Meltingly tender, this Morrocan Instant Pot Lamb Tagine with Ras El Hanout, Preserved Lemon and Green Olives is aromatic and flavorful and so easy to make using an Instant pot or pressure cooker . Serve it over Basmati Rice, Cous Cous or Everyday Quinoa and optional Tfaya for a hearty delicious meal.
This recipe for Instant Pot Lamb Tagine came about after our recent trip to Morocco. Fragrant Moroccan spices, preserved lemon, olives and herbs infuse the lamb with flavor.
The best part is how tender the lamb shoulder comes out after only 40 minutes in the Instant Pot pressure cooker.
This Lamb Tagine is tangy and savory, rather than sweet, and it is traditionally made with Ras el Hanout– a Moroccan spice blend that varies greatly from region to region (or even from household to household).
For this tagine recipe feel free to make your own Ras el Hanout, or purchase this lovely Villa Jerada Ras El Hanout – so good!
This month I’ve partnered with the American Lamb Board to create some new lamb recipes for you to try out.
Serve the Lamb Tagine over Couscous with optional Tfaya – a Moroccan condiment made with caramelized onions and raisins. A simple delicious meal that will take you away to warm and far-off places.
Delicious and easy, this Instant Pot Moroccan Lamb Tagine is truly a snap to make. Let us know what you think in the comments below!
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Instant Pot Lamb Tagine
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 40
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
- Category: Main
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: Moroccan
Description
Meltingly tender, Instant Pot Lamb Tagine is aromatic and flavorful and so easy to make using the pressure cooker setting. Serve it over Cous Cous and optional Tfaya for a hearty delicious meal.
Ingredients
- 2–3 tablespoons olive oil, butter or ghee
- 2 large onions, sliced
- 6–8 cloves garlic, rough chopped
- 3 extra-large carrots, peeled and sliced into 1 1/2-2 inch thick rounds (at a diagonal)
- 2 pounds lamb -stew meat (shoulder) cut into 1 1/2- 2-inch cubes
- 2 tablespoons preserved lemon, rough chopped
- 1 cup chicken stock (or water and 1 bouillon cube)
- lemon juice from 1/2 medium lemon
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt (or 1 teaspoon per pound meat)
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 cinnamon stick ( or 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 bay leaves
Garnish:
- 1/2 cup– 1 cup green olives or kalamata olives, sliced in half
- 1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley chopped
- 4–6 cups cooked couscous
Tfaya (Caramelized Onion Raisin Relish) – Optional
Instructions
Set Instant Pot to saute function and heat the oil. Season the lamb with 1 teaspoon salt, and sear it, to get a little caramelization or browning on some of the edges. (You could also do this in a larger skillet). Add the onion and garlic, and saute 3-4 minutes until fragrant. Add the carrots, preserved lemons, and chicken stock and lemon juice, and scrape up any browned bits.
Add the remaining 1 teaspoon salt, cumin, coriander, paprika, ginger, pepper, turmeric, cinnamon stick, cloves and bay leaves. Give a good stir.
Set to Pressure cook on high for 40 minutes. Let pressure release manually or naturally. Add the olives to the pot and stir to warm.
Taste, and adjust salt and pepper if needed. For more heat, add chili flakes. If the tagine tastes too tangy for you, add a teaspoon or two of honey to help balance the flavors. To make it tangier, add more chopped preserved lemon or lemon juice.
Serve the lamb over a platter of couscous, spooning a little of the flavorful broth over the top. Sprinkle with fresh parsley, chili flakes and optional Tfaya. Slivered almonds are also nice.
To make the Tfaya: Saute the onions in the oil until tender and caramelized over med heat in a medium pot. Add remaining ingredients, bring to a simmer, and simmer gently for 15- 20 minutes.
Notes
Feel free to sub 2-3 tablespoons Ras el Hanout for the spices. Or thy this brand- Villa Jerada Ras El Hanout!
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 498
- Sugar: 6.3 g
- Sodium: 1379.8 mg
- Fat: 34.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 12.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 15.9 g
- Fiber: 4.1 g
- Protein: 30.5 g
- Cholesterol: 283.5 mg
Delicious! Wouldn’t change a thing. We did it over brown rice for gluten free is all.
Yum, yum! thanks Briana!
Easy and delicious way to make an otherwise time-consuming dish. (I used Ras El Hanout.)
Perfect Elizabeth!
