Cumin lamb and lentil chili
Category : Main Course, Meat
I hope you boys and girls like lamb. Yesterday we went to a cash and carry and bought a huge amount of minced lamb which is now sitting in my freezer waiting to be used in future meals. My mind started to run through all the lamb dishes I knew but I was looking for something fairly quick but filling and chili sprung to mind. Using cumin was pretty much a given for me. I love cumin and suggest using it in pretty much every dish we cook. The cumin gives this dish a sort of Indian flavouring but feels more like a chili to me with it’s thick spicy tomato sauce.
Cumin lamb and lentil chili – serves 2 to 3 as a main dish
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 red onion
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp chili powder (less if you don’t like your food so spicy)
- 2 sticks of celery
- 1 carrot
- 250g minced lamb
- 1 can of chopped tomatoes
- Half a 400g can of lentils (I used pre-cooked lentils because I came up with this recipe on the fly and I’m lazy but you could soak and cook your own)
- A glug of red wine (This could be replaced with stock or another liquid like coffee if you would prefer)
First off chop your red onion, carrot and celery into fairly small pieces, but try and keep the different veggies separate. If you wanted to save time you could grate the carrot instead of chopping.
Heat the olive oil in a pan and then add the cumin seeds and red onion. Cook for a few minutes to soften and then add the celery. Leave for another couple of minutes and then add the carrot. After a couple of minutes add the chili powder and then the lamb. Brown the lamb before adding the tomatoes, lentils and red wine. I left this to reduce on a very low heat for around half an hour as I wanted quite a thick consistency.
We ate this with tortilla chips but it would go just as well with rice or cous cous. Or you could make up a big old plate of nachos and layer up the chili with your traditional extras. Enjoy!
