Spring Lamb Casserole for May

Ingredients for the casserole

Browning the onions

Browning the lamb

The casserole ready to cook and below the cooked casserole

This is a really light spring lamb casserole recipe that goes well with rice, couscous and new potatoes. I like to serve it with a green vegetable steamed over the new potatoes but a watercress salad would be excellent as well.

I am always trying to get greens into our diet every day to get our full rations of vitamins and iron. This casserole will keep well in the freezer and is good as part of a slimming diet as it has lots of vegetables.

I like the combination of mild spices ,fruit, vegetables and meat. This is also an economical dish to prepare.

Ingredients

2 lbs--900gms of lean lamb, I buy casserole lamb from the butchers or get the butcher to take all the meat off a shoulder of lamb.

3 tablespoons of plain flour

3 teaspoons of coriander powder

3 teaspoons of ground cumin (fresh ground seeds would be good)

2 teaspoons of allspice, I use freshly ground from my pestle and mortar

3 tablespoons of olive oil for frying the meat and vegetables

2 onions diced finely

3 garlic cloves diced

water and a chicken stock cube to cover the casserole(use homemade if you have it or vegetable stock is ok as well)

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

3 cups of dried apricots( those that are soft with stones removed) cut into halves

2 courgettes(zucchini) sliced

2 large tomatoes cut into chunks or 12 -20 cherry tomatoes left whole

salt and pepper

Method

1. Prepare all the vegetables.

2. Put all the spices and flour into a plastic bag without holes and add all the cut lamb to the bag. Toss the meat in all the spices until they are covered.

3. Heat the some olive oil in a frying pan and fry the garlic and onions on a medium heat for about 4 minutes until slightly brown.

4. Place the onions and garlic into a casserole dish.

5. Heat more oil in the frying pan and fry the meat in about 3 batches until all the sides are browned but not burnt. Do not overfill the pan as it will boil and not fry . The quick frying seals in the flavour. Place the batches into the casserole dish.

6. Add the vegetables and apricots to the casserole.

7. Add a small amount of salt and pepper. If you have used a bought stock cube I would not add extra salt at this stage.

8. Add any four mixture remaining in the bag to the casserole

8. Add enough stock to come level with the ingredients, if the stock can be hot it will get it cooking quickly and stir all the ingredients together.

9. I cover the casserole with foil and then place on the lid and cook the lamb casserole for May at gas 4--350F--180c in the centre of an oven for 3 hours.

It would cook in a slow cooker but follow the makers instructions for this type of casserole.

Serving

Garnish with fresh green chopped coriander or parsley.

Toast some nuts like cashews or pistachios and scatter a few on the top.

Variations

This could be done as a vegetarian version using ready cooked chickpeas, butter beans or soya beans. I would use the beans from tins or the ready cooked frozen variety to create Chickpea Mediterranean style casserole, Green soya bean and spring vegetable casserole and Butter bean with zucchini and tomato casserole

If you try this and any variations let me know how you get on.

Have a good time preparing healthy casserole recipes for Spring.

Thanks for reading

Crazycupcakes