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Moroccan lamb tagine with couscous and green beans recipe
By Lisa Taylor
Introduction
For a gestational diabetes-friendly recipe that's huge on flavour but low on effort, you can't go past this Moroccan lamb tagine. It combines the iron of red meat, the protein of chickpeas and the taste of Morocco, making this lamb dish full of goodness as well being pro-GDM.
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsps light olive oil
- 750g of diced lamb
- 1 1/2 tbsps of Moroccan spice mix (equal parts tumeric, cinnamon, white pepper)
- 1 roughly chopped large brown onion
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled, crushed or sliced
- 2 finely chopped celery stalks
- 1/2 tsp saffron in 50ml of hot water
- 1 peeled, diced large carrot,
- 1 diced large red capsicum
- 1 trimmed and finely chopped large fennel bulb
- 2 whole cinnamon sticks
- 1 x 400g can of diced tomatoes
- 2 cups of salt reduced beef or vegetable stock
- 400g can of drained and rinsed chickpeas
- 400g of cooked couscous
- Green beans to serve
Method:
Preheat fan-forced oven to 180°C/160°C.
Thoroughly combine lamb and spices in a bowl and set aside.
Heat half the oil in a large heavy-based, casserole dish over medium heat. Gently cook onion, celery, garlic and saffron water until onion is soft.
Add meat and 150ml water. Cover and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add carrot, capsicum, fennel, cinnamon sticks, tomato and stock and stir.
Replace lid and transfer to oven. Cook for 1 hour 30 minutes. Remove from oven and stir in chickpeas.
Cook for another 30 minutes until meat is tender. Remove and throw away cinnamon sticks.
Prepare couscous according to packet directions.
Serve tagine with 50g couscous per person and green beans (or your choice of GDM-friendly vegetables).
Notes
- This recipe is designed for sufferers of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).
- Beef chuck, skirt, topside or blade all stew well in this recipe if you prefer beef instead of lamb.
- For a post GDM-option, add 100g of quartered dried apricots, 100g of halved dried figs and 100g of pitted prunes in with your chickpeas. You may need to add an extra 100ml of water or stock as the fruit will absorb a lot of liquid.
- This recipe was created by Lisa Taylor, author of Gestational Diabetes Recipes for Birth.