Prep Time:
25 minutesCook Time:
45 minutes A traditional Greek Moussaka— baked casserole of brinjal, tomatoes, and minced lamb or beef under a lush layer of béchamel sauce—is one of the most fabulous things you can eat.Ingredients(4-6)
- 1 SPAR Freshline onion, finely chopped
- 500g Spar lean beef mince
- 30ml SPAR butter or margarine
- 1 x SPAR pasta sauce tomato and olive
- 3 large SPAR Freshline brinjal, sliced
- SPAR sunflower oil for frying
White Sauce
- 30 g SPAR butter
- 60 ml SPAR cake wheat flour
- 400 ml SPAR milk
- SPAR salt and pepper to taste
- 250ml grated SPAR cheddar cheese
- 1 SPAR egg
Method
- Preheat oven to 180
- Fry the finely chopped onion in margarine until transparent and then add the mince and brown.
- Stir in the SPAR pasta sauce and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Slice the brinjal and fry in hot oil until browned. Arrange the fried brinjal and mince in alternating layers in a greased casserole dish.
- Make a white sauce by melting the butter. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute. Remove from the heat and stir in the milk using a balloon whisk to prevent lumps. Return to the heat and stir until sauce thickens.
- Season with salt and pepper and stir in half the cheese and the beaten egg.
- Pour over the mince and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden.
Hints and Tips
This dish freezes well. Cool completely before covering with SPAR cling wrap. It can freeze for up to 3 months. Remove from freezer when needed and allow to defrost completely before warming up.Prep Time:
30 minutesCook Time:
1.5 hours A fresh loaf, hollowed out and filled with fragrant curry. An iconic South African dish.Ingredients(4)
- 15ml SPAR Canola Oil
- 750 g cubed, boneless stewing mutton or lamb
- 10 ml hot curry powder
- 3 ml turmeric
- 5 ml ground coriander
- 5ml ground cumin
- 3 dried curry leaves
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 Â cardamom, split open to use the black seeds within
- ½  cinnamon quill
- 1 Â star anise
- 1 ml SPAR Freshline Crushed Chilli (from the 70g combo compartment) or 1 medium green chilli, finely chopped
- 3ml SPAR Freshline crushed ginger
- 5ml SPAR Freshline, crushed garlic
- 5 ml salt
- pepper to taste
- 1 onion, chopped
- 10ml SPAR tomato paste
- ½ can SPAR diced tomatoes (205 g)
- 250ml hot water
- 2 SPAR Freshline potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 SPAR Freshline Carrots, sliced into rounds or 100 g SPAR Freshline Carrot Roundels
- 1 loaf unsliced white bread
Method
- In a heavy-based pot, brown the mutton in batches over high heat in the heated oil.
- In a small bowl, combine the curry powder, with all the spices, crushed ginger, garlic, salt and pepper.
- Add this mix to the meat to turn it over to coat well. Add in the onion, tomato paste and canned tomato.
- Pour on the hot water and simmer covered, until the meat is almost tender, about 1 ¼ hours, adding a little water if it becomes dry.
- Add the potatoes and carrot, and simmer for a further 30 minutes, again, adding a little hot chicken or lamb stock, if necessary to achieve a generous sauce in good proportion to the meat.
- During this time, quarter the loaf of bread and in one good handful, pull out their centres as a large ‘plug’, to leave a generous cavity with an even thickness crust still intact.
- Check the curry for salt. Discard the easy-to-find whole spices.
- Spoon the curry between the four bread cavities, including a generous amount of sauce.
Hints and Tips
- Provide paper napkins or wet wipes as this is a fun hands-on meal.
- Extend the curry by an extra portion if required, by adding in a can of SPAR Four Bean Mix or 250 g frozen SPAR Garden Peas near the end of the cooking time.
- Cube the meat smaller than if you were serving it in the traditional way with rice, to make it easier to eat with ones hands.
