Harissa Roasted Tomatoes

These harissa roasted tomatoes are sweet, spicy, soft and juicy – serve with cous cous or wild rice. Get the recipe below.
Turn up the heat
I love autumn. I don’t know if it’s the cooling temperatures or the turning of the leaves but I always get excited when autumn comes around. While some people complain about the chill in the air, I think it’s the perfect opportunity to get in the kitchen and start cooking warming dishes. From pumpkin soup to cheesey vegetable pie: I like to cook the kind of dishes that not only fill your belly but warm you up too. Of course a great way of doing that is to add a little spice to whatever it is you cook!
Rather than sharing another curry recipe, this time I looked to North Africa for some inspiration. Harissa is one of my favourite spice pastes. Made from hot peppers, garlic and spices such as caraway seeds, coriander seeds and cumin. Depending on where you get it from, it might also include paprika, tomato and even rose. It’s a heady mix that brings wonderful heat and fragrance to whatever you cook with it.
If I’m looking for a really quick and easy dinner I will often raid my fridge for whatever vegetables I can find, smother them in harissa and cook them low and slow. But, my favourite combination is thinly sliced white onion, a mix of heritage tomatoes and big hunks of sweet red peppers. I fill a roasting tin with them, making sure they’ve all got enough space around them, spoon over generous helpings of harissa paste, loosened up with a little oil. Then roast. When the cooking time is up, the tomato juices will have bled into the pan helping to soften the onions and peppers. I add a few chickpeas in the last 10 minutes of cooking then, once it’s done, I sprinkle over fresh coriander leaves.
The recipe
My favourite way to serve this dish is over wild rice, but cous cous works just as well as the grain soak up all of the spicy tomato juices.

Harissa Roasted Tomatoes
These harissa roasted tomatoes are sweet, spicy, soft and juicy - serve with cous cous or wild rice.
Ingredients
- 1 white onion
- 1 large red pepper
- 500 grams tomatoes varying sizes and varieties
- 6 tbsp harissa paste
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tin chickpeas drained
- salt
- pepper
- 1 handful coriander leaves only
Instructions
-
Pre-heat your oven to 200C/400F/Gas mark 6.
-
Thinly slice the white onion and place in the bottom of your roasting tin.
-
Next, de-seed the pepper and cut into large pieces (roughly 1.5 inches in size) then place in the roasting tin on top of the sliced onion.
-
Cut the tomatoes into halves and quarters - it's nice to leave them different sizes as they will then break down at different rates - and add to the roasting tin along with the other vegetables.
-
Mix together the olive oil and harissa then spoon over the tomatoes.
-
Place the roasting tin into the oven and cook for 25 minutes.
-
Add the chickpeas to the roasting tin and give the vegetables a good mix - they should have softened nicely and the tomato juices should be bubbling in the bottom of the tin.
-
Season well with salt and pepper.
-
Place back in the oven and cook for another 10 minutes or until the vegetables are roasted and the chickpeas are hot.
-
Leave to cool slightly before sprinkling with coriander leaves and serving over rice or cous cous.
I love the sound of this! Harissa has so much flavour, beautiful photos!
The flavours in this dish are absolutely divine – this is a new favourite side dish in our house!
What a great flavorful side dish. Pinning so I can make this with my garden tomatoes!
Sadly our garden tomatoes are finished for the year. Enjoy!
I know what you mean – I get the same feeling when the fall comes, although I know for sure that it is both – the leaves AND the cooking 🙂 Anyway, really looking forward to making your recipe – these tomatoes look fantastic!
This sounds divine. I put harissa in everything – just a tiny bit adds a gorgeous depth of flavour. The one I buy is super fiery though, 6 tbsp would send you to A&E!
Our harissa paste isn’t too spicy 🙂 perhaps I should add a note to adjust according to heat lol!
I hadn’t heard of harissa until more recently, but it looks and sounds so delicious!
Harissa makes this dish come alive! Yum!
I can only imagine how sweet and flavorful these tomatoes must taste! Would love these as part of a bowl!
Omg this recipe was absolutely amazing! I love roasted tomatoes and the harissa just took them to a whole new level!
What a stunning dish, all those glorious colcours and the heat of Harissa, delicious.
harissa and tomatoes are literally my favourite things so this is absolutely EPIC
We have a tonne of harissa paste so this is one I will try ASAP. Would make a great side dish to a simple roast chicken too, I think!