Lamb Tagine Shepherd's Pie

This is delicious and hearty - think shepherd's pie but with an exotic flair. It took me a few bites to get used to the chickpea topping instead of mashed potatoes, but the more I ate, the more I loved it. The list of ingredients is somewhat lengthy, but the dish goes together easily. Definitely give this one a try! The picture does not do these justice - turns out it's hard to take a good picture of a shepherd's pie.

From Cooking Light

Ingredients:
~5 tsp extra virgin olive oil
~1 and 1/2 lbs. ground lamb (We found it at Meijer. You could also use a leg of lamb cut into chunks)
~1 cup chopped onion
~1 cup chopped carrot
~1 and 1/2 tsp salt
~4 tsp minced garlic
~1 tbs tomato paste
~1 tsp ground turmeric
~1/4 tsp ground cumin
~1/8 tsp ground red pepper
~1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
~1/2 cup red wine
~1 and 1/2 cups plus 2 tbs chicken stock
~1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped
~1/4 cup golden raisins
~2 tbs chopped fresh cilantro
~2 tbs lemon juice
~2 garlic cloves
~1 can chickpeas

1. Preheat oven to 350. Heat a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add to tsp. oil to pan and swirl to coat. Add lamb and cook until browned, stirring occasionally. Remove from pan.
2. Add onion and carrot to pan and saute for 3 minutes. Stir in 1 and 1/4 tsp salt, minced garlic, tomato paste, turmeric, cumin, and red pepper. Saute 30 seconds.
3. Add wine and cook for 1 minute, scraping brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Stir in lamb, 1 and 1/2 cups chicken stock, apricots, and raisins and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 30 minutes.
4. Stir in cilantro and 1 tbs lemon juice.
5. Combine remaining 1 tbs olive oil, 1 tbs lemon juice, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 tbs chicken stock, 2 garlic cloves, and chickpeas into a mini food processor. Process until smooth.
6. Spoon lamb mixture into ramekins (we have 2 rectangular Pyrex ones I love) and top each with chickpea mixture. Lightly coat chickpea mixture with cooking spray.
7. Place ramekins on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes or until tops begin to brown.