Easy Lamb Tagine

Serves 4

You’ll Need:

2 Tbsp tallow or coconut oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2cm piece ginger, peeled and grated

3 small lamb shanks (about 1kg)

or 750g boned, rolled lamb shoulder, diced

2 Tbsp Ras El Hanout*

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 Tbsp tomato paste

100g dried dates or dried apricots

1 Tbsp preserved lemon rind, chopped

or 2 tsp grated fresh lemon rind

1/2C pitted olives, roughly chopped

Steamed greens and cauliflower rice to serve

Method:

1. Warm the oil in a large heavy based pot and sauté the onion, garlic and ginger until starting to caramlise. Set aside.

2. Add the lamb to the pot and brown on all sides. Put onion, garlic and ginger back in.

3. Add the spices and tomato paste, stirring until the spices start to smell fragrant.

4. Cover with water until lamb sits under the sauce. Stir in the dried fruit. Bring to a boil.

5. Simmer on low for about 2hr, or until the meat easily pulls apart with a fork. Take the out the shanks, pull the meat off the bone and roughly chop, add it back to the sauce. If your sauce is too thin, turn up the heat and bubble, lid off for 10 minutes to reduce.

6. Stir in the lemon and olives and serve.

Freezer note: Tagine can be cooked completely, portioned, cooled and frozen. Freeze some raw cauliflower rice, or cooked basmati rice too and you have an instant meal.

Slow cooker: Complete steps 1-3 and then add everything to a slow cooker. Pour over boiling water to cover the lamb, add the fruit and set to 8hr on low. Complete steps 5 and 6 to serve.