August 4, 2023

Lamb, Pumpkin & Apricot Tagine

This is our October recipe on our forthcoming 2018 Growing Local calendar. Each month features fabulous and vibrant children’s ‘cook art’ artwork from our summer workshops as well as a different seasonal recipe using our glorious GL veg of course. Calendars are deliverable from the end of November but are available for preorder now. 

A great recipe to use up those leftover pumpkins, but if you don’t have pumpkin use butternut or other autumn squash instead. Tagines are North African spicy meat, veggie and fruit casseroles so named after the clay cooking pot they are traditionally baked in.  For a vegetarian version omit the lamb and add more veggies. This does have a little heat to it; reduce the quantity of ras el hanout spice mix to lesson the heat. Ras el hanout is a Moroccan spice mix now widely available. Delicious served with couscous, bulgur wheat or quinoa.

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp ras el hanout spice mix
  • 1 heaped tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 small cinnamon stick
  • 600g lamb neck, cut into 3cm chunks (removing any large pieces of fat or sinew)
  • 3 carrots, scrubbed and cut into chunky slices
  • 1 small pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and cut into 3cm chunks
  • 150g dried apricots, diced into 1cm pieces
  • 400g tinned or fresh chopped tomatoes
  • 600ml lamb stock
  • 3 bay leaves

Method

  1. Heat your oven to 180c/160c fan.
  2. Heat the oil in a casserole or tagine and fry the onion on the hob for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and all spices for 2 minutes, stirring regularly so nothing catches.
  3. Now add all the other ingredients: the lamb, carrots, pumpkin or squash, apricots, tomatoes, lamb stock and bay leaves. Bring to a simmer.
  4. Once simmering, remove from the hob and place in the oven with the lid on for 1 hour. 
  5. Take out of the oven and give everything a good stir around. Test the meat and veggies to see if they are tender. Put back in the oven for a further 15 to 30 minutes with the lid off. Cook until the meat ad veggies are fully tender. The lamb should be very soft and succulent.