Beef or Lamb & California Prune Tagine

Prune It is a healthy eating campaign designed to educate consumers to understand the role that California Prunes can play in helping to help reduce the fat and sugar content across a wide range of recipes.  When blended into a puree, prunes offer a useful fat replacer in cooking by adding fat-like (but fat-free) characteristics that also work to enhance the flavours in both sweet and savoury dishes.  In addition, the naturally occurring sugars present in California Prunes can also be used to provide a natural replacement for some of the processed sugars that traditionally feature in sweet recipes.  And because of their high fibre content and ability to add bulk to dishes, California Prunes also have a role to play in reducing portion size without compromising on filling power or taste.

Makes: 4Prep Time: 10 minutesCook Time: 3 hours

INGREDIENTS

  •  
  • 400g tender beef of lamb, cut into 2cm pieces
  • 2 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp ginger
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • Pepper and pinch salt
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 handfuls fresh coriander
  • 160g California Prunes
  • 400ml water
  • 200g mixed vegetables such as onions, carrots, celery or turnips roughly chopped

DIRECTIONS

  1. Heat oil in a pan and add meat, garlic and spices.
  2. Brown meat over a medium heat for one minute, add water and the vegetables, bring back up to simmer.
  3. Wash and chop the fresh coriander, including the stalks, reserving a handful of leaves for later.
  4. Add coriander leaves and stalks plus the California Prunes to the pan.
  5. Transfer to oven-proof covered pot or tagine and cook in slow oven for 3 hours or until the meat is tender and the liquid has reduced.
  6. Top up water level to ensure it doesn’t dry out.
  7. Serve sprinkled with the remaining chopped fresh coriander leaves.

For a vegetarian tagine, substitute the meat for 2x 400g tins of chick peas (or 1/2 tin for 1 portion), drained and add these with the other vegetables after first frying the garlic and spices. Reduce cooking time to 1 hour, or until the vegetables are tender.