Herby Lamb Skewers with Caramelized onions and Freekeh Salad
Serves: 4
Time: 40 mins
These skewers are best if you can leave them to marinate overnight they will soften slightly and take on the flavour a lot more (I have put them in this weeks prep ahead section) don’t stress if you haven’t managed to though they will still have a good fresh pop of flavour. Lamb rump is my first choice as a cut of meat for skewers but if you can’t find rump then a butterflied or boneless leg will also be good or if you feel like splashing out then lamb backstraps would be your top shelf option. As you get familiar with my style of cooking you will notice there are a few ingredients that I often pair together, lamb and yoghurt are a fav and often when I do a middle eastern inspired dish I will add pomegranate, learning good food pairings is a big step towards creating your own new dishes and having confidence to experiment. If you don’t have pomegranate then a substitute would be cranberries or currants, but I think you really need the pop of sweetness in this dish to balance the taste.
Leftovers
The beans are very substantial, but lunch is just the beans if you want eggs as well add two more before you bake the dish or do a couple of hard boiled eggs in the shell instead.
What you'll need
850g lamb rump
2 cloves of garlic
3/4 teaspoon of fennel seeds
1/3 bunch of coriander
1/2 bunch of flat leaf parsley
1/2 a lemon
2 large brown onions
1 cup freekeh
1 tin of brown lentils
1 small bag of baby spinach
1 pomegranate
1/2 cup of Greek yoghurt
From the Pantry
1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons of tahini
olive oil
salt and pepper
Skewers
Skewers
Do you have metal skewers? They are a great investment not that they are expensive but because they save you time as you don't have to soak them, they don't burn and fall apart, they are pretty easy to clean and best of all so long as you don't throw them out they will always be in your kitchen. Plus they look cool. So I highly recommend getting some.
Prep and Cook
Cook Freekeh
Place 1 cup of freekeh in a pot with 3 cups of water and a pinch of salt. Bring up to the boil then turn down to a high simmer and cover with a lid. Cook till the water has almost been completely absorbed then remove from the heat and set aside with the lid still on.
Marinate Lamb
Trimming the Fat
It is very easy get carried away when trimming meat, once you start it can be hard to know when to stop. With the lamb leg you want to be conscious not to compromise the shape to much so be ruthless but not pedantic, your meat doesn't need to look perfectly clean. A little bit of fat is good for flavour but you don't want a whole mouthful of it, and when trimming off the sinew focuss on removing the large sections but stick to surface area don't cut down into the meat.
If you have rumps trim off the fat on top then cut into large chunks (we cutting think of the size being big enough to take two large bites out of each piece).
If you have leg then it is a bit more involved, that whole top cap of fat can pretty much be taken off. And then you also want to remove the bulk of the larger areas of sinew.
Peel and finely chop or grate the garlic.
Use a mortar and pestle to ground down the fennel seeds slightly so that they aren’t whole. Alternately a rough chop can be done with a knife but do this slowly so that you don’t lose all the seeds.
Wash and roughly chop the coriander, and roughly chop half the parsley combine together in a bowl with the apple cider vinegar and zest of half the lemon plus 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
Add the lamb to the marinade and set aside or pop in the fridge overnight.
Caramelize the Onions
Peel onions then slice into thin semi circles, heat a large frypan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and saute onions on high till soft.
Stir regularly until the onions start to brown slightly, then turn down to medium heat and stir occasionally for the next 30 minutes, being conscious not to let them burn.
Make Tahini Yog
In a small bowl combine the yoghurt, tahini and juice from the lemon with salt and pepper and mix well.
Make Salad
Strain the lentils and place in a mixing bowl along with the cooked freekeh.
Finely shred the baby spinach and the remainder of your parsley and add to the bowl.
Deseed the pomegranate. To do this I slice them in half then hold in the palm of my hand with the skin side facing up. Hover over a bowl and use a rolling pin to tap the skin (being careful not to hit your fingers) this causes all the seeds to drop out through your fingers and into the bowl underneath.
Add two-thirds of the pomegranate to the salad and reserve the rest for garnishing.
Cook Skewers
Thread the meat onto your skewers, as you do try to keep the sides all square this makes it easier to cook them evenly. You are aiming for 8 skewers in total.
Heat a very large frypan or the BBQ on a high heat with some oil.
Season the skewers well on all sides.
Fry each side till golden brown approx 2 minutes each side.
Remove from the heat and rest for 4 minutes.
Plate it Pretty
Add the caramelised onions to the salad and season the salad with salt and pepper and toss well to combine.
On individual plates create a ying yang sign with the salad and the yoghurt.
Lay 2 skewers over the top of the yoghurt and sprinkle over the remaining pomegranate seeds.
Enjoy!
Lunch tomorrow
I always prefer to strip my meat off the skewer when having as leftovers, I guess I just prefer the easy of eating it with a fork. I don’t mind cold meat in a salad but you can easily microwave the meat once it has been stripped off the skewer.