Moroccan Chickpea and Butternut Squash Stew

This is a wonderful and hearty vegetarian entrée or side dish made with chickpeas, butternut squash, carrots, crushed tomatoes and a spice mixture of cumin, ginger, turmeric, coriander and cinnamon.  I also added dried apricots and red lentils which really add a lot of texture and served it over couscous.  Since I was making this for 25 people, I decided to save some money and used dried chickpeas. Soak them overnight and then gently simmer for an hour before you start assembling the stew.  It cooked for over an hour and the chickpeas were nice and tender without being mushy.  You could easily add chicken, beef or lamb to this dish, but even non-vegetarians said they didn’t miss the meat.  Click here for the recipe….