Moroccan lamb & chickpea tagine recipe

This recipe is from the team at NZ House & Garden magazine.

The word tagine refers to both a beautiful type of north African cookware with a conical cover and the stew-like dish cooked in it. Cooking tagine relies on locking moisture into the oven-like pot, resulting in a deliciously tender and fragrant dish. If you don’t have a tagine pot a dutch oven will achieve a similar result.

MOROCCAN LAMB & CHICKPEA TAGINE

Prep: 20 minutes | Cook: 1 hour 50 minutes | Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1.2kg lamb shoulder, deboned and diced

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tbsp fresh ginger, thinly sliced

4 carrots, peeled and sliced

5 tsp ras-el-hanout*

1 x 400g can crushed tomatoes

700ml chicken stock

1 x 400g can chickpeas, rinsed

½ cup dried apricots, chopped

1½ cups couscous

1 tbsp butter

½ cup fresh coriander

½ cup fresh mint

1/3 cup shaved almonds

Method

Season the lamb with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan, tagine or dutch oven over medium-high heat and brown the diced lamb for 5-6 minutes. Set aside.

Heat the remaining oil over medium heat in the same pan and sweat the onion, garlic and ginger until the onion is translucent. Add the carrots and ras-el-hanout and stir for 1-2 minutes.

Return the lamb to the pan then stir in the crushed tomatoes and chicken stock. Cover and cook for 1 hour 20 minutes.

Add the chickpeas, stir and cook uncovered for a further 20 minutes. Stir in the dried apricots right before serving.

To cook the couscous, bring 1.5 cups of salted water to the boil. Put the couscous and boiling water in a saucepan or jar, cover and set aside for 10 minutes. Remove the lid, add the butter and fluff the couscous with a fork.

Serve the lamb stew over the couscous and sprinkle with fresh coriander, mint and shaved almonds.

* Ras-el-hanout is a traditional Moroccan spice blend of ginger, cumin, cinnamon, coriander seeds, cayenne pepper, allspice and cloves.