I think my Moroccan Stew and I are going to be very happy together.

SometimesI come across a recipe that sounds like it couldn't possibly go wrong. The ingredient list looks like a compilation of my favorite things, it looks easy, cheap, healthy, delicious, like the Food I Like to Eat. I start getting my hopes up, because this dish has everything I want. For a while, I'm too enticed by the gorgeous picture and the promise of a new favorite that I'm scared to go ahead and risk ruining the illusion. What if it just doesn't work?

One was this Moroccan Vegetable Ragout from Fine Cooking. It has kale (which I love), chickpeas (which I love even more), olives (mmm yay) and sweet potatoes (which is probably one of my top 5 ingrediants. Last time I went to a steakhouse, they had baked sweet potato with honey butter, and I forget about my steak for a while). I had a really ambivalent reaction to this recipe- all the ingredients are so full-flavored, will they work together? On the other hand, there are not a lot of spices or fresh herbs- maybe everything will muddle together?

So I finally worked up the nerve to go for it. The assembly was quick and easy- other than chopping an onion and peeling and dicing two sweet potatoes, there was no prep. Cook onions, dump in everything else, simmer for a while, stir in ripped up kale. The recipe claims to serve 3-4, but it looked like at least 5, maybe 6 generous servings. Fine Cooking says a serving (1/3 - 1/4) is 290 calories, which puts one of my servings at, like, nothing. The recipe is straightforward-

Medium onion, chopped
olive oil
cinnamon and cumin
2 cups diced sweet potatoes (2 potatoes)
can of chickpeas
can of diced tomatoes
1/2 cup pitted green olives
3/4 cup orange juice
1 1/2 tsp honey
1/2 lb kale

I used more like 1 pound of kale, which was a good choice. This was everything I wanted it to be. Those leafy greens, the richness of the sweet potatoes, with the briny olives to offset them, all wrapped in this roasted tomato-caramelized onion-citrusy-smokey sauce. I couldn't ask for more from a first try at a recipe. It had everything I know I want, but so exotic and different and enticing. I mean, what a great vehicle for kale. Being the nutritional rockstar it is, it's sometimes hard to get excited about it. It's at least as deleicious as any other veggie, but all the noise about how healthy it is ecplipses it's other merits, making it seem about as sexy as a multivitamin. The dessert-like undertones of the dish make it feel luxurious- the orange juice, the cinnamon...

My only hesitation is that it's almost too smooth. I'd certainly leave out the honey next time. And as I predicted, there could be more spice. Next time I'll read up on a traditional ras al hanout, something I know nothing about (not even the spelling) but it sounds cool and edgey. This dish is almost too smooth and sweet, and as I'm eating it, I keep expecting a little more heat. But I took it slow for now- I've ruined many a dish by dumping in a pile of cayenne or sriarcha on the first bite. I'll take it slow with my new Moroccan paramour.