Thareed with rugag
This rich vegan vegetable stew with pieces of seitan is a vegan version of thareed, a dish often eaten in the United Arab Emirates. Serve it on top of torn up pieces of freshly made rugag.
Servings 6
Ingredients
- 1 Onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3-5 cm ginger, minced
- 2 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 small pumpkin or butternut squash, cut 400 g
- 3 tomatoes, fresh, chopped
- 1 small zucchini/squash/courgette, quartered and sliced 200 g
- eggplant, 200 g
- 1 carrot, cut into coins 100 g
- 2 potatoes, cut into small pieces 500 g
- 1-2 green chili, chopped
- 2 dried limes / black limes / loomi see note
- seitan (below) or other vegan protein of choice optional, see note
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Spices
- 1 tbsp bzar arabic spice blend, recipe below
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp coriander
- 1 tsp chili, ground
- 2-4 pods cardamom
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
Bzar spice blend - yield: 3 tbsp
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1 tsp cloves
- 1 tsp cardamom seeds
- ½ tsp cinnamon, ground
- ½ tsp nutmeg, grated
Rugag
- 3 dl all purpose flour
- 2.5 dl water
- ½ tsp salt
Seitan
- 2 dl vital wheat gluten
- ½ dl chick pea flour
- 2 tsp bzar
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ dl soy sauce
- 1.5 dl water
- 1.5-2 L vegetable stock for simmering.
Instructions
Bzar
- Place all the whole spices in a spice grinder or mortar. Grind.
- Mix in the preground spices.
Seitan (if using)
- Note that seitan can be made a fwe days in advance.
- Mix vital wheat gluten, chickpea flour and spices.
- Mix 100 mL soy sauce with half the water and stir into the gluten mix.
- Add the rest of the water, working it into the dough.The dough should be a bit sticky but form a stretchy lump.
- Knead the dough for a while.
- Prepare the broth by bringing 2 L of vegetable stock to the boil in a wide pot.
- Shape the seitan dough into chunks or patties, whichever shape you like really.
- Add seitan to water, reduce to a simmer.
- The Seitan will float. Flip the pieces every now and then.
- Simmer for about an hour.
- Let cool in the stock before proceeding.
Thareed
- Chop the onion and mince the garlic and ginger. Chop pumpkin and potatoes into 2-3 cm chunks and slice the carrot, eggplant and zucchini into 0.5 cm or less slices.
- Fry the onion, eggplant, garlic and ginger until soft and translucent and the onion starts to brown.
- Stir in tomato paste, all the spices (including loomi) and carrot, potato and pumpkin.
- Add 0.5 L water.
- Simmer for 20 minutes. Add a bit of water if needed.
- If using: cut the seitan into 3 cm pieces. Add to the pot.
- Simmer for another 15 min. Add a bit of water if needed.
- Add the zucchini.
- Simmer for another 10 min. Add a bit of water if needed.
- Taste and adjust level of salt and spiciness.
- Serve on torn up pieces of rugag.
Rugag
- While the thareed is simmering, make your rugag.
- Mix flour, salt and water until all lumps are gone.
- Heat a pan on medium-high flame. It should be really hot.
- Add 0.5 dl (1/3 cup) of batter to the pan and spread it out using a spatula. The batter should cook and stick to the pan instantly. Spread as thin as you can.
- Cook on each side for a few minutes.
- Cook until all the batter is gone. Should make ~6-8 pieces.
Notes
Loomi: This ingredient adds a nice bitter/sour citrusy flavour to the dish. If you can't find it, you can use some lime zest and juice.If using fresh lime, add this toward the end of the cooking process.
Seitan: instead of making your own seitan, you can use a storebought vegan protein of your choice or jsut omit this completely for a rich vegetable stew instead. Seitan can preferably be made in advance to reduce the total cooking on the day of making thareed.