People who meal plan baffle me. I’m far too spontaneous for that, I was telling my husband yesterday. I couldn’t bear knowing in advance what I was going to be eating every day of the week. What if I didn’t fancy having what I’d organized on the day I’d planned it for – how dreadful would that be!? Eating is weather-dependant, mood-dependant and most certainly depends on what food is available at the time.
I suppose I’m rather spoilt, somewhat. We get a veg box delivered every week. When I say delivered I mean it’s dropped off at a bus shelter in a top-secret location midway between the croft the produce is grown on and our house. I have to nip down the road to fetch it. I’ve asked for whatever happens to be ready at the time to get put in the box. No requests, no refusals, the more unusual the better. I like the surprise, the not knowing what we’re going to be eating that week. Every veg box is like Christmas morning! Meal planning, to me, is like knowing what’s in each and every one of your presents before you open them. Where is the fun in that?
Our last veg box contained chard, spinach, green beans, that weird fractal cauliflower/broccoli thing, regular broccoli, regular cauliflower, green pepper, a cucumber, green peas (always eaten raw like sweeties), mixed salad, fresh coriander, spring onions, a half dozen free range eggs, two punnets of gorgeous soft fruits (which the children promptly devoured as soon as my back was turned – honestly, I’m going to need to padlock the fridge to keep my fruit-mad children away from the next lot!) and a brown paper bag of freshly picked broad beans.
Broad beans were introduced to my diet some years ago after I’d received a chicken cookery book through the post – some sort of junk mail scheme designed to get you to buy the rest of the books (I never subscribed) but I did try their Moroccan chicken tagine recipe.
That recipe was the first one I ever made requiring broad beans, but it called for frozen broad beans which I managed to source in my local supermarket.
They were awful; chewy, hard, flavourless. I never bought a second bag and was put off the notion of broad beans forever.
That was until my veg boxes started appearing last year containing fresh broad beans. I confess to inwardly groaning when I first spotted them but what a completely different experience they are to the frozen ones! These giant pale green beans are encased in a huge pod, but to get at the little bright green beans hidden even further inside you need to blanch them and shell them again. My children love double shelling broad beans and it keeps them entertained for at least ten minutes. Win!
So back to spontaneous cooking – this time of year all of our veg comes from our veg box supplier and I tend to buy whatever meat I can find at a reasonable price. No plan; just what ever is affordably priced. I’d picked up some diced British lamb for a whopping £2-12 the last time I went to the shop and popped it into the deep freeze for later use.
The morning I made this meal I defrosted the lamb with no idea what I was going to do with it. Come 4 pm I had a quick scour of the fridge contents filled with lovely veg box produce and decided on a Moroccan lamb stew. Loosely based on both the chicken tagine I mentioned earlier and a Moroccan lamb stew recipe in Jo Pratt’s Madhouse Cookbook (2013) I concocted my own take on the warmly spiced dish.
They key is to use freshly toasted spices. Dried spices have been ground up and sitting in a jar for goodness knows how long, but toasting whole herbs and grinding them yourself imparts a wonderful depth of flavour to a dish. Honestly – try it, you’ll never buy ground again.
The lamb stew was rather nice indeed. There were no leftovers. Husband suggested I should blog it. 🙂
Moroccan Lamb Stew
A mildly spiced Moroccan-styled lamb stew - ideal for the whole family.
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Servings: 2 adults and 2 children
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion
- 300 grams lamb diced
- 1 tsp whole coriander seeds
- 1 tsp whole cumin seeds
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 400 gram tinned chopped tomatoes
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- pinch saffron threads optional
- 100 ml lamb stock
- 75 grams sultanas or chopped apricots or dates
- fresh broad beans
- Shetland sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- fresh coriander leaves to serve
- couscous to serve
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Instructions
- Peel onion and chop in half. Finely slice one half into half-moons and dice the other half.
- Heat oil in a large sauté pan over a medium-high heat and gently cook the onions until they begin to soften, about five minutes.
- Add the diced lamb and brown on all sides.
- Meanwhile, toast your coriander and cumin seeds until the cumin starts to pop. Grind in a mortar and pestle.
- Add the toasted, ground spices to the sauté pan along with the paprika and cinnamon. Stir until well combined, allowing the spices to coat the meat and release their fragrance.
- Add the tin of tomatoes, tomato purée, saffron threads and the lamb stock.
- Bring to the boil and then reduce heat to medium low, pop the lid on the pan and leave to simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, remove the broad beans from their pods. Cook them for four minutes in boiling water and then drain and plunge them into a waiting bowl of cold water. The bright green beans can then be removed from their skins.
- Add the sultanas and broad beans to the sauté pan and cook for a further 10-15 minutes, until the lamb is tender.
- Serve with couscous and plenty of fresh coriander leaves.
Moroccan Lamb Stew
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion
- 300 grams lamb diced
- 1 tsp whole coriander seeds
- 1 tsp whole cumin seeds
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 400 gram tinned chopped tomatoes
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- pinch saffron threads optional
- 100 ml lamb stock
- 75 grams sultanas or chopped apricots or dates
- fresh broad beans
- Shetland sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- fresh coriander leaves to serve
- couscous to serve
Affiliate Links
This recipe card may contain affiliate ingredient and equipment links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Instructions
- Peel onion and chop in half. Finely slice one half into half-moons and dice the other half.
- Heat oil in a large sauté pan over a medium-high heat and gently cook the onions until they begin to soften, about five minutes.
- Add the diced lamb and brown on all sides.
