Slow Cooked Lamb with Dates and Chickpea Gremolata
4-6
servings30
minutes3
hoursStovetop to Oven
Basic
The Medjool dates added to this slow cooked lamb dish add a glorious deep sweetness to the sauce. Dates work so well with lamb and spices and in this slow cooked recipe they swell to plump little treasures delightfully dotted throughout the dish. I always make sure when I serve up the dish that I evenly distribute the dates across the plates. They are the star players.
Ingredients
- Shanks
4 x lamb shanks
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 large carrot, peeled and diced .5cm
1 large onion, finely diced
1 cup celery, finely diced
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp turmeric, ground
1 tsp sumac, ground
2 tsp coriander, ground
10 baby potatoes, halved
500 ml vegetable or chicken stock
1 tin chopped tomatoes
12 Natural Delight Medjool Dates whole
- Chickpea Gremolata
1 cup chickpeas, cooked and cooled
1 lemon juice and zest
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup italian parsley, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Preheat oven to 160°C.fan forced
- Heat a large ovenproof pan to medium high.
- Roll the lamb shanks through 1 tbsp olive oil then seal on all sides in the pan until well caramelised. Remove and set aside.
- Add 2 Tbsp oil to the pan along with carrot, celery and onion and cook stirring for five minutes until the vegetables have started to soften and the onion caramelise.
- Add spices and toss through the onion mix.
- Add in potatoes, stock and tomato and mix to combine.
- Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer.
- Add the lamb back into the pan and nestle into the sauce before finishing with the dates.
- Place a tight-fitting lid on the pan and bake in the oven for two to three hours or until the lamb is falling away from the bone.
- Meanwhile combine all gremolata ingredients in a bowl, toss and season to taste.
- Serve the lamb scattered with the gremolata.
Cooking Notes
- Serve the shanks on steamed rice or couscous if you’d like extra carbohydrates.
- You can cook this dish on the cooktop over very low heat if you don’t have an ovenproof dish.
- If you wanted to remove the lamb bones, leaving only the meat, you could use the wet dish as a base to create a filo top pie in the same vein as the Chicken and Date Filo Pie (link here)
- Swap – Potatoes for diced sweet potato if you prefer.
