Homemade Tagine and LOLA ROSA VEGETARIAN BISTRO in Montreal.

This was my dinner tonight. I was inspired by a beautiful tagine I had at LOLA ROSA vegetarian restaurant in Montreal, Canada where I had my holiday the past ten days. I was back at work today and couldn't stop thinking of that tagine. So I came home and made this. It has potatoes, chickpeas, carrots, onions, raisins, apricots, olives and tomato. I served it with whole wheat couscous and sliced almonds.

Lola Rosa is a beautiful little bistro in the Plateau district in Montreal on Avenue du Parc.

I liked the artwork in this place. ;)

Quesadilla plate which my husband had. It had a sweet potato filling and he said it was delicious. It could be made vegan also.

Veggie burger made out of lentils and chia seeds. Looked amazing.

I had the tagine which was so delicious! It was served with what tasted like mint chutney. So good.

For dessert, chocolate banana tarte. Yumm.

The tables had drawers which housed random notes from strangers.

I left my own note.

Lola Rosa Montreal

Vegetable Tagine and PB & Pickle Sandwich

When I have lots of produce to use up, I like to find a recipe that utilzes them all in one pot. This vegetable tagine was the perfect thing. I based it off the recipe in 'Classic Veg.Cooking from the Middle East and N. Africa' and added tomato sauce, ras al hanout, coriander and a little water. I garnished with lemon slices and green olives stuffed with chiles.


Served with bread and sweet pickles. All the vegetables cooked away in the hot dutch oven which resulted in a meltingly tender melange. I used eggplant, zucchini, carrots, onions, peppers, potatoes and chickpeas.


Just wanted to show you my "snack of the moment". I used to read Sue Grafton's alphabet mysteries quite a lot and the main character Kinsey Millhone had several foods that she ate all the time. One of them was a peanut butter and pickle sandwich. I thought it was a genius idea. I don't remember if in the novels she used sweet or dill pickles but I prefer the sweet 'bread and butter' pickles. You might be cringing right now at the combination but don't knock it till you try it!

Rockin' Moroccan.

Zeilouk d'Aubergine. (Moroccan eggplant relish). I think I may have overdid it on the tomato paste because it's a lot redder than I think it's supposed to look. Looks aside, this was wonderful. A tangy relish of cooked eggplant, green bell pepper, onions and tomatoes. Recipe from Olive Trees and Honey cookbook.


Delicious meze platter: eggplant relish, baba ganouj (store bought), lavash bread and assorted olives.


Moroccan vegetable stew with couscous and onion-cinnamon raisin topping. Recipe also from Olive Trees and Honey cookbook.

Simple Lunch and Moroccan Tagine Dinner

I wanted to eat my lunch on our backyard patio today. I kept it simple with freshly made hummus, cucumber salad, Trader Joe's spinach pizza and pita for dipping. It was perfect.


I enjoyed it all with Reed's Cherry Ginger Brew.




Dinner was a little more complicated only because I did a lot of chopping. I based this stew off of the Vegetable Tagine recipe from 'Classic Vegetarian Recipes from The Middle East and N. Africa' cookbook. It has loads of things in it: sweet potato, carrots, onions, garlic, tomatoes, yellow pepper, eggplant, zucchini, chickpeas, black and green olives, cilantro, cumin, cinnamon and a bit of tomato sauce and water for some sauciness. This tagine requires you to bake it covered in the oven for about an hour and a half. I served it with healthy brown rice because I didn't have any couscous. Delicious! The flavors melded so well.


Very satisfying stew.

Moroccan Tagine of Chickpeas

I got this recipe from a cookbook I just bought called 'Food of Morocco'. It has mostly meat recipes but a few were vegetarian or vegan. The Tagine of Chickpeas recipe was completely vegan to my delight. This stew is beautifully flavored with a medley of spices: paprika, turmeric, cumin, ginger, cinnamon and harissa (a North African red chili paste) and is bathed in a rich tomato sauce. I didn't feel like couscous tonight and I don't know where to get Moroccan bread, so I enjoyed it with a loaf of Iranian Barbari bread (wheat flour, water, yeast, salt) that I picked up from Payless Produce on the way home from work today.