Editor’s note: please make today’s guest welcome, Kristie Welsh, PR and Comms wonderwoman who runs her own agency called Communicated. From now on, Kristie will share monthly recipes with all of us, so that we can wow our friends and family with her achievable but delicious creations.
Here’s a new spin on a roast lamb dish that might inspire you to spice up your next Sunday roast.
This slow roasted Moroccan lamb shoulder with chargrilled vegies and cous cous is a favourite of mine. It’s a simple meal to prepare with minimal hands-on preparation time that can take a relatively cheap cut of meat and turn it into something amazing.
I’m talking falling-off-the-bone-tender amazing.
It does require 4 hours of oven time, but on the upside – the oven will do all the work for you, letting the lamb develop its full flavour and take on the fragrant spices, which pair beautifully with the chargrilled vegetables and creamy tartness of the tzatziki drizzle.
- 1 lamb shoulder, bone in (approx. 2kg)
- For the lamb
- Olive oil
- Ras el hanout – a North African spice blend (if you can find it, alternatively use Moroccan Seasoning)
- Coriander to serve
- For the cous cous (adapted from a Donna Hay recipe)
- 1 cup instant cous cous
- 2 red capsicums, seeded and quartered
- 2 roma tomatoes, halved
- 4 large field mushrooms
- 2 tbsp Dukkah spice blend (optional, I used Table of Plenty’s Pistachio Dukkah Spice Blend)
- Large handful baby spinach
- Zest of 1 lemon, finely chopped (reserve juice for tzatzki)
- 1 cup vegetable or chicken stock
- 1/3 cup parmesan, finely grated
- Knob butter
- For the tzatziki
- 350g natural Greek yoghurt
- 1 lebanese cucumber, grated
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- Juice of one lemon
- Splash extra virgin olive oil
- Pinch salt
- Pre-heat your oven to full whack. Prepare the lamb by slashing the top with a knife, then rubbing all over with olive oil and a generous dusting of the Ras el hanout. Place it on a trivet in a roasting tray with a bit of water in the bottom, and cover tightly with foil.
- Place lamb in oven, immediately turning the temperature down to 170°C and cook for four hours, or until the lamb easily pulls away from the bone. Take it out of the oven and loosely wrap in foil to rest.
- While the lamb is cooking, prepare your tzatziki – simply combine your yoghurt, grated cucumber, garlic, salt and lemon juice to taste, before finishing with a small swirl of olive oil. Keep in the fridge until ready to serve.
- When the lamb is nearly cooked, pre-heat your grill or BBQ (I chargrilled my vegies in my Weber). Sprinkle your capsicum pieces, halved tomatoes and mushrooms with olive oil and salt and pepper and grill until soft. My vegetables took about 10 minutes on the Weber on a medium-high heat.
- Meanwhile, add 1 cup of hot stock to 1 cup of cous cous, cover and let absorb for about five minutes. Fork through a knob of butter to separate the grains, then stir through parmesan, dukkah, lemon rind and spinach leaves.
- Garnish lamb with coriander and serve whole on table with two serving forks and pull gently apart in front of your guests to appreciative oohs and ahhs. Plate up the char grilled vegetables on a bed of cous cous, with tzatziki drizzled over.
Now for my recipe hacks… (I almost always have at least a few!)
Short on time? Buy individual lamb racks instead of the lamb shoulder. Marinate as per above, then cook on the bottom rack of a 200°C oven while your vegies cook on top. The lamb will only take about a half hour, while the vegetables will take about 45min, allowing more than enough resting time.
Oh, and buy store-bought tzatziki if you like, I won’t tell!
Vegetarian? The char grilled vegetable cous cous with tzatziki is delicious on its own.
Low or No Carbs? Just ditch the cous cous for a high protein, low carb option.
Leftovers? I enjoyed my left over lamb with a salad of lentils, roasted baby carrots and pumpkin with spiced mint yoghurt… but that’s a recipe for another day!!
Kristie Welsh is a Brisbane-based mum of three children under six, who runs her own PR and communications consultancy,Communicated, and happens to really, really enjoy good food. She likes to pretend she is a really excellent cook by adapting and creating recipes that are actually incredibly simple, yet look and taste amazing. Kristie counts cooking with Jamie Oliver as her culinary highlight.
Comments 13
This looks delicious! I love when the oven takes over. Thanks for sharing this. I’m bookmarking it for next weeks menu plan. 🙂
I don’t think I’d ever cooked lamb shoulder until a couple of months ago – now it’s on a fairly high rotation. Amazing flavour – so much deeper than leg. AND all the things you can do with it! This one is definitely getting added to the list. Thank you x
Sounds perfect for a Sunday night roast dinner – I will have to give it a go soon! http://diariesofabride.blogspot.com.au/
This sounds so delicious. I love lamb anyway so will definitely be trying it.
Hard to go wrong with lamb isn’t it! Hope you love it.
Thank you Kristie,who doesn’t love a beautiful meal with minimal effort,Thank you for sharing!
That’s kind of my mantra Lisa!
That’s kind of my mantra Lisa!
Yum! I make something similar but without cous cous … must try it with cous cous & vegetables as sounds great.
The lamb and the chargrilled vegie cous cous are both great on their own, but together they are fabulous! Let me know what you think if you give it a whirl?!
The lamb and the chargrilled vegie cous cous are both great on their own, but together they are fabulous! Let me know what you think if you give it a whirl?!
Looks delicious! I can imagine the whole house smelling beautiful too. Kathryn 🙂
Oh sooooo good Kathryn.