Prep Time:
20 minutesCook Time:
1.5 hours Whether you debone the lamb yourself or get your SPAR butcher to do it for you, reap the rewards of a simple yet delicious roast that is easy to carve.Ingredients(6-8)
- 2 – 3kg SPAR leg of lamb, deboned
- 3 - 6 SPAR Freshline garlic cloves
- ½ SPAR Freshline parsley bunch
- ½ SPAR Freshline bunch fresh rosemary leaves with a few sprigs left whole
- 30ml capers
- 100g SPAR Freshline ciabatta, torn into chunks
- 125ml SPAR flaked almonds
- 200g SPAR manzanilla sliced olives, drained
- 1 SPAR Freshline lemon (zest and juice)
- SPAR sea salt and SPAR freshly ground black pepper
- SPAR olive oil
- 2 SPAR Freshline onions, peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 SPAR Freshline carrots, roughly chopped
- 2 sticks SPAR Freshline celery, roughly chopped
- 1 bottle Olive Brook Classic Red Wine
- 30ml SPAR cake wheat flour
- 1 litre stock
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
- Combine peeled garlic cloves, parsley, rosemary and capers in a food processor and chop finely.
- Then add the ciabatta and almonds to the processor. Pulse a few times only, keeping it coarse.
- Mix the breadcrumbs, chopped olives, lemon juice and season.
- Pack this stuffing into the unrolled lamb, then wrap the meat back over and tie tightly with string, pushing the remaining rosemary sprigs underneath the string. Drizzle over with a little olive oil, pat into the lamb and season with salt and pepper.
- Place your roughly chopped onion, carrot and celery in a roasting tray with any remaining unpeeled garlic cloves and lay your lamb on top. Roast for about an hour and a half.
- Baste after 30 minutes by pouring a swig of wine over the meat and do so approximately every 15 minutes until the meat is cooked.
- When cooked, transfer the lamb to a board or platter to rest while you make your gravy.
- Spoon off most of the fat from your tray, then put it on the stove top over a low heat. Add the flour and mash everything together with a potato masher. Add a glass of red wine and bring to the boil to cook off the alcohol. Pour in the stock and bring back to the boil, scraping all the goodness from the bottom of the pan as you go. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Sieve the gravy into a jug or pan, using a ladle to really push all the goodness through. Throw away any veg or meat left behind. Your lamb will have been resting for around 15 minutes and will be perfect for serving.
Hints and Tips
Roast the bone with your lamb. The bone imparts flavour into the gravy.Prep Time:
15 minutesCook Time:
1 1/2 hours Tender cubed lamb, slowly simmered in a red wine and cream sauce flavoured with ratatouille and cannelini beans.Ingredients(Serves 6)
- 15 ml SPAR olive oil
- 900 g TENDER and TASTY cubed lamb
- 50 ml SPAR cake flour
- 250 ml dry red wine
- 250 ml chicken stock (prepared with 1 stock cube)
- 2-3 bay leaves
- FRESHLINE thyme
- FRESHLINE sweet basil, chopped
- FRESHLINE rosemary
- 410 g can ratatouille
- 400 g can cannellini white beans, drained
- 125 ml SPAR fresh cream
Method
- Preheat oven to 180 ºC.
- Toss lamb and flour together to lightly coat the meat. Turn in heated oil in a pot, to brown all over. Transfer meat to the casserole dish.
- Pour on the wine, stock, all the herbs and ratatouille.
- Cover dish and cook for 1 ¼ hours until meat is very tender and the liquid is reduced.
- Remove the bay leaves and rosemary stalks Stir in the cannellini beans and cream, and reheat.
- Serve with soft polenta or tagliatelle.
Hints and Tips
The easiest way to remove the tiny thyme leaves from the stalk, is to pinch the top end and slide your fingers down the length of the stalk - the leaves will drop off easilyPrep Time:
15 minutesCook Time:
3 hours and 20 minutes Hearty winter food at its best! Lamb shanks, slow cooked with seasonal vegetables and red wine until the meat falls off the bone.Ingredients(4-6 depending on number of shanks)
- 30 ml olive oil
- 4-6 lamb shanks (1.1-1.6 kg total) – 1 per person
- ½ head garlic – cut the head across the centre so the exposed cloves are visible
- 600 g pkt SPAR Freshline Chunky Veg Soup vegetable mix
- ½ a sachet SPAR tomato paste (60 g)
- 500 ml SPAR chicken stock
- 350 ml red wine
- 4 SPAR bay leaves
- 1 stalk fresh rosemary
- 1Â SPAR Cinnamon Quill
Method
- Turn oven to 160° C.
