isithalal.food · Recipes

Lamb tagine and sweet potato pie

Cassie Best's lamb tagine and sweet potato pie with Halal lamb: a Moroccan-inspired tagine of lamb shoulder, ras el hanout, harissa, honey, lemon and apricots, baked under a sweet potato and potato mash.

Moroccan · Main · Easy · 6 portions · 215 min

Each method follows published technique for the dish, and every Halal substitution is checked against the ingredient pages we cite. Photographs come from our ingredient library rather than the finished dish.

Print Back to recipe

Why Halal checks matter here

The filling is 800 g of lamb shoulder, which is Halal only from a Halal-slaughtered animal, cooked with a chicken or lamb stock cube, which is a meat product.

Halal-critical ingredients

• Lamb shoulder: Lamb is Halal only from a Halal-slaughtered animal, and lamb without a Halal mark doesn't say how the animal was slaughtered. Buy the lamb from a Halal butcher or in a certified pack. See Lamb.
• Chicken or lamb stock cube: A bought chicken or lamb stock cube is a meat product, and the UK's mainstream stock cubes contain uncertified chicken or meat fat. Use a Halal-certified chicken or lamb stock cube or a vegan vegetable stock cube. See Stock cubes.

Ingredients

Tagine

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 800 g Halal lamb shoulder, fat removed, cut into small pieces
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed or grated
• thumb-sized piece ginger, grated
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 2 tbsp ras el hanout
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 400 g chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp harissa paste
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 Halal-certified chicken or lamb stock cube, or a vegetable stock cube
• 70 g dried apricots, roughly chopped
• 2 tsp cornflour

Mash

• 3 (700 g) sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
• 3 (700 g) large potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks half the size of the sweet potato
• 50 g butter

Method

1. Brown the lamb. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large casserole dish. Brown the lamb in two or three batches so you don't overcrowd the pan, and set it aside on a plate as you go.
2. Build the sauce. Add the remaining oil and the onion and cook for 5 minutes until softened, then add the garlic and ginger and fry for 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato purée, ras el hanout, cinnamon, tomatoes, harissa, lemon zest and juice, honey and crumbled stock cube, and return the lamb to the pan.
3. Simmer. Fill the tomato can halfway with water, swill it round and add it too. Season, bring to a simmer, cover and cook on a low heat for 2 hours or until the meat is tender. Alternatively, tip it into a slow cooker and cook on Medium for 6 hours.
4. Finish the tagine. Add the apricots. Mix the cornflour with 1 tbsp water, stir it in and cook for 10 minutes more until the apricots have softened and the sauce has thickened. The tagine keeps chilled for up to two days or frozen for two months; cool it first.
5. Make the mash. Cover the sweet potatoes and potatoes with cold salted water, bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes until tender. Drain and leave to steam-dry for 10 minutes, then mash with the butter and some seasoning.
6. Top the pie. Transfer the tagine to a pie dish about 25 cm wide, or leave it in the casserole if it is wide enough. Cover with the mash, making dips and peaks with the back of a spoon, or pipe it on for a neater finish.
7. Bake. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Bake the pie for 50 to 55 minutes until golden and bubbling round the edges. Leave to cool for 5 minutes, then serve.

Allergens

milk (butter)

How this recipe was researched

Method adapted from BBC Good Food's 'Lamb tagine & sweet potato pie' by Cassie Best, which describes its flavours as Moroccan-inspired (serves 6: 800 g lamb shoulder, fat removed and cut into small pieces, browned in batches in 1 tbsp of 2 tbsp olive oil in a large casserole; a large chopped onion cooked 5 minutes in the rest of the oil, then 3 crushed garlic cloves and a thumb-sized piece of grated ginger 2 minutes; 1 tbsp tomato purée, 2 tbsp ras el hanout, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 400 g chopped tomatoes, 1 tbsp harissa paste, the zest and juice of a lemon, 1 tbsp honey and a crumbled chicken or lamb stock cube stirred in and the lamb returned; half a can of water added, seasoned, covered and simmered 2 hours until tender, or 6 hours on Medium in a slow cooker; 70 g chopped dried apricots and 2 tsp cornflour mixed with 1 tbsp water cooked 10 minutes more; 3 sweet potatoes (700 g) and 3 large potatoes (700 g) boiled 15 minutes, drained and steam-dried 10 minutes, then mashed with 50 g butter; the tagine covered with the mash in a pie dish about 25 cm wide and baked 50 to 55 minutes at 180C/160C fan/gas 4 until golden; rested 5 minutes). We specified Halal lamb and a Halal-certified or vegetable stock cube; nothing else needed changing. The rest time is the source's 5 minutes of cooling before serving. Timings follow the published technique rather than a kitchen test.

Photograph from our ingredient library: vegetables layered in a tagine before cooking, not the finished dish from this recipe.