Slow Cooker Moroccan Chickpea Stew

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

If you haven’t used your slow cooker yet during soup season, this easy recipe is just the motivation you need. I keep my crockpot on a high shelf, but every time I get it down and switch it on, I am reminded how handy this unassuming kitchen appliance is for healthy soups and stews.

This vegan soup is hearty with chickpeas and lentils. They are pantry ingredients that you can use in more than just soup recipes like big no-lettuce salads.

A Moroccan-inspired blend of dried spices plus harissa paste gives the broth incredible flavor. I include cumin, paprika, coriander, cinnamon and ginger to go with sweet potatoes, red bell peppers, tomatoes and carrots.

The Ingredients

Ingredients & Substitutions

Don’t be overwhelmed by the length of the ingredient list. The goal of this plant-based stew is to incorporate lots of vegetables plus lentils and chickpeas, in a spiced tomato-ish broth that has a nice kick.

And after a short amount of sauteing, you can throw everything into the slow cooker and take care of your to-do list while the soup bubbles away.

This is what you need:

• Onions: Diced onions are the starting point of the stew. Once they are sautéed to the point of being soft, then they are ready to take on all the dried spices and the fresh garlic and ginger. This mix becomes the flavorful foundation of the recipe.
• Spices: Cumin, paprika, coriander, cinnamon, ginger, kosher salt and black pepper are the dried seasonings in the soup.
• Garlic: To go with the spices, I mince two garlic cloves. This recipe is all about layering different flavors.
• Ginger: In addition to dried ginger, I also add minced fresh ginger.
• Chickpeas: A staple in Moroccan soups and in couscous, there is a can of chickpeas (a.k.a. garbanzo beans) in the soup.
• Lentils: Besides chickpeas, green lentils make the stew filling enough to be a meal. I like green lentils because they hold their shape when you simmer them unlike red lentils or yellow lentils which fall apart.
• Sweet Potatoes: I peel and dice a sweet potato. You can substitute the sweet potatoes with 1 1/2 cups of diced butternut squash.
• Carrots: I also peel and dice a couple carrots.
• Red peppers: I include a red bell pepper that I dice like the other vegetables.
• Tomatoes: I pour a can of diced fire-roasted tomatoes into the slow cooker.
• Harissa: Most groceries stock this North African chile paste in the Middle Eastern section in the international foods aisle. You can get either mild or hot depending on your spice tolerance.
• Vegetable broth: Make sure to use low sodium vegetable broth, so you can control the seasonings.

Serving

As mentioned, this stew is hearty, which is everything you want from a slow-cooker meal. If you’re looking for something fresh on the side, you can serve it with a salad. Try this mandarin orange kale salad, rainbow carrot salad or this roasted vegetable couscous salad. You can also include pita bread for dipping into the broth.

Recipe Tips

Even though I didn’t show it in these photos, I have a slow cooker where I can put the cooking pot on the stove. This reduces cleanup. A good crockpot recipe starts with sautéing the aromatic ingredients before slow cooking everything. Then you get some browning or caramelization, which adds flavor.

If you don’t have a crockpot, you can make this soup on the stove. Start the recipe as written, sauteing the onions, garlic, ginger and seasonings in a dutch oven or large saucepan. Then once you add the chickpeas, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, red peppers, lentils, harissa and vegetable broth, bring it to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 25-30 minutes until the lentils are tender and the soup has thickened slightly.