Lamb Stew

We’ve had a packet of lamb stew meat in the freezer for a while… It was time to make something with it!

My first thought was a basic Irish stew, but we also had a nice, large, sweet potato. Time to look up some recipes!

Years ago, I bought the Paprika Recipe Manager to catalog and store my constantly-growing recipe collection. The beauty of the app is one can download recipes directly from the web! I see a recipe in a magazine, and I can go to the magazine site and download the recipe without having to type it all in. And… for older recipes, I can type them in. It sorts and catalogs them, and… if I was in the mood, I could use it for shopping lists and all sorts of other stuff. Naturally, I only use it for recipes. However… I can create or download a recipe on the computer and it immediately syncs with my phone and iPad. I can pull up a recipe at the store if I’m not sure if I need an ingredient.

I then bring the iPad into the kitchen and have my recipe in front of me. Not that I really ever follow recipes, but you get my drift.

Tonight’s dinner was just that. I searched under “Lamb” recipes and found one for a Moroccan Lamb Chili with Sweet Potatoes, Chickpeas and Kale from a site called Feed Me Phoebe. Since my baby sister is named Phoebe, I figured it was worth a try.

Naturally, I didn’t quite follow the recipe, but we ended up with a great dinner!

Lamb Stew

Moroccan Lamb Stew with Sweet Potatoes

adapted from Feed Me Phoebe

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 medium onion finely diced
  • 1 pound ground lamb
  • 4 garlic cloves minced
  • 1 tablespoon harissa
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 2 14 ounce cans stewed tomatoes
  • 1 15-ounce can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 sweet potato peeled and cut into large chunks
  • salt and pepper, to taste

In an oven-proof pan, sauté the onion over medium-high heat until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the lamb and brown.  Add the garlic, harissa, cumin, and salt and pepper. Cook for 1 minute, or until the spices are fragrant. Add the tomatoes and simmer, scrapping up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan.

Stir in the beans and sweet potatoes. Bring to a boil, cover, and place in a 350°F oven for about an hour.

Enjoy.

While the recipe, itself, was different from what I made, it was a great starting off point for a fun one-pot dinner.

I think next time I make this I’ll add some dried apricots or raisins…