Over the last few weeks, I’ve really enjoyed developing recipes for the Devon-based Well Hung Meat Company, making the most of their delicious organic lamb. The last in this series is this recipe for summery Middle Eastern lamb lettuce wraps.
Featuring little gem lettuce stuffed with lightly spiced minced lamb, this is a beautifully versatile dish to evoke warm sunshine on the dreariest of days. Serve alone as a starter, as part of a mezze, or with a simple cous cous salad for a light lunch, it’s fun finger food that goes down well with children as much as adults.
It’s a feast of textures and flavours: the crisp lettuce, the crunchy carrot, and the juicy, nutty pomegranate through to the succulent, soft, spicy lamb; the sharp olives, capers and preserved lemon paired with the bitter tang of the tahini dressing; all perfectly balanced by the soothing, syrupy sweet pomegranate molasses and creamy crème fraiche.
For a dish that boasts so much, it’s also ridiculously easy to pull together. So, a winner on all fronts.
Middle Eastern lamb lettuce wraps
Serves 6 as a starter
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
400g Well Hung Meat Company lamb mince
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste
50g pitted green olives
2 tbsp capers
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
2 carrots, peeled and grated
2 heads little gem lettuce, leaves washed and separated
100 pomegranate seeds
For the dressing
50ml extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp tahini
1 preserved lemon, rinsed, seeds removed and roughly chopped
1 tsp water
200g Holy Cow crème fraiche
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and gently sweat the onion until translucent.
Add the garlic and fry for a minute or so before adding the minced lamb, ginger and cinnamon. Mix together and continue cooking for around 7 minutes until the lamb begins to brown.
Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the green olives, capers and pomegranate molasses.
Keep warm until ready to serve.
To make the dressing, pour the olive oil and tahini into a jug with the chopped preserved lemon and water, and puree with a stick blender until smooth. Stir in the crème fraiche and pomegranate molasses. If it feels too thick, mix in a little more water.
Just before serving, stir the grated carrot into the warm lamb mixture. Spoon the lamb into the separated lettuce leaves and arrange on plates. Drizzle with the tahini dressing and scatter with pomegranate seeds. Serve immediately.
Spiced rack of lamb with braised lettuce and herb mash
Disclosure: I was supplied with a complimentary samples of lamb from the Well Hung Meat Company and crème fraiche from Holy Cow in order to develop this recipe. As ever, all views expressed are mine and only products I genuinely like make it onto my blog.
Bangers & Mash 