With regard to fertility, red meat confuses me a little.
Meat was never something I enjoyed eating.
When I was a toddler and ate red meat, it would make me ill, so my parents stopped giving it to me.
As a teen, I claimed I was allergic for school camps, but when I ate at a friends house before sleepovers I would try to eat what I could out of thanks and respect for the meal being provided.
One night my friend laughed at me saying she thought it was funny that I pushed my meat around the plate, only ate about half and then spent the rest of the night turning green.Â
I wonder if her parents thought I had an eating disorder – I was skinny enough.
In any case I stopped trying to eat it after that.
When I started seeing my acupuncturist in January, hoping to balance my cycle after my miscarriage, she diagnosed me as blood deficient according to TCM. She suggested eating some red meat would help with balancing that and therefore improving fertility.
I was very happy to take her advice – especially as I conceived within six weeks of seeing her.
Other sources eg The Fertility Diet suggests a fully vegetarian/almost vegan diet would be best. Â
As a compromise I have promised Mr Duncan that we can buy red meat once a week, but I try to cook it with lots of veg so we’re only consuming smallish portions.
So I still had half of the butternut left that needed using and half a can of chickpeas left over from the
Lamb and Butternut Tagine with Tabouleh
Course: DinnerCuisine: Morrocan4
servings2
hours1
hour20
minutesEnjoy this Lamb and Butternut Tagine with Tabouleh, a fertility-boosting meal loaded with iron, antioxidants, and whole grains. A tasty, Mediterranean-inspired dish to support conception after 40.
Ingredients
300 gms lamb (we used neck)
Coconut oil
Onion
Garlic
Ginger
Chicken stock
Butternut
Chickpeas
Handful chopped dried apricots
Directions
- Chop up the lamb into small chunks and rub with the spices.
- Leave in the fridge to ‘marinate’ in the spices for at least two hours.
- Set the oven to 180 C.
- Heat a teaspoon of coconut oil over a medium flame in an oven-proof lidded pot
- Brown the lamb in batches and remove to a plate.
- In the same pan sweat the onions, garlic and ginger.
- Return the lamb and add the chicken stock.
- Bring to a simmer, cover with lid and put in the oven to cook very slowly for 45 minutes.
- After 45 minutes, stir and add the butternut, chickpeas and apricot – add a splash of water if it is too dry to nearly cover the butternut. I mixed the butternut under the meat at this point so didnt need any more moisture.
- Return to oven for another 20-30 minutes.
- It is ready when the butternut is tender, the meat should fall apart.
Notes
- Ras El Hanout is basically a mix of your best morroccan flavoured spices. I had a small jar I received as a gift to use up, but otherwise I’d have mixed together my own from whatever I had in the cupboard.
I served this on quinoa with home made tabouleh.
