Easy Eats: Nourishing Couscous Lamb Bowls

Sam Parish's nourishing almost-minestrone nourishing lamb bowls. Photo: Sam Parish

I’ve indulged in this dinner three times over the past two weeks. It makes the most of the affordable lamb steaks available at the supermarket by skewering and suspending them over a delightful couscous and veggie almost-minestrone concoction. It's the epitome of winter comfort food, all cooked conveniently in one pan. Enjoy!

Serves 4 Prep time 10 minutes / Cooking time 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 brown onion, chopped
• 1 stick celery, chopped
• 2/3 cup (150g) pearl couscous
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 Tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 x 390g can four-bean mix, rinsed and drained
• 1 x 400g canned chopped tomatoes
• 1 vegetable stock cube, crumbled
• 2-3 potatoes (I use red rascal)
• Parmesan rind (optional)
• 400g lamb leg steaks
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 3 leaves cavelo nero or spinach, shredded
• Lemon, chopped parsley and garlic crostini to serve

Method

Heat oven to 200C. Heat oil in a deep sided wide saucepan or frying pan set over medium heat. Add onion and celery and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until softened.

Add couscous, garlic and cumin and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until couscous is lightly toasted and garlic is aromatic.

Add beans and stir to coat then add tomatoes, potatoes, stock cube, parmesan rind and 2 1/2 can-fulls of water (about a litre). If you’re preparing this ahead of time, you can stop here and continue the rest of the prep at dinner time.

Bring mixture to a gentle simmer for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, thread whole lamb steaks onto two long metal skewers so that they can sit over the pan (alternatively use a rack that can sit over the lip of the pan.) Scatter with salt, pepper and rosemary.

Balance skewered lamb over pan and transfer to the oven.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until lamb is golden and potatoes are just cooked through. Set lamb aside to rest then stir cavelo nero through the couscous mixture and cover with a lid to cook for 5 minutes.

To serve, spoon couscous into bowls. Squeeze over lemon, and top with sliced lamb, chopped parsley and crostini.

Photo: Sam Parish

Sam Parish is a Christchurch-based chef, writer and food stylist. Her food philosophy is ‘maximum of flavour, minimum of fuss’ (MOFMOF), which means she’s all about cooking smarter, not harder. She’ll be sharing delicious, fast, family-friendly food ideas every Wednesday (after road-testing them on her own whānau, of course). Sam’s first book, Cook Me is out now.