Monday Meal Highlight – Beef Tagine with Butternut Squash

There is a serious bite in the air today, which means that it is time for me to share one of my all time favorite winter meals. This tangine recipe from Cooking Light has become a staple in my household. I make this again and again all winter long and we never tire of it. This stew is rich and tasty but still a quick fix that requires relatively few dishes- Score!

Not only is this one of my favorite meals to dish up at home, but this is also something that I love to make over the open fire while camping. (See below for my easy camping prep suggestions). We have dined on tangine while winter camping in Yosemite and during a torrential downpour in Big Sur which nearly washed away our tent. Whatever the occasion, when you really need a heart warming, cozy meal this is a must!

Please refer to the above link for the full recipe. I occasionally get lazy and buy pre-cut stew meat in lieu of purchasing a roast and cutting it myself. If you have the time buy the roast, as it will yield a better result. In addition to serving with cilantro I also like to add a dollop of sour cream or plain greek yogurt.

Finally, when camping I make to following advance preparation which guarantees a good result in the great outdoors:

  1. Measure the first 6 ingredients (all of the spices), at home and mix them together in a zip lock baggie. This way you don’t need to be toting all of your spice jars and measuring spoons with you.
  2. Bring a large freezer bag and use it to toss the meat and spices.
  3. Occasionally, depending on camping conditions, I opt to chop my meat ahead of time. When doing very primitive camping I don’t like to mess with chopping the raw meat at the site as cleaning up and sanitizing a cutting board, knife, etc can be more challenging- (I can hear my husband correcting me now… “It’s fine, just stick the knife blade in the fire…”)
  4. Don’t forget your can opener or veggie peeler- (Again, I hear my husbands voice: “You don’t need a can opener… I have my axe”). None of us want to see a man open a can of tomatoes with an axe. Or do we?
Cooking at Yosemite

One of my best memories of our time living on the west coast was enjoying this tangine around the campfire with our dear friends.

Hope that you all enjoy this recipe, whether from the comfort of your home or the warmth of your campfire!

via Beef Tagine with Butternut Squash – Best Recipes for Winter Vegetables and Fruits – Cooking Light.