- Season shanks well and seal them off in a little oil in a large pot, until golden brown all over. Transfer them into a deep roasting tin, including the garlic.
- In the same pot sauté the vegetable mix in the heated oil until tender and the spinach as wilted and reduced considerably. Add tomato paste, hot stock and wine. Bring to a boil. Pour this sauce over the shanks, cover with tin foil or casserole lid, and place in the pre-heated oven. Cook for three hours until the meat is soft and almost falls off the bone.
- Remove from the oven and move shanks from pan to a serving dish. Strain the sauce ingredients over a pot and cook the resulting strained liquid briskly to reduce to a thin jus.
Hints and Tips
Serve on a base of heated then roughly mashed, canned SPAR borlotti or Cannellini beans and a spicy tomato relish.Prep Time:
20 minutesCook Time:
4 hours Everyone will really enjoy this wonderfully simple but absolutely divine feast of lamb cooked slowly with herbs, wine and stock. It’s about good company and great food!Ingredients(4-6)
- 2 kg SPAR lamb Shanks
- 45 ml SPAR olive oil
- 1 - 2 heads garlic, halved across
- 200 g SPAR Freshline baby onions
- A few sprigs of fresh rosemary
- 1 SPAR Beef Stock cube
- 250 ml hot water
- 250 ml dry red wine
- 125 ml Soft brown sugar
- Salt and black pepper
Method
- Preheat the oven to 120 ÌŠ C.
- Trim any excess fat from lamb, season and brush with oil.
- Place garlic, onions and rosemary in a casserole dish, just large enough to take the lamb. A cast iron casserole dish is ideal.
- Add the lamb and pour over the stock, sugar and wine. Cover with a tight fitting lid or foil. Bake for approximately 3- 4 hours or until meltingly tender.
- Remove lamb and keep warm while reducing cooking liquids on top of the stove to a saucy consistency. Carve and serve with SPAR Freshline Mediterranean Roast Vegetables or a simple side salad.
Hints and Tips
Always make sure that the stock you add to meat is warm because adding cold stock or liquid causes the muscles in the meat to contract and toughens it.Prep Time:
15 minutes (excludes thawing pastry)Cook Time:
20 minutes Easter and roast lamb have a close association. Here is a quick and easy way to serve lamb if you don’t have the inclination to prepare a roast with all the accompaniments.Ingredients(6)
- 2 x 400 g rolls frozen puff pastry, completely thawed
- 1 box frozen SPAR Lamb Burger patties
- SPAR Mint Jelly
Method
- Pre-heat oven to 220 °C with oven shelf in centre position. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
- Briefly dry pan-fry the frozen patties on each side, just to half-cook and until browned. Set aside.
- Unravel both pastry rolls and lengthen each one slightly using hands or a rolling pin.
- Cut each sheet into 3 equal broad strips.
- Position a cooled patty in the centre of each strip, topped with a good teaspoonful of mint jelly, and close the parcel securely as if you were wrapping a sandwich, tucking the side closures underneath and placing this way down onto the prepared baking sheet.
- Brush milk or beaten egg over and bake them for 20 minutes.
Hints and Tips
Remember to thaw the pastry well ahead of time, to enable you to assemble and bake the pies quickly.Prep Time:
25 minutesCook Time:
2.5 - 3 hours Surely one of the most perfect winter comfort foods. Oxtail, slow simmered with tomatoes, wine and vegetables to produce a rich, fragrant stew.Ingredients(5)
- +- 1.2 kg oxtail pieces
- SPAR sunflower oil
-  30 ml SPAR butter or full fat margarine
- 3 medium carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
- 4 stalks celery, cut into chunks
- 1Â large onion, sliced
- 60 ml SPAR Italian Balsamic Vinegar
- ¾ can SPAR diced tomatoes
- 175 ml red wine
- 60 ml dry sherry
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 3 ml  dried thyme
- 3 Â SPAR Bay Leaves
- 2 sachets liquid beef stock
- 400 ml hot water
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Method
- Brown the oxtail pieces all over in a drizzling of hot oil in a pot. Lift them out and set aside.
