Shawarma Lamb with Maftoul, Chickpeas and Tahini

Shawarma lamb is up there as my ultimate 'hangman's supper', particularly when drizzled with creamy tahini. Making a shawarma spice blend from scratch is fantastic, but does require an extensive spice cupboard and some time to spare. The quality of our shawarma spice blend is excellent and gets you remarkably close with the addition of some fresh garlic, ginger, lemon juice, coriander and olive oil.

Maftoul is a traditional Palastinian type of couscous, hand-rolled with a larger grain size than regular couscous.  It has a pleasant, slightly chewy texture and absorbs flavour really well - it's well worth a try.

The lamb skewers are excellent cooked on a barbecue, so if that's your plan, light your barbecue in good time so that you have a medium hot temperature to cook on.

Ingredients for Shawarma Lamb with Maftoul, Chickpeas and Tahini
Serves 4

For the Shawarma Lamb
1kg Lamb leg steaks, diced into 1'' cubes
45g Med Cuisine shawarma spice blend
15g Fresh garlic, finely grated
15g Fresh ginger, finely grated
50ml Lemon juice
75ml Extra virgin olive oil
20g Fresh coriander, finely chopped
Wooden skewers, soaked for 1 hour before using

For the Maftoul
200g Maftoul Baladi
1 tablespoon Sea salt
1 Jar Burcol chickpeas, drained
75g Raisins, soaked for 10-15 minutes in boiling hot water
1 tray Roasted red peppers, sliced into strips
1 Spring onion, thinly sliced
2 tbsp Fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 tbsp Fresh mint, finely chopped
1 tsp Med Cuisine za'atar spice
Lemon juice
Plenty of extra virgin olive oil

For the Tahini
80g Med Cuisine tahini
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 clove garlic, finely grated
1 teaspoon salt
3-4 tablespoons water

1. Dice the lamb into 1'' cubes, combine all the marinade ingredients together and marinade the lamb in the fridge - ideally overnight, but at least 4 hours.

2. A couple of hours before you are ready to serve, soak the wooden skewers in cold water.

3. Remove the lamb from the fridge and once the skwers have been soaked for an hour or so, thread the pieces of lamb onto your skewers.

4. To make the tahini dressing, mix the tahini with the garlic, salt and lemon juice, then gradually pour in the water until you reach a nice double cream consistency. Initially when you start adding the water, the mixture will go extremely thick - don't panic, keep adding the water and whisking until it comes back round.

5. Heat a griddle pan so that's it's smoking hot (or turn on your oven grill) and grill the lamb skewers for around 3 minutes on each side. Remove from the grill and leave to rest for 5 minutes.

6. To make the maftoul, bring 800ml of water to the boil with a tablespoon of salt and cook the grains, for 7-8 minutes.

7. Once the maftoul is cooked (it will be slightly chewy), drian any residual water from the pan and place into a mixing bowl with the plump, soaked raisins. Add in the chickpeas, roasted pepper strips, sliced spring onion, fresh parsley and mint and squeeze in plenty of lemon juice and olive oil and finally finish with a nice dusting of za'atar.

8. To serve, pile up the maftoul salad top with the lamb skewers and drizzle over the tahini sauce.

Enjoy! Don't forget to leave a review for this recipe if you enjoyed making it at home and tell your foodie friends. Ben