Home Recipes Lamb and Rice Tagine with Dried Cherries

Lamb and Rice Tagine with Dried Cherries

  • 120+ Minutes
  • Medium
  • Serves 6

Rich lamb cooked with nutty Tilda Wholegrain rice and lots of lovely spices in a tagine to make a rich, warming, and comforting dish. Recipe by Helen Graves, courtesy of Great British Chefs.



400g of lamb shoulder, diced into 3cm cubes
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
3 cardamom pods
1 tsp ras el hanout
3 small onions, diced (or 1 large onion)
500g of lamb stock, or chicken stock
750ml of water
250g of Tilda brown basmati rice
75g of dried cherries
200g of baby spinach, or chopped regular spinach
20g of tarragon leaves, picked

  1. To begin, toast the cumin and coriander seeds in a dry pan then grind them with the cardamom in a pestle and mortar or spice grinder
  2. In a wide heavy-based pan, soften the onions in some olive oil, then add the ras el hanout and other ground spices to the pan. Cook out for a couple of minutes, stirring so they don't burn
  3. Remove the onions from the pan, turn up the heat and add the lamb, stirring occasionally until browned all over. Once browned, reduce the heat, add the stock and 500ml water and pop the onions back into the pan. Cook with a lid on over a very low heat for an hour
  4. Add the rice, dried cherries, some salt and pepper, and another 250ml of boiling water and cook for another 40–45 minutes, or until the rice is cooked
  5. When the rice is almost ready, place the spinach in the pan on top of the tagine and put the lid back on to wilt the spinach for a minute. Once wilted, stir it into the dish. Finally, stir in the tarragon and serve