- In the same pot, add the butter over low heat, and toss in the carrot, celery and onion over medium heat until tender.
- Add the vinegar and scrape in any flavourful residue from the meat and vegetables that adheres to the pot base.
- Pour in the remaining ingredients.
- Cover with a lid and simmer slowly for 2 ½ - 3 hours. If the liquid reduces too much, add in a little more wine. The meat should be very tender, but not quite falling off the bone.
- Remove the oxtail, and pour the liquid off into another pot, through a sieve, pressing down on the vegetables to extract the flavoursome liquid they retain. Bring the liquid to the boil and simmer rapidly until it reduces down to a shiny sauce consistency. Serve this sauce spooned over the oxtail.
Hints and Tips
- To make this dish go further add in a can of drained SPAR Cannellini Beans to the oxtail before re-heating and serving with the sauce.
- Use this same recipe if cooking over coals in a potjie pot, but expect an additional cooking time of up to an hour.
- The large onion may be substituted with a medium onion along with 2 sliced SPAR Freshline leeks when in season.
Prep Time:
15 minutesCook Time:
35 minutes This delicious soup is just as great as a starter or main course. The cheese toast melts are irresistible.Ingredients(6)
- 50g SPAR butter
- 1kg SPAR Freshline onions, halved and thinly sliced
- 3 - 4 fronds of thyme
- 5ml SPAR white sugar
- 4 SPAR Freshline cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
- 30ml SPAR wheat cake flour
- 2 SPAR beef stock cubes dissolved in 1.3 l boiling water
- 6 - 12 slices of SPAR Freshline French bread
- 140g SPAR mozzarella cheese, finely grated
Method
- Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onions and thyme, fry with the lid on for 6 - 8 minutes, until softened. Sprinkle with the sugar and cook for another 10 - 12 minutes on low heat, stirring frequently, until caramelised. Take care not to let the onions blacken or burn while cooking.
- Add the garlic to the pan and cook for further 3 minutes on low heat. Add the flour and stir well. Increase the heat and keep stirring as you gradually add the beef stock. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 - 20 minutes. Remove the thyme fronds.
- Meanwhile, toast the French bread under the grill, then set aside, but leave the grill on.
- To serve, ladle the soup into heatproof bowls and put a slice or two of toasted bread on top, then sprinkle on the cheese. Grill until the cheese has just melted before serving.
Hints and Tips
When cutting onions, remove the root section first and throw away. This is the part that causes your eyes to burn and water.Prep Time:
10 minutesCook Time:
10 minutes Tender grilled steak, with a coconut-cream sauce, form the basis of a stylish, deliciously light salad supper.Ingredients(Serves: 4)
- +- 450 g ostrich fillet steaks or SPAR Tender & Tasty rump steaks
- +- 15 ml garlic-flavoured olive oil
- SPAR Freshline salad spring onions, chopped, or
- ¼ medium red onion, in paper-thin slices
- 1 pack SPAR Freshline baby salad or mixed lettuce leaves
- 2 handfuls raw peanuts
For the sauce
- ½ can SPAR coconut cream
- 1 cm piece fresh root ginger, peeled and finely grated
- 50 ml SPAR sweet chilli sauce
- 50 ml chopped fresh dhania
Method
- Â Arrange the salad leaves and onion rings onto 4 dinner plates.
- In a pre-heated pan, shake the peanuts over the heat to roast them lightly. Tip them out onto a plate to cool.
- Rub each steak with garlic-flavoured olive oil, then pan-grill them, turning over only once, until medium-rare. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Set aside while you heat the sauce ingredients together. Slice the steaks thinly and place the slices into the warm sauce.
- Portion off the slices with sauce onto each salad portion.
- Drizzle any remaining sauce over, and serve immediately, with the nuts scattered over as a topping.