This tasty spring-time dish comes courtesy of our Catering Operations Manager Lewis. You can get creative with this dish and use whatever greens and meats are in season. Slow cooking is the key to bringing out all of the flavours of the meat, while flash cooking the veg is all it takes to bring out their best.

We are really proud of our lamb suppliers Adeys Farm. We’ve been doing business with them for many years, and you can find out why here, or you can read about them in our Supplier Directory.

Braised lamb shoulder with puy lentils & purple sprouting broccoli

Serves: 4 – 6          Time: 5 hrs          Level: Medium

Ingredients

1. Shoulder of organic lamb (ours is from Adeys Farm)
2. A glug of olive oil
3. Salt and ground black pepper
4. 1 head of garlic
5. A few sprigs of fresh rosemary
6. 2 fresh bay leaves
7. A glass of white wine
8. 1 tin of whole tomatoes, drained and rinsed
9. 500ml organic chicken stock
10. 1/2 head of celery
11. 2 medium onions
12. 400g puy lentils
13. Purple sprouting broccoli (normal broccoli also works well)
14. A few chopped walnuts

Method

Rub the lamb shoulder with olive oil and salt and place in a 5cm deep roasting tin. Put in the oven (220°c) for 25 minutes or until nicely browned.

Take it out of the oven, squeeze over lemon juice and pour in the large glass of wine. Throw the 1/2 lemon into the dish along with 1 head of garlic (minus a few cloves reserved for the lentils), plus rosemary and a bay leaf.

Put tomatoes into the dish along with chicken stock.

Cover the roasting tin with foil and return to the oven, turning it down to 170°c. Cook for 3-4 hours. It’s ready when the lamb pulls of the bone with ease.

30 minutes before the lamb is due to come out of the oven, dice the celery and onion (keep the inner celery leaves for later). Sweat them down until soft and sticky, Add the rest of the garlic and the black pepper.

Cook the lentils in water with a bay leaf for 20 minutes. Once cooked, drain and fold in the celery and onions.

Blanch the broccoli for 3 minutes and fold it through the lentil mixture.

Add a little meat juice and shred the lamb over the top.

To finish, add chopped walnuts and celery leaf