We used bone in shoulder – it was largish chunks and did 30 min with 10 min natural release – maybe essentially the same be as 40 min on high- and it was perfect- tender and fall off bone but not too soft or mushy. This was so delicious! Going into my repeat rotation.
Great to hear!
Used diced lamb heart instead of shoulder. Delicious!
Interesting Peggy- lots of nutrients there!
Against all odds, my picky one year old LOVED this! I’m a vegetarian so I don’t know how it actually tasted (I’m a vegetarian and made your eggplant tagine to go with!) but you are a genius!
Awesome Sarah! Great to hear!
Mushy mess. Spent a fortune on lamb. Followed the recipe exactly. Ended up with a mushy mess stew that was completely unappealing. The picture shown was made on a stove top or in an oven, because it looks nothing like anything that’s been in an instapot for 45 MINUTES.
Oh dear, sorry about that, Ashely. Do you remember how big you cut the lamb pieces- this can make a difference. I will adjust the recipe.
We tried it out a few months ago and it is delicious!!! I wish we would have learned about instapot recipes a bit sooner.
Delicious, I made the Tfaya caramelized onions and raisins and love the flavor it added. I used boneless leg of lamb with the Setting of 40 minutes on high. Next time if I use boneless leg of lamb again, I will try 35 minutes on high or 40 minutes on low. Can’t wait to make it again!
Delicious! I made the Tfaya and it was good, I liked the caramelized onions. Used boneless leg of lamb and reduced instant pot time to 40 minutes on high, next time probably will try 40 min on low or 35 on high. Can’t wait to make it again!
Thanks and glad you liked this!
I ended up thickening the broth by blending about a cup of it with 3 of the carrot pieces, and we all liked the results! Thought I’d made a mistake at first as, when it first came out of my blender, it was a pale orange! But I wasn’t serving it until the next day, and once it settled out, the color was more brown. Loved the consistency!
I would like to double the recipe, which I have not done for an Instant Pot recipe. Is it as simple as doubling everything? Or is there anything specific about doubling an Instant Pot recipe I should know?
Thank you!
I think it is pretty straight forward, should double just fine, as long as Instnatpot is not overfilled.
Thanks so much!
This was delicious made with lamb shanks and was scarfed down by the family. Served with couscous with lemon zest, parsley and thyme.
This was a hit. Husband is eating nightshade-free and it is so nice to be able to make a recipe without adjusting to remove potatoes or tomatoes. This one really works. Yielded 6 servings for us, that’s 3 meals for two! End result was a bit soupier than photo shows, but the broth is wonderful. For our taste, the lemon makes it shine, and it did not need the chili flakes or extra brine. Also used shoulder steaks, but trimmed carefully to reduce fat in the lamb before cooking. This will be on the monthly menu all winter!! Thanks Sylvia!!
Great to hear Ellen!
Great recipe, thank you! Very quick and easy to make…
I added a tin of tomatoes and a few chopped apricots to the tagine. I also used chopped apricots in place of the raisins which was OK but a little too sweet. A small dash of vinegar may have brought it back a bit…
We served it with salad, flat bread and cauliflower rice…
Delicious! x
We’ve made this with lamb shank and lamb shoulder steaks, I suspect it works with any available cut….it has exceptional flavor and could not be more simple.Make this!!!!
This was delicious! I didn’t have any ground ginger, but it came out wonderful! I added potatoes and extra chicken stock so it would be more of a stew and it was perfection!
What is the long brown with yellow middle thing that is in your images, I can’t work it out. Looking at the ingredients list has left me clueless. Thanks, and thanks for recipe.
They are carrots- just a different variety!
I have a boneless leg of lamb. Will this work or is it too tender a piece?
It should work!
This turned out really tasty. Love how tender the lamb gets in the instant pot. Served it over quinoa and skipped the raisin part.
This looks delicious. Do you have instructions on how to cook if you don’t own an instapot ?
Kate I think you could cook it exactly the same way in a dutch oven on the stove but it would take 1.5 -2 hours to get the lamb tender.
Loved, loved, loved this and would make it again no matter what; the only thing is, I’m wondering about the very thin broth, which I assume is because of cooking it in the Instant Pot. Is that correct? Would there be a thicker, more gravy-like consistency to the broth if cooked conventionally? And re: cooking in Instant Pot – do you have any ideas for thickening it that would not create a weird consistency?
I hear you. You could make a quick slurry with a little cornstarch if you like? Then mix it into the broth afterwards- or just cook off the broth using the saute function.
Thanks for the ideas!