Yes, this was my first time EVER cooking lamb. Yes, I’m now shocked that I waited so long. I’ll break this mouth-watering dish down by the five unique and totally necessary elements that make it up: ground lamb, crispy chickpeas, sauteed greens, fresh tomatoes, and garlicky yogurt.
Ground lamb. It took a little time, but I eventually found some at Holy Land. The meat is cooked in a skillet with spices, just how I’d cook any other ground meat. So simple, yet I felt some exhilaration while pushing the meat around in the pan. Already this project has forced me to cook with so many new (to me) ingredients. Every time I use one, I feel a spark of inner joy, knowing that I’m choosing to risk a small failure and courageously choosing to do the thing anyway. For someone who is as afraid of failure as I am, (hello, Enneagram 3), this kind of daily exercise has been good for me.
Crispy chickpeas. I’ve tried making crispy chickpeas in the past by way of oven-roasting. They can take a while and it’s hard to strike the right balance between too soft and too hard. Alison’s method took less time and less work. She has you crisp up the chickpeas in the same pan used to cook the lamb with a good bit of vegetable oil. You know they’re done when they appear golden on all sides. The chickpeas gave a great salty crunch to the dish, counterbalanced by the briefly warmed greens.
I chose a fresh bunch of swiss chard for my greens. There’s something so appealing about their bright pink stems! I loved the way she has you cook them: stems and leaves separated, stems thinly sliced and sauteed until just tender but still crisp on the inside, and leaves until just wilting but not totally limp. After eating a ton of soggy swiss chard in my college cafeteria, this cooking method gave me hope for more chard in my future.
Fresh tomatoes are not something I would have thought to include, and I almost didn’t. I’m so glad I kept them in. They brought a brightness and element of refreshment that counterbalanced the rather oily nature of the lamb, chickpeas and greens.
At the base of the plate is a simple garlicky yogurt with lemon juice. This creamy, slightly acidic spread brought everything together really nicely.
J asked that I add this recipe to “our rotation.” I told him yes, but first, I need to make 212 other Alison Roman recipes ;).
14 recipes cooked, 211 recipes to go.
