Trying a new cuisine is always exciting and exploring lesser known countries – or at least, lesser known for their food – can introduce you to unexplored ingredients and exciting new flavours. I was taking a look in my boyfriend’s slow cooker cookbook () for inspiration, nosing at meat recipes I could adapt, when I came across a recipe for Iraqi beef daube. Inspired by the recipe I found, I have reworked their original into a vegan alternative. For this recipe I had to seek out dried limes (sometihng I have never cooked with before) and finally got to use some all spice I picked up a few weeks ago.

The history of Iraqi food is as rich as its flavours, with thousands of years, past empires and neighbouring countries having made their mark on the food we see today. In fact, the very first cookbooks are said to have been found in Iraq on ancient stone tablets. Despite all of these influences coming together, I can honestly say this dish tasted like nothing I have ever eaten before and I can’t wait to make it again!

The daube is a hearty dish that uses no oil or other fats in the stew. This recipe is a far stretch from the one I found in the cookbook, with an array of vegetables in place of brisket, and the addition of Marmite to create a depth of flavour that complements the rich tomato base. The method for today’s dish is very simple as everything for the stew simply cooks together in the slow cooker and is ideal to serve up with a buttery saffron rice (I used a dairy-free spread) and tangy caramelised barberries. The method for the barberries here is borrowed from one element of this recipe by the lovely Goli who has a whole blog of Persian dishes just waiting to be adapted into veggie ones! Ingredients

For the daube:

2 white onions, cut into eights

300g mushrooms, cut into halves

2 celery sticks, sliced

1 courgette, thickly sliced

1 large sweet potato, cut into large chunks

Handful of broccoli, in small florets

Handful of fine green beans

2x 500ml cartons of passata

125ml veg stock

2 heaped tsps Marmite

6 cloves garlic, sliced

2 dried limes, make a slit on one side of each

½tsp ground all spice

1 cinnamon stick

Fresh coriander to serve

For the rice:

Saffron rice (50g per person)

Handful of dried barberries, well washed

½tbsp vegetable oil

1tsp sugar

½tbsp water

Place all of the ingredients into the slow cooker and cook on high for five hours or on low for ten hours. Once ready, remove the cinnamon stick and dried limes. Sprinkle on the fresh coriander leaves.

Serve with saffron rice (method here, substituting dairy-free spread in place of butter) topped with the barberries. To prepare the barberries, cook the washed berries, oil, sugar and water on a medium heat, stirring well until the berries have darkened and softened.

Have you tried any new cuisines lately?