccan chickpea stew tastes fantastic as is, but serve it with a whole grain to make it even more filling! Here are a few options:
- Quinoa: Quinoa makes a filling counterpoint to this stew: and it’s also gluten-free! It’s not traditionally served in Moroccan cuisine so use couscous to be more true to the cuisine.
- Couscous: Couscous is tiny pasta, and it’s a great fit with a Moroccan stew! It also is very quick to cook. Since it’s made with wheat, it’s not suitable for gluten-free diets.
- Bulgur wheat: Bulgur wheat is traditional in Middle Eastern cuisine and is a great fit with this stew.
- Rice: Rice is another easy grain to serve with this stew! Use long grain white rice or brown rice.
Storage and Reheating
One of the best things about this chickpea stew is how well it keeps. You can store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
To reheat, warm the stew gently on the stovetop over medium-low heat, adding a splash of vegetable broth or water if it has become very thick.
This stew also freezes well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating. The texture of the sweet potatoes becomes slightly softer after freezing, but it still tastes delicious!
Dietary Notes
This Moroccan chickpea stew recipe is vegetarian, vegan, plant based, dairy-free, gluten-free (with quinoa), and refined sugar free. Keep in mind, couscous is not suitable for gluten-free diets.
Easy Moroccan Chickpea Stew
This Moroccan chickpea stew is a hearty dinner packed with sweet potatoes, warming spices, and nutritious vegetables. It’s the perfect plant-based comfort food for busy weeknights!
Ingredients
- 2 cups dry quinoa or 1 recipe Easy Couscous*
- 1 large onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 large sweet potatoes (about 1 ¾ pounds)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon each paprika and ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon each ground coriander, ground turmeric, and ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon each kosher salt and ground black pepper
- 2 pinches cayenne pepper
- 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 15 ounce can chickpeas, drained (or 1 ½ cups cooked)
- 3 cups baby spinach (or chopped spinach)
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish
- 1 lemon, for garnish
- 1 cup Greek yogurt, for garnish
Instructions
- Make the quinoa using the stovetop method or Instant Pot method. When it’s done, sprinkle with a little kosher salt to taste.
- Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Chop the sweet potatoes into bite-sized pieces.
- In a large pot, heat the olive oil. Sauté the onion for about 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and sauté about 1 minute.
- Stir in the paprika, cumin, coriander, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, kosher salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Stir about 30 seconds, then add diced tomatoes and broth.
- Bring to a boil, then add sweet potatoes and drained and rinsed chickpeas. Simmer 25 to 30 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Stir in the spinach in the last 2 minutes.
- Serve over the quinoa, garnished with chopped cilantro, fresh squeezed lemon juice, and a dollop of Greek yogurt.
Notes
*Serve with rice, couscous, or bulgur wheat (couscous and bulgur are not suitable for gluten-free diets).
More Healthy Dinner Recipes
This stew is one of our fan-favorite plant-based dinner recipes that readers come to again and again! Here are a few more tasty ways to eat dinners packed with plants:
- Go for Easy Vegan Tacos or Easy Vegan Meatballs
- Mix up Quick Hummus Bowls
- Try Easy Kale Soup, Chickpea Soup with Rice or Sweet Potato Curry
- Opt for Easy Vegan Taco Salad
Trying your moroccan chickpea stew tonight. I
wondered if you cover while cooking? No mention of whether to cook the ingredients at the end, covered or never cover.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Thanks for asking! You can cook it uncovered!
This is easy and quite flavorful! I only made 1 cup of quinoa and it was more than enough. I didn’t have any fresh cilantro but put in a couple of shakes of dried.
This is great comfort food on a cold winter night. I will definitely make this again.
the instructions should be rearranged to make the quinoa while the stew is simmering. otherwise it’s sitting there getting cold.
Whole family LOVED this recipe. subbed butternut squash for the sweet potatoes. Used fire roasted tomatoes. Absolutely delicious.
I take dry quinoa to mean uncooked, but fortunately I didn’t use 2 cups! 2 cups uncooked quinoa makes 6 cups cooked! I like leftovers, but that’s a lot of quinoa. I cut the recipe a bit here and there for two of us but used the whole can of tomatoes and all the wonderful spices. Very tasty indeed! Thank you.