Healthy dinners don’t have to be boring.

And spiced food doesn’t have to be spicy!

The spice I have used in this dish is ras el hanout, it’s a North African blend of spices, a bit like garam masala in India. It is used in a lot of North African cooking especially in tagines.

This spiced roast chicken is a simple, quick and healthy meal, perfect for adding some variety to the weeks meals.

You can add any vegetables you want, I used aubergines, courgettes and carrots because that’s all I had in the house at the time. It can work well with peppers and squash too.

You can also leave the skin on and make it crispy, this adds a lot more flavour but I bought skinless chicken to make it a bit healthier.

If there are any left overs, you can shred the chicken up and eat it with couscous for lunch the next day.

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken legs
• 1 courgette
• 1 medium aubergine
• 2 carrots
• 4 cloves garlic
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 4 tsp ras el hanout spice
• 2 tsp garlic paste
• Salt to taste
• Black pepper
• 2 tsp olive oil

Method:

1. 1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
   2. Wash and chop all the vegetables into thick finger length pieces.
   3. In a large baking tray, add all the vegetables and garlic cloves.
   4. Sprinkle 2 tsp of ras el hanout over the vegetables and add salt.

in a bowl, mix tomato paste with a bit of water so its slightly runny and pourable. Pour the tomato paste over the vegetables and mix together so that the vegetables are coated.

• Pour one tsp of olive oil over the vegetables.
• Then add the chicken legs.
• Sprinkle the rest of the ras el hanout spice over the chicken and run the garlic paste onto the chicken.
• Sprinkle salt and oil and put it in the oven to roast for roughly 40 minutes.
• You can also wrap the top of the tray in foil, this may reduce cooking time to 30 minutes.

Ta-daaaaa! Enjoy your healthy and hearty meal.