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When one thinks about classic Moroccan dishes or North African cuisine, tagines with a conical lid may come to mind. You may also think of slowly cooking food with a rich sauce, plenty of vegetables, herbs and both savory and sweet flavors.

The Moroccan cuisine often uses ground cinnamon, honey, golden raisins, dried apricots or other dried fruit to sweeten a dish, and it is easy to find a tagine recipe to suit every palate. But did you know that your choice of tagine pot can greatly affect the taste and nutritional value of your food?

What are my options?

When choosing a traditional cooking tagine, you will find options to purchase a glazed tagine or an unglazed clay tagine. While the glazed will catch your eye because it is colorful, glossy and looks beautiful, the unglazed is free from toxic glazes.

And if you are looking at Miriams unglazed pure clay tagine pan, you can be sure it is 100% non-toxic and cooks the most nutritious traditional Moroccan food among your other favorite recipes. Keep reading to discover how.

Miriams Unglazed Pure Clay Pans for Your Tagine Faves

Miriams Earthenware is a US-based cookware brand that makes pots and pans from lab tested primary clay without any additives, chemicals, glazes or enamels. This ensures there are no toxins leaching into your food and there is no metallic after taste like you get after using cast iron tagines or other reactive metals. The natural flavors and aroma of your ingredients remain intact.

Ergonomically designed

Their ergonomically designed handmade clay pan comes with a cone shaped lid that does much more than improve the aesthetics. It naturally locks in steam escaping from the food and fortifies your dish with essential water soluble nutrients. The flat bottom design of the pan makes sautéing and searing easy while also offering the flexibility of cooking on any heat source of your choice. The slightly rounded bottom edges allow the heat to travel throughout, distributing the heat through your dish quickly and evenly.

Nutrient-rich Flavorful Cooking

The pure clay walls of Miriams tagines are semi-porous so there is constant air circulation enhancing the natural aromas, and they radiate earthen far infrared heat. This gentle heat penetrates food and cooks it fully from inside out on low heat.

If necessary, you may go up to medium low heat when making large quantities like meat for a dinner party or slow cooking chicken broth etc., and up to medium heat max on an electric stovetop with a heat diffuser. Recommended maximum oven temperature is 450 d F.

This low heat preserves all nutrients unlike in conventional metal or ceramic pots which cook with harsh, near infrared heat, which destroys most nutrients. No wonder home chefs find meals cooked in Miriams tagine richer in flavor and more satisfying. Here are some tips for using Miriams clay pans:

Tagine Cooking Tips for Miriams Pans

1. Most recipes cook faster in tagines, especially slow cooked foods whose cooking time is cut to less than half.
2. Miriams cooking tagines become naturally nonstick after 5-6 uses for water based vegetarian recipes. Because of this, Miriams tagine style pan can make your recipe without any oil. You can replace the oils with same amount of water and allow your initial ingredients like onions, tomatoes, spices etc. to cook in water as a delicious sauce forms. This is healthier because heating oils directly breaks them into unhealthy trans fats. However you can optionally add healthy oils like olive oil on top when your dish is just about done.
3. Cook non-vegetarian foods like chicken thighs, fish, lamb and others that require oils or fats only after the pan is fully seasoned.
4. Always cook with a lid on so the pan can lock in steam which falls back into your food providing water soluble nutrients. This will also allow your dishes to cook faster.
5. Never cook on high heat or subject your pan to sudden temperature changes to avoid thermal shock, which can damage it. Only put a cold tagine in a refrigerator.
6. After cooking, you can use the same pan as a serving tagine. Because Miriams clay can retain heat for longer, food stays warm which makes it ideal to serve.
7. Although dishwasher safe, handwashing with baking soda and water is recommended because the soaps used in dishwasher are toxic. Food doesn’t stick and easily comes off using a mild scrubber. Boil cinnamon in water to get rid of food smell, if any.

Now that you know how to home cook nutritious tagine meals that are also flavor-rich, head over to Miriams online store and choose a small or large pan for authentic tagine cooking today.

People Also Ask:

What is a tagine?

The word tagine means a slow-simmered stew of North Africa traditionally cooked in a covered earthenware pot. It also refers to the pot in which tagine is cooked. It is a type of North African cookware traditionally made of clay or ceramic. While ceramic being laden with chemicals, leaches toxins, an unglazed clay tagine made without additives like the one made by Miriams Earthenware is safe and healthy for traditional tagine recipes. Here is how it looks:

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