- Meanwhile, toast your coriander and cumin seeds until the cumin starts to pop. Grind in a mortar and pestle.
- Add the toasted, ground spices to the sauté pan along with the paprika and cinnamon. Stir until well combined, allowing the spices to coat the meat and release their fragrance.
- Add the tin of tomatoes, tomato purée, saffron threads and the lamb stock.
- Bring to the boil and then reduce heat to medium low, pop the lid on the pan and leave to simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, remove the broad beans from their pods. Cook them for four minutes in boiling water and then drain and plunge them into a waiting bowl of cold water. The bright green beans can then be removed from their skins.
- Add the sultanas and broad beans to the sauté pan and cook for a further 10-15 minutes, until the lamb is tender.
- Serve with couscous and plenty of fresh coriander leaves.
MORE LAMB RECIPES
Moroccan-inspired Slow Cooked Lamb (for the crock pot) by Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
Nigel Slater’s Slow Cooked Lamb by Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
Leftover Lamb Curry with Mushrooms by Dinner with Crayons
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Vegan Blackcurrant Ripple Ice Cream
I love Moroccan food, their meals are so flavoursome! I would just love to make this for dinner at my house. Thanks for the recipe!
Must try more North African dishes, they look delicious.
I was right everyone loved it at the weekend
fantastic! Delighted to hear! 🙂
Great recipe, this would go down a treat in our house
Oooh my hubby loves lamb and is slowly developing a taste for spicy foods, he’s slowly increasing heat and variety, so I will definitely be giving this a go because I adore spicy food! Ty!
I can’t meal plan either!
Love this recipe – lovely & warming.
love morrocon food, so many flavours, love using my tangine makes things taste alot more delicious.
I need to invest in a tagine. I’ve never used one before but I’ve heard such good things about them.
I also meal plan it is the way forward 🙂 this recipe looks fab. Lamb is my favourite meat but I generally stick to Turkish recipes. I’ll be going Morrocan next time we have lamb.
the strawberry creams…mmm…
Sounds lovely. Have some diced lamb to cook for tonight – no broad beans though so it will have to be with aubergine – which are lovely and cheap right now. I adore fresh broad beans – I often grow them – missed them this year- they are lovely fresh from the garden. Easy to grow too. Yes – you’ve talked me into it – I’ll grown some again next year then come and dig this recipe out. 🙂
Ooh I think this would be lovely with aubergine – let me know how you get on! 🙂
Made it with the aubergine and it was very nice. I love your flavours.
Yay! Oh that’s so good to hear 🙂
This sounds right up my street – have it bookmarked for later. I’m glad I’m not the only one who isn’t a huge fan of meal planning – not only does it take the joy our of deciding what to cook – according to my mood, the weather, who’s turned up etc, but it means I can’t take advantage of any last minute bargains at the local shop – often my impetus for a meal. I did try a veg box but having it delivered at 4 am put my off!
a 4 am delivery?? I can’t see that being a viable business strategy – goodness me! Glad to hear I’m not alone with the meal planning thing. 🙂
I think it’s local farmers who do the delivery runs, and they do offer to leave it in a convenient place. Unfortunately they can’t get to a convenient place at ours to drop it off without waking us up.
Oh that’s a shame!
wow, this sound delicious
This is on my must-try list when it gets a bit colder.
I love lamb and spice and broad beans so this is going on my to-try list 🙂
Looks lovely, going to give Moroccan Lamb Stew a try
Oooh now this is my kind of food – that looks sooooo good – I now want this for dinner!
It was rather scrummy! 🙂 Fresh broad beans are the best.
This dish looks heavenly Elizabeth and perfect for colder days. I agree with you completely – who can meal plan when you don’t know how you’ll feel, what the weather will be, etc? Last week was hot and this would have been the last thing I’d have wanted. This week is cold and wet and windy – definitely time for some spicy stews! 🙂
Your husband is a wise man and your children have been brought by angels (fruit mad?!). This dish looks divine and the pictures are really selling it to me (great photography!). I’ve never meal planned in my life……
We do meal plan as it saves us a lot of money. We go shopping and buy what is reduced and on offer and then plan our meals for the week around that. It also helps me to keep the 7st off that I lost. Spontaneous meals tend to not be the healthiest for me.
That kind of meal planning makes sense to me. Using what’s affordable on offer and then planning makes perfect sense, but planning out a week and then buying the ingredients needed doesn’t. I can see how your way would way saves a lot of money (we do that too!) 🙂
I’m afraid I’m with you, I make what i’m in the mood for / what I have available. I don’t have the patience to meal plan It is always full of veggies and good stuff though! Love shelling broad beans, glad you have found a love for them because they really are awesome!
I personally combine meal planning with spontaneous cooking. I can’t do only meal planning too. It would take too much out of the fun of cooking :-))) This tajine looks amazing. I’ll add it to my “to try” list. I rarely cook with broad beans and I need to experiment! Thank you!
I suppose if I combined the two I wouldn’t end up with those “I’m staring into the fridge at half past four in the afternoon with no idea what I am going to feed my family” moments! Fresh broad beans are amazing – more experimentation is definitely required!
I do meal plan and I don’t. I like to ensure that all food groups are covered in our diets by the Canada good food guide, so I always have fish on the menu twice a week or ensure there is some dairy etc etc. But outside of that I like to look through recipes to see what I fancy cooking!
I’m with you, never meal plan! Like your kids, I also love shelling Broad Beans – I could eat them all the time, love them!
Yay! So glad to hear I’m not alone with the meal planning. SO many people do it! Fresh broad beans are something amazing, aren’t they 🙂