Braised Lamb with Green Beans, Tomato, and Dill
Lamb shoulder browned in a heavy pot and braised in tomato until it gives way, with green beans and carrots cooked soft, then finished with dill and lemon.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Every Greek grandmother I have ever cooked next to makes some version of this, and every one of them cooks the beans far longer than an American cookbook would allow. That is the dish. Green beans left in the tomato until they slump are a different vegetable from the bright crisp ones, sweeter and completely soaked through, and they are the reason people go quiet when they eat this. I make a pot on the weekend and eat it for lunch through Wednesday. It reheats better than it cooks, it needs nothing under it, and it is one of the few braises that does not taste like dinner leftovers eaten at the wrong hour.
The two things that matter are the browning and the order. Lamb shoulder has to go into the pot dry, in two batches, and stay put until each piece has a hard dark face, because that fond scraped up off the bottom is what separates a deep red sauce from a pink one. The oregano and cinnamon then go into the hot fat for thirty seconds before the tomatoes, which wakes them up in a way that stirring them into liquid never does. Half a teaspoon of cinnamon sounds like a mistake in a savory pot and is the note nobody can identify afterward.
It is a rich pot, so the finish is what keeps it from sitting heavily. Lemon juice and a fistful of chopped dill go in off the heat, where they stay sharp and green rather than cooking away into the sauce, and I hold back half the dill to scatter over each bowl at the table. The lamb by that point pulls apart under a fork with no resistance at all. Skim the fat before the lemon goes in, or the acid ends up floating on top of an oil slick, which is the one way I know to make this dish disappointing.
Ingredients
- 2 lb boneless lamb shoulder, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
- 3 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1 can (14.5 oz) crushed tomatoes
- 1 cup low-sodium beef broth
- 12 oz green beans, trimmed
- 2 medium carrots, cut into 1/2-inch coins
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill, divided
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tsp fine sea salt, divided
- 1 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Brown the lamb: Pat the lamb dry, since a wet surface will not take a crust, and season it with 1 teaspoon of the salt and the black pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high and brown the pieces in two batches, 4 to 5 minutes a side, until each has a dark crust. Move them to a plate as they finish.
- Bloom the spices in the fond: Lower the heat to medium. Add the last tablespoon of oil, the oregano, and the cinnamon and stir for 30 seconds, until they darken slightly and smell warm. Pour in the crushed tomatoes and scrape hard at the bottom of the pot so every browned patch lifts into the sauce.
- Braise: Return the lamb and any juices from the plate to the pot with the broth and the bay leaves. Bring it to a simmer, cover, and cook over low heat for 75 minutes, stirring twice. Keep it at a bare simmer, since a hard boil tightens shoulder meat instead of relaxing it. The lamb is ready when a piece pulls apart under light pressure from the side of a spoon.
- Add the vegetables: Stir in the carrots and cook covered for 10 minutes, then add the green beans, push them under the sauce, and cook 20 minutes more. The beans go well past bright and squeaky on purpose here, because soft beans drink up the tomato and hold onto it.
- Finish off the heat: Fish out the bay leaves and skim the pooled fat from the surface. Stir in the lemon juice and half the dill, taste for the last of the salt, and let the pot sit off the heat for 10 minutes, so the sauce settles and the lemon works its way through it. Scatter the rest of the dill over the top just before serving.
Variations
- Lemon and mint: Swap half the dill for chopped mint and add a strip of lemon zest to the braise for a fresher, greener pot.
- Root vegetables: Add cubed turnip or parsnip along with the carrots when you want something more filling under the sauce.
- Older style: A pinch of ground cloves alongside the cinnamon pushes the sauce toward the sweeter, more old-fashioned version of this braise.
- Zucchini: Add thick zucchini half moons for the last 10 minutes so they hold their shape and take on the tomato.
- Feta at the table: Crumble feta over each bowl as you serve it for a salty edge against the soft beans.
Storage & Leftovers
This is better on the second day, once the lamb has taken on the tomato and the cinnamon has spread through the pot. It keeps for 4 days in a sealed container in the refrigerator. Hold back a little dill and add it fresh to each portion, since the herb fades to almost nothing overnight.
Reheat it covered over low heat with a splash of broth or water, about 8 minutes, stirring once. It also reheats well in a microwave, which is not true of most braises, because nothing in the pot goes rubbery. Add a squeeze of lemon after reheating if it tastes dull.
It freezes for up to 3 months, though the green beans soften further on thawing. If a batch is headed for the freezer, cook the beans 5 minutes short of the recipe and finish them when you reheat, and add the dill and the lemon juice at that point as well.
Notes & Tips
- Dry the lamb first: Wet meat steams rather than browns. Ten seconds with paper towels is what stands between a gray pot and a dark red one.
- Brown in batches: Two batches cost you 10 extra minutes and roughly double the depth of the finished sauce.
- Bloom the oregano: Dried herbs stay sleepy until they hit hot fat. Thirty seconds before the tomatoes go in changes how the whole pot smells.
- Let the beans go soft: Crisp green beans fight this sauce. Cooked through and slightly collapsed, they take on the tomato and become part of the dish.
- Skim before the lemon: Lamb shoulder throws a lot of fat. Spoon most of it off first, or the acid tastes like it is sitting on top of an oil slick.
- Rest the pot: Ten minutes off the heat lets the sauce cling to everything rather than pooling, and it stops the first bite from scalding you.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Lamb, tomato, and the vegetables cooked in one pot end up tasting like a single thing. The meat gives the sauce its body and its protein, the tomato brings the acidity, and the green beans and carrots soak up both so nothing in the bowl eats dry.
- Lamb shoulder is a fatty, collagen-rich cut, which is why it turns silky over a long braise rather than tightening, and it carries iron and B12, both of which come mostly from animal foods.
- Cooked tomato is where the lycopene in this pot comes from, and simmering it in olive oil for well over an hour makes that lycopene easier for the body to absorb than it is in a raw tomato.
- Cinnamon and oregano bloomed in the hot fat give the sauce a warmth most people cannot name when they taste it, and the dill and lemon stirred in off the heat stay green and sharp rather than cooking away.
- Carrots go soft and sweet in the tomato and bring beta-carotene along with that sweetness, while the green beans hold enough fiber to give the bowl some structure underneath all the meat.
- As you eat, pull a piece of lamb apart with the side of your fork and notice how little resistance is left in it, and let the dill on top of each bite be the thing that slows you down.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use beef?
Yes. Beef chuck cut the same size behaves almost identically and takes about the same time, though it tastes rounder and less grassy. Goat works too and wants an extra 20 minutes. Whatever you use, brown it properly, since the crust is where the sauce gets its depth.
My sauce is thin. How do I fix it?
Take the lid off for the last 15 minutes and let it reduce, or lift the meat and vegetables out and boil the sauce hard for 5 minutes before returning them. Do not add flour or starch. The lamb releases enough collagen to thicken the pot on its own.
Can I make it ahead?
It is built for it. Cook the whole pot on a Sunday, cool it, and portion it into four containers for the week. Keep the dill and a wedge of lemon separate and add them as you reheat, which brings it back close to how it tasted on the first day.
Does this fit a low-FODMAP lunch?
It does. There is no onion or garlic in the pot, and the flavor is built on browned lamb, tomato, oregano, cinnamon, and a lot of dill. Green beans and carrots both sit gently at this portion, and garlic-infused olive oil works well for the browning if you keep it.