Vegetable Maqluba Recipe (A Vegan Makloubeh)

Instructions

Prep Work - Rice, Chickpeas and Stock

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F / 160°C Fan), for the cauliflower.
Rinse and drain the rice and set aside.
250 g Basmati rice
Drain the chickpeas and give them a quick rinse, drain and set aside.
100 g drained chickpeas from a can
Place the stock in a small saucepan. Crush the saffron and drop into the stock. Heat this stock up on the smallest ring and on the lowest setting, while you get everything else going.
400 ml vegetable stock, 1 pinch saffron

Prep Work - Vegetables

Chop up the cauliflower into bite-sized pieces.
½ small cauliflower
Drain the marinated vegetables and slice any overly big pieces.
1 jar marinated eggplants, 1 jar marinated courgette (zucchini), 1 jar mixed marinated capsicums (bell peppers)
Dice the onion (chop it up fairly finely).
1 large onion
Slice the tomatoes into rings and set aside.
2 tomatoes

Roasting the Cauliflower

Cut the cauliflower into bite-sized pieces.
½ small cauliflower
Arrange the cauliflower pieces on a baking sheet and drizzle 1 Tbsp of EV olive oil all over. Sprinkle the salt and black pepper and roast for about 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Flip halfway through the cooking time.
1 Tbsp EV olive oil, ¼ tsp salt, 1 dash freshly ground black pepper

Let's fry the Onions and Chickpeas

Heat the olive oil in the saucepan over medium heat.
1 Tbsp EV olive oil
Sauté the onions for 2 minutes.
Tip in the drained chickpeas, allspice, turmeric, salt and a few good twists of pepper. Stir and cook for 1 minute to let it heat up.
¼ tsp ground turmeric, ½ tsp salt, coarsely crushed black pepper, 1 tsp allspice
Mix the cornflour and water and drizzle this onto the chickpeas and stir well. Cook for 2 minutes on medium heat. Take it off the heat, stir in the lemon juice and set aside.
1 tsp cornflour + 2 Tbsp water, juice of half a lemon

Let's assemble and cook our Vegetable Maqluba

Grease your saucepan of choice all over. Then start with the layering the bottom with the sliced tomatoes. You'll get 2 layers. Season with salt and pepper, a small sprinkle will do.
a little more oil for greasing
Add the marinated vegetables and season with salt and pepper. No need to separate the different vegetables. Pack down with a potato masher.
Follow this with the cauliflower. Season and pack down.
Next, add the chickpeas, once again flattening. But gently, as you don't want to cruch the chickpeas.
I forgot photos for this step.
Finally the rice, pack, flatten, season with salt and pepper.
Take a small saucer, place it face down on the rice (or use the back of a large spoon), and slowly pour all the stock in. This stops a gap/hole appearing in the rice as you're pouring the stock in. You also don't want to mess up the packed rice and vegetables.
Place the pot on the stovetop, turn the heat on high for 2 - 3 minutes to bring everything up to simmering point although you'll probably only see the edges bubbling. When you start seeing the bubbles at the edges, move on to the next step.
Put the lid on, turn the heat right down and cook for 40 minutes. Then, take it off the hot hob and leave the maqluba to rest for 10 minutes before unveiling.
Take a large plate or serving platter, place it over the pot. Holding the plate tightly against the saucepan, give it a gentle shake. This will loosen the packed rice slightly. Now, gently ease the saucepan off the plate and you'll be left with a beautiful maqluba tower.
You can see me doing this on the traditional maqluba recipe video at 12:15 minutes.
Scoop up any stuck bits and place on the top of your tower and then scatter with the pine nuts and chopped parsley.
If you packed the saucepan as mentioned, it shouldn't collapse. But if it does, no big deal, scatter with pine nuts and parsley and pretend that's what you were going for!

Want to know what saucepan I'm using?

I get a lot of questions about this. So here is the link to Amazon for the saucepan that I'm using.
30 g pine nuts or flaked almonds, 1 handful fresh flat leaf parsley

Equipment

Ingredients

Vegetables

Dry Spices

To Serve

Instructions

Prep Work - Rice, Chickpeas and Stock

Prep Work - Vegetables

Roasting the Cauliflower

Let's fry the Onions and Chickpeas

Let's assemble and cook our Vegetable Maqluba

Want to know what saucepan I'm using?

Nutrition