This is so tasty and perfect for these cold winter days. I cooked this for the Strong Like Mum team and families and it was a great hit. Shakira who had been off meat since becoming pregnant was then craving it the following week!
This week I’ve seen a variety of clients and one of the conversations which regularly comes up is keeping food interesting so that we stick to good quality home cooked food over easy options like ready meals. If we are making bland food this is very hard to do and this is why I put this together as inspired by my professional cooking course at Leiths.
The spices in this are not only great for our overall health and reducing inflammation but give it this flavour with some sweetness coming from the dates and apricots. They are soaked which reduces the fructose content slightly but they are with a balanced meal so the impact on blood sugar is minimal.
I always make the full recipe and then can freeze in portions sizes if cooking for a smaller group. As a working mum batch cooking is the only way I can keep myself healthy as regularly I need a quick dinner after work and putting my son to bed. Once you’ve been doing it for a while you will have a freezer stocked with delicious meals.
Lamb Tagine
Serves 6
Ingredients
1.5kg lamb neck fillet
2 onions
3 garlic cloves, crushed
¼ smoked paprika
1 tbsp ground cumin
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp Himalayan salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
225g ripe tomatoes
100g dates
100g apricots
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp ghee
1 tbsp gluten free flour
1 litre chicken stock or alternative stock.
Method
1. Heat 2 tablespoons ghee in a large pan and brown the lamb. Do this in batches as you want it to brown over sweat. In between deglaze the pan with hot water and set aside meat
2. Wipe out pan and add remaining ghee and sweat the onions over a low heat for 10-15 minutes
3. While this is cooking blanche tomatoes in hot water for 10 seconds and then cold. This will make them easy to peel.
4. Chop the apricots and dates, cover with boiling water in a small bowl.
5. Once onions look translucent then add the garlic and all the spices for 1 minutes. Then add the flour for a further minute
6. Add the meat to this mixture and stir well. Add enough stock to cover and then the tomatoes. Bring to the boil, once boiling reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes
7. Drain apricots and dates then add to casserole and simmer for 15-20minutes. If sauce looks very thick add water.
8. I have served on a kale salad or you could have with rice and green vegetables.
9. Enjoy!
