This recipe is super sticky, tasty and overall scrummy. It has a middle eastern flavour to it, thanks to the spice mix and is pretty hard to mess up! The flavour base is rich and sticky thanks to the tomatoes, dates and onions and pairs beautifully with your favourite carb to soak up all the juices and possibly some steamed veggies and side salad to freshen up the richness.
Building a delicious flavour base from whole food ingredients is completely possible, rendering pre-made packet flavour mixes and gravy quite average. You can use these similar flavours or change the spices when slow cooking other animal proteins such as pork or chicken.
I highly recommend cooking this on a weekend when you have some extra time in the day and storing left overs for mid week, go-to meals when you are stranded for time. Throwing together some rice and salad to go with it will leave you nourished and satisfied on those days you are pressed for time. I hope you enjoy!
Slow Cooked Lamb Shoulder
- 1 kg Lamb Shoulder
- 6 tbsp Olive oil
- 2 Onions (thinly sliced)
- 2 Garlic cloves (thinly sliced)
- 1 tsp Chilli flakes (dried)
- 2 tsp Garam Marsala spice mix
- 1 can Chick peas (drained & washed)
- 1 cup Tomato passata (not flavoured)
- 6 whole Medjool dates (pitted & roughly chopped)
- 1 stick Rosemary (fresh or dried)
- 1 cup Filtered water
- Salt & Pepper (to taste)
- 1 handful Fresh coriander (roughly chopped)
- 1 handful Fresh mint (roughly chopped)
Heat your oven to 200°C
In a large pot (with lid), over a med/high heat, sauté the sliced onions with 3 tablespoons of olive oil, till soft and starting to brown.
Add the garlic and stir for a minute, before adding in 1 tsp of the spice mix. Stir for 30 seconds to heat the spices.
Then, add in the tomato passata, chick peas, cup of water, dates and half the rosemary. Season with salt and pepper and stir everything together.
Place the lamb on top of the sticky mixture, drizzle well with the rest of the olive oil. Sprinkle the remaining 1 tsp of spice mix over the top of the lamb and season it with salt and pepper and the remaining rosemary.
Place the pot (lid off) into the pre-heated oven for 20 minutes to render the fat.
While you wait, tear off some baking paper – about the size of the pot circumference. Scrunch it up completely over running water to wet it all over.
After 20 minutes in the oven, remove the pot and turn the heat down to about 150°C.
Cover the lamb loosely with the baking paper – this will help seal in the moisture.
Place the lid onto the pot and place back in the oven for about 3 hours, until soft and flakey. You can cook it on a lower heat for a bit longer.
Once the lamb is cooked, I like to leave it for at least 15 – 30 minutes to rest in the pot before removing the elastic and breaking it up into the juices.
Stir in the fresh herbs before serving!
Serving Suggestions
This dish pairs beautifully with steamed rice, quinoa, mashed potatoes, wraps etc…
I would recommend serving it with a fresh salad and/or steamed veggies to add some freshness. I think some minted, lemony, natural yoghurt would also be extra yummy and even some fresh chilli if you like it hot!