Moroccan Lamb Stew

I have a recipe to share with you today that is unbelievably delicious. My Moroccan Lamb Stew served with Lime Couscous.

After cooking my Slow Roasted Lamb Shoulder for Sunday lunch, I had plenty of leftover meat. In fact I’d actually cooked two whole lamb shoulders to make absolutely certain that I’d have enough meat for this Moroccan Lamb Stew.

You could absolutely use fresh diced lamb for this recipe, but there is something distinctly delicious about meat that has been slow cooked on the bone. So much more flavour and that was what I wanted for this dish.

Having never cooked a dish like this before, I knew I was taking a gamble as to whether the children would eat it. They aren’t fussy and eat a wide range of foods, yet I know I wouldn’t have eaten this as a child.

Shame on me!

Each of them completely cleared their plate, loved this AND they’d figured out that I’d added dates to the stew!! They loved the gentle, yet spicey and fruity flavour of the Moroccan Lamb Stew served with the Lime Couscous.

Again shame on me for underestimating their appreciation of delicious food!

Making The Most Of Leftovers

Using leftover roast lamb made this dish incredibly easy to put together. Even though the lamb was pre cooked I still let this stew bubble and simmer away on a very low heat for a few hours. This didn’t make the lamb tough or dry. It resulted in fragrantly spiced lamb, that was so melt-in-the-mouth tender.

I absolutely adore Dates and these Medjool Dates from The Medjool Date Co. are so completely delicious, I find that I’m popping them in my mouth, when I should be cooking with them. Oops!

During the slow cooking of this Moroccan Lamb Stew the Medjool Dates completely break down and become part of the sauce. They are not an overwhelming flavour, but instead add a fruity sweetness that you can’t quite put your finger on, yet simply know it tastes wonderful.

This recipe is a brilliant way to create another fantastic dish from leftover roast lamb.

Recipe: Moroccan Lamb Stew serves 4-6

650g/1.5lbs Leftover Roast Lamb – skin and bone removed

2tbsp Olive Oil

1 Large Onion

3 Medium Carrots

2 Celery Sticks

2tsp Harrisa Paste

6 Medjool Dates – stones removed and finely diced

1 Beef Stock Cube

Salt and Pepper to season

2tsp Corn flour (also called corn starch)

Method: Use a large heavy based pan for this recipe.

Making The Stew

• Add the oil to the pan over a medium heat.
• Finely chop the onion and sauté in the pan, stirring frequently, until softened.
• Chop the carrots and celery into 1cm pieces, add to the sautéed onion in the pan and cook until just softened over a low heat.
• Whilst the vegetables are slowly cooking prepare the lamb.
• Remove any skin from the lamb and cut into 5cm chunks, obviously from a leftover roast there will be smaller pieces as well, that’s fine they all go into the stew!
• Add the lamb to the pan and add the Harrisa paste and chopped Dates.
• Stir to mix everything together.
• Cover with hot water from the kettle.
• Add a pinch of sea salt and some freshly ground black pepper.
• Cover with a lid and leave on a very low heat for 5 hours.
• After the cooking time has elapsed taste for seasoning – add more salt/pepper as necessary.
• Mix the corn flour with 20mls of cold water to form a slurry.
• Add the cornflour slurry to the Moroccan Lamb Stew. Stir well and increase the heat to medium.
• Allow the corn flour to thicken the sauce (which naturally reduces during the long cooking period) and cook for five minutes.
• Serve with Lime Couscous.

This is a perfect dish to make for when friends/family are visiting or staying, especially if they have a long journey. The stew will happily sit over a very low heat until your guests arrive and the Lime Couscous  takes moments to make, leaving you free to greet and settle your guests.

Making Easy Meals

For me, this dish is fantastic as I can get dinner ready and started early in the day (see Living With Seizures ). And then if my body allows I can bake some delicious treats for my family and friends.

In fact the first time I made this Moroccan Lamb Stew I was so worried that it wouldn’t be eaten, I made a pudding. Now just to be clear, I bake quite a bit, when I am able to, but we rarely have dessert after dinner. Honestly I’m talking high days and holidays are the only time I make pudding. In fact I didn’t even make a dessert for Easter Sunday. On this occasion however, I made an apple tart – it’ll be on here very soon.

Can you imagine the children and my hubby’s faces when they saw the apple tart 😉! We all ate dinner and then had pudding, such piggies! If my husband had the choice, we would have pudding every day. After that day a tradition was started, when we have Moroccan Lamb Stew for dinner, there must be pudding for afters. I knew I should have hidden the apple tart!!!!

Do you like turning leftovers into another fabulous dish?

There will be more ‘leftovers’ recipes coming up on this blog. In the meantime if you enjoyed the Moroccan Lamb Stew I’m sure you’d like these:

Roast Chicken Noodle Soup

Slow Rosted Lamb Shoulder

Redcurrant Jelly Glazed Roast Lamb

Whatever you are cooking, baking or making I love seeing your results. Please pop a photo on Twitter/Instagram and tag me in. You can also leave me a comment if you try one of my recipes in the comment section.

Have fun whilst you are in the kitchen preparing a feast!

Sammie xx

Graig Farm provided the lamb for this recipe and The Medjool Date Co. provided the Dates. I was not paid to write this post. All opinions, recipes, content and photographs are my own. Please see my Disclosure Policy.