Warm lamb, sweet sticky onions, crunchy buttery pine nuts and fresh parsley all stirred through soft fluffy couscous. This meal is comforting but in no way boring! Eaten by the spoonful with a cold beer it is the perfect easy to eat dinner. Sit down on the sofa, find something good to watch and spoon it into your mouth. Yum!
Other than the fact this is simple and delicious, I also love the fact that you can use up left over lamb. If you read my roast chicken post last week you will now that I have recently started a leftovers collection. A page dedicated to cooking meals to ensure you get leftovers and then using the leftovers to make brand new exciting meals. My aim with the leftovers is that if you don't mention the word leftover then no one would know they were using up food.
This couscous dish definitely falls into that category. This is miles away from the slow roast lamb, smashed potatoes, roasted broccoli and glazed carrots that we ate the other day. In fact the first time I came up with this dish I cooked a lamb loin specifically for this dish.
Ha funny story. As I was writing loin, I mistyped and wrote lion, which reminded me of a story about Mr 5! We were in the car playing I spy. It was his go and he said "I spy with my little eye something beginning with L"
Okay no worries.
"light"
"lamp post"
'layby"
"lady"
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"lego"
On and on I guessed. No idea. When I asked for a clue he said "It is in the car"
Hmmmm, "Are you sure it begins with L?" (He is only 5 and just learning to read)
"Yes mummy, do you give in?"
After about 10 minutes I did indeed give in
"It is Lion mummy"
"You can't have lion, you can't see a lion. We live in Australia not Africa"
"I can mummy, it is on your steering wheel!"
I looked down and there staring at me is the Holden badge. The kid is a genius!!!! 😉
Which has nothing to do with this recipe, but loin and lion are very similar!!!
So where was I? Yes the first time I cooked this I fried off a small loin of lamb and sliced that over the couscous. Delicious, but expensive! So it got me thinking what about a cheaper cut? But who wants to slow cook a piece of lamb just for a salad. An amazing salad but a salad none the less. Then after a wonderful slow cooked shoulder of lamb I used the leftovers in my couscous. Perfection! Economical! And responsible - no food waste!
Get the Recipe
Lamb Couscous with Fried Onions and Parsley
Ingredients
- 3 onions
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- knob of butter
- 2 bay leaves
- second knob of butter
- 100 g couscous
- 150 ml chicken stock
- 100-150 g left over lamb
- small bunch of flat-leaf parsley
- 35 g pine kernels
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Peel the onions and cut them into small wedge slices.
- Heat the oil and butter in a heavy bottomed frying pan, add the bay leaves and cover with the onions. Cook over a low heat for 15 minutes until the onions are soft and starting to get a good colour.
- Whilst the onions are cooking, bring your chicken stock to the boil (or use boring water and bouillon powder!) pour it into a bowl, add the second knob of butter and then pour in the couscous. Then cover with cling film and set aside.
- Remove the onions from the heat, add a pinch of salt and tip into a serving bowl.
- Cut the lamb into bite sized pieces, tip it into the onion frying pan and place over a high heat to warm through. Add it to the bowl with the onions.
- Roughly chop the parsley and add it to the onion bowl.
- Turn the heat tp medium and gently fry the pine nuts until they are light golden.
- Undercover the couscous and use a fork to fluff the grains. Mix the couscous with the onion and lamb. Season generously with salt and black pepper.
- Stir well, then top with the pine nuts.
Nutrition is per serving
Claudia | The Brick Kitchen says
LOVE recipes that use left-overs!! having to throw out food always makes me feel so bad so will definitely be using your left-overs section in future. This salad looks awesome too - bit of a middle-eastern twist with the parsley and pine nuts too, sounds lovely! <3
Claire McEwen says
I agree Claudia, I hate throwing food out. Some nights I serve the boys the oddest mix of foods!! They'll have a chicken skewer, some leftover salad leaves, half a bread stick, some sticky chicken and a small pile of rice and asian veg. It is so funny to look at! But I like to use things up 😉
I am building up the leftovers collection slowly, so I hope you find something you like in there 🙂
Katalina @ Peas & Peonies says
I grabbed some couscous from Whole Foods over the weekend, and my husband really loves lamb so thank you for the recipe.
Claire McEwen says
Oooooh, I hope you enjoy it 🙂
nicole (thespicetrain.com) says
This looks soooo good, Claire! I just had dinner but I think I would have no trouble eating the whole delicious bowl you got there. MMMmmmm. 🙂
Claire McEwen says
Hehe, that happens to me so often! 😉
Thank you 🙂