Lamb & Chickpea Couscous
Recipes · Dinner · Recipe, Typed Supps
A cinnamon-warm braise spooned over couscous, which takes five minutes and no skill.
Allergens and patterns
Contains gluten.
Ingredients
- 350g, diced Lamb — Red meat at its most useful: heme iron and zinc in the forms your body absorbs most readily, plus B12 no plant supplies.
- 1 cup dry (350g cooked) Couscous — Steamed semolina that needs boiling water and a lid, nothing else. It is refined, so the fibre here comes from the chickpeas rather than the grain.
- 1 tin, drained (200g) Chickpeas — Stretch the meat, add fibre and plant protein, and soak up the braising liquid.
- 2 large, chopped (200g) Tomatoes — The acid and liquid the braise cooks in — their lycopene becomes more available as they cook down.
- 1 onion (100g) Onions — The base. Cooked slowly first, it sweetens and gives the whole pot its depth.
- 1/2 tsp (2g) Ground Cinnamon — Savoury cinnamon with lamb is a North African idea and it is the flavour that makes this dish itself.
- 1 tbsp (15g) Olive Oil — For browning the lamb properly — that crust is most of the flavour.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories: 569.3 kcal
- Protein: 48.5g
- Carbohydrate: 51.2g
- of which sugars: 5.5g
- Fat: 16.5g
- of which saturated: 4.6g
- Fibre: 9.1g
- Sodium: 88.6mg
Method
- Brown the lamb hard in the olive oil, in batches so the pan stays hot, then set it aside.
- Soften the onion in the same pan, then add the cinnamon and cook for a minute.
- Return the lamb with the tomatoes and chickpeas, add a cup of water, and simmer covered for 25 minutes.
- Pour boiling water over the couscous, cover, and leave for 5 minutes, then fork it through.
- Spoon the braise over the couscous.
Nutrients it supplies
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