Moroccan Lamb Sausage and Chickpea Tagine

A quick and easy stew full of North African flavours, this delicious Moroccan Lamb Sausage and Chickpea Tagine is made with lamb sausages, cutting down the cooking time dramatically and making this a great way to enjoy a tagine on a busy weeknight.

If you follow my blog regularly, you will know I LOVE tagines and especially lamb tagines – they are one of my absolute favourite things to cook! For example my Lamb, Date and Butternut Squash Tagine or this delicious Lamb and Apricot Tagine.

The thing about a good lamb tagine or stew, is they do take a bit of time in the oven. Usually this is something I love, as I can quickly prep my tagine earlier in the day and get it into the oven, then leave the oven to do all the hard work whilst I get on with other things – it’s one of my favourite ways of cooking.

But sometimes I just don’t have that much time! So I came up with this lamb sausage version instead. Instead of taking an hour or two to chunter away in the oven, this quick and easy lamb sausage stew is ready in just 30 minutes, making it brilliant for busy nights when you haven’t got much time, but still want fabulous flavour packed food!

I have been working for a while now as a Lambassador with the ‘LAMB. Tasty Easy Fun’ campaign, creating and reviewing recipes and helping spread the word about how great lamb is.

I have shared lots of lovely lamb recipes using different cuts of lamb, for example: diced leg of lamb, lamb shanks, lamb mince and lamb chops…but I haven’t yet  shared a recipe with lamb sausages. Lamb sausages are a little harder to track down than other cuts of lamb, but well worth it if you can find them! Lamb makes delicious sausages and, in fact, lamb is the meat most commonly found in the North African ‘merguez’ sausage.

I didn’t actually use merguez sausages in this tagine…(but you absolutely could if you wanted to – they would be delicious!) Instead I went to my local butcher, who just so happens to be an award winning sausage maker, and bought some delicious minty lamb sausages (He also does lamb sausages with rosemary and garlic, but I thought the minty ones would go best here.)

The minty lamb sausages worked a treat in this Moroccan style recipe and complemented the other North African flavours of cinnamon, cumin, paprika and chilli beautifully!

You could absolutely serve this stew with bulgur wheat or couscous, but I went for buttery mashed potatoes and it worked brilliantly – after all, you can’t get a much more comforting classic than mashed potato with a sausage stew! For a super simple one pot version, serve with flatbreads or pittas.

This spicy sausage tagine would go brilliantly with gutsy, rustic Southern French red wines such as Cotes du Rhone or Cotes du Roussillon. A Rioja would also be a great choice here.

5 from 2 votes

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Moroccan Lamb Sausage and Chickpea Tagine

A quick and easy stew full of North African flavours, this delicious Moroccan Lamb Sausage and Chickpea Tagine is made with lamb sausages, cutting down the cooking time dramatically and making this a great way to enjoy a tagine on a busy weeknight.

Recipe Type Main Course, Tagine

Cuisine Moroccan, North African

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Serves 4 people

Calories 440 kcal

Author Eb Gargano

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive or rapeseed oil
• 8 lamb sausages
• 2 onions sliced
• 1 red pepper sliced
• 3 cloves garlic crushed
• 1 stick cinnamon (or 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon)
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
• 2 teaspoons ground paprika
• 400 g tin chopped tomatoes
• 6 stoneless dates finely chopped
• 400 g tin chickpeas don’t drain!
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped coriander plus extra for garnish
• Mashed potatoes, couscous, bulgur wheat or flatbreads to serve.

Metric - US Customary

Method

1. Put the oil in a large pan and heat for 1 minute. Add the sausages and brown on all sides. Remove the sausages from the pan and set aside on a plate.
2. Turn the heat down and add the onions and peppers to the pan. Cover with a lid and cook for 3 minutes until softened, but not brown. Stir occasionally.
3. Remove the lid and add the garlic, cinnamon, cumin, chilli and paprika. Cook for 2 minutes. Add a splash of water if it gets too dry.
4. Add the sausages back in, plus the chopped tomatoes, dates and chickpeas (including the chickpea water) and add salt and pepper to taste. Turn the heat up and bring to the boil then put the lid on and turn down low. Cook for 15 minutes stirring occasionally.
5. When the tagine is ready, stir in the chopped coriander.
6. Sprinkle over a little coriander for garnish and serve with mashed potatoes, couscous, bulgur wheat, flatbreads or pittas

Notes

Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.

Nutrition Facts

Moroccan Lamb Sausage and Chickpea Tagine

Amount Per Serving

Calories 440 Calories from Fat 153

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 17g 26%

Saturated Fat 3g 15%

Cholesterol 89mg 30%

Sodium 514mg 21%

Potassium 1098mg 31%

Total Carbohydrates 38g 13%

Dietary Fiber 9g 36%

Sugars 14g

Protein 36g 72%

Vitamin A 36.6%

Vitamin C 63%

Calcium 12%

Iron 35.3%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

This is a collaborative post with the ‘LAMB. Tasty Easy Fun’ campaign. ‘LAMB. Tasty Easy Fun’ is an EU funded campaign which aims to increase the use of lamb in everyday cooking.  Lamb is often considered difficult to cook, expensive, or something to be saved for Sunday roasts. The aim of the campaign is to demonstrate just how tasty, easy and fun lamb is to cook with every day of the week! They also have a wonderful website, full of tasty and easy lamb recipes that go way beyond the traditional roast lamb we all know and love.

Love Lamb? Check out my collection of Easy & Delicious Lamb Recipes

Want more delicious and hassle-free midweek meals? Find more here…

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