Lamb and rice tagine with dried cherries

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Helen's lamb and rice tagine recipe is a fantastically comforting one-pot meal. The brown basmati rice is cooked with the diced lamb shoulder and spices to soak up all of those wonderful flavours, while dried cherries add an alluring sweetness to the dish.

First published in 2018

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Lamb and rice tagine

To serve

Method

1
To begin, toast the cumin and coriander seeds in a dry pan then grind them with the cardamom in a pestle and mortar or spice grinder
2
In a wide heavy-based pan, soften the onions in some olive oil, then add the ras el hanout and other ground spices to the pan. Cook out for a couple of minutes, stirring so they don't burn
3
Remove the onions from the pan, turn up the heat and add the lamb, stirring occasionally until browned all over. Once browned, reduce the heat, add the stock and 500ml water and pop the onions back into the pan. Cook with a lid on over a very low heat for an hour
4
Add the rice, dried cherries, some salt and pepper, and another 250ml of boiling water and cook for another 40–45 minutes, or until the rice is cooked
5
When the rice is almost ready, place the spinach in the pan on top of the tagine and put the lid back on to wilt the spinach for a minute. Once wilted, stir it into the dish. Finally, stir in the tarragon and serve

Helen Graves is Head of Content at Great British Chefs. She's also the author of the cookbook LIVE FIRE: Seasonal Barbecue Recipes and Stories of Live Fire Traditions, Old and New, and the editor of Pit, an independent magazine with roots in live fire cooking.

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