Spiced lamb & sweet potato soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 500 gstewing lamb on the bone
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons ras el hanout Moroccan spice blend
- 2.5 cmpiece fresh root ginger grated
- 2 litres lamb stock or chicken stock
- 75 g red lentils
- 300 g sweet potato diced
- 175 g carrot diced
- salt and pepper
- small bunch of coriander to garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the lamb and fry until browned on one side, turn it over and add the onion. Cook until the lamb is browned all over and the onion just beginning to colour.
- Stir in the garlic, spice blend and ginger, then the stock, lentils and salt and pepper. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 1½ hours.
- Add the sweet potato and carrot, bring back to a simmer then re-cover and cook for 1 hour. Lift the lamb out of the soup with a draining spoon, put on to a plate then carefully remove bones and excess fat, breaking the meat into small pieces. Return the meat to the pan and reheat if needed. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.
- Ladle the soup into bowls, sprinkle with torn coriander leaves and serve with hot fennel flat breads.
Notes / Tips / Wine Advice:
For homemade fennel flat breads, to serve as an accompaniment, put 200 g (7 oz) self-raising flour and ½ teaspoon baking powder into a bowl. Add 1 teaspoon fennel seeds that have been roughly crushed using a pestle and mortar and a little salt and pepper. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, then gradually mix in 6–7 tablespoons of water to make a soft dough. Cut the dough into 6 pieces, then roll each piece out on a lightly floured surface until a rough oval shape about the size of a hand . Cook on a preheated ridged frying pan for 3–4 minutes each side until singed and puffy.
