Meatless Monday Moroccan Vegetable Stew

I've always cooked for a lot of people.  Growing up, I was one of Six children.  I cooked often and at Twelve years old,  I could make a roast, mashed potatoes, yeast rolls, the works.  When we first married there were four of us to feed from the start.   When babe sweetie and I married he had a seven year old daughter and a five year old son then we added three more girls to our family.  Last year I found myself cooking too much food since often it was just the two of us.  We ended up with leftovers for days.   I often told my husband after I cooked enough spaghetti sauce to last us a week that I wasn't sure how to adjust.  This summer there were five of us under the roof.  Life was normal, but yesterday one of my other girls went back to school so it's just three of us here again.  Needless to say I'm making dinner in the crockpot and it will last us 3-4 meals, but it's a super good recipe.  I try to jump on the Meatless Monday bandwagon as often as possible.  The recipe I'm preparing is really good packed with flavor and pretty easy if you don't mind chopping up some vegetables.  I have prepared it for friends and it gets rave reviews so here it is:

Moroccan Vegetable Stew 

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed with the side of a knife
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 5 cups vegetable or chicken broth
• 4 carrots peeled and chopped
• 2 1/2 cups peeled and chopped eggplant
• 2 1/2 cups sliced (1/2 in. thick) zucchini
• 2 cups cauliflower florets
• 1 cup diced onion 
• 2 cans (14 1/2 oz. each) stewed tomatoes
• 1 can (15 oz.) garbanzos, drained and rinsed
• 3/4 cup dried currants
• 1 cup chopped toasted almonds
• 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
• Couscous
• plain greek yogurt

Preparation:

1. 1. Pour olive oil into a small frying pan over medium-low heat. Add garlic and spices and cook, stirring often until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes, being careful not to scorch the garlic. Scrape the mixture into a slow-cooker (at least 5 qt.). (I skip this step and just dump everything into the crockpot.
2. 2. Add broth, carrots, eggplant, zucchini, cauliflower, onion, stewed tomatoes (with juices), garbanzos, currants, almonds, and salt, and stir to combine.
3. 3. Cover slow-cooker and cook on high until vegetables are tender to bite and flavors are blended, 8 to 9 hours.
4. 4. Ladle about 3 cups of the vegetable mixture into a blender. Holding lid down with a towel and taking care to avoid steam, whirl until smooth. Return purée to slow-cooker and stir to blend. Ladle stew into a tureen or individual bowls. 

Serve over Couscous and add a dollop of plain greek yogurt