Lamb meatballs with couscous-style vegetables

Soak 150 g of chickpeas.

Peel 1 small onion and 1 carrot (5 required in total for the recipe) then cut into pieces.

Drain the chickpeas, put in a saucepan with the vegetables and 1 bay leaf. Cover well with water and cook for 1 1/2 hours. Add salt only at the end of cooking.

Mince 350 g of trimmed lamb (shoulder or leg) and 2 lamb sweetbreads. Put the minced meat into a bowl.

Peel and chop 1 garlic clove (3 required in total for the recipe). Wash and dry the leaves of 3 sprigs of coriander and 3 sprigs of parsley, chop them (keeping aside a few leaves for decoration). Add to the bowl and mix.

Season the mince with 2 pinches of ground coriander, 5 g of salt and 2 pinches of Piment d’Espelette.

Mix well by hand then form into four balls. Set aside.

Peel 4 red onions and cut into wedges. Peel and wash 4 sticks of celery, 4 carrots, 2 fennel bulbs and cut into sections. Squash 2 garlic cloves.

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a sauté pan. Put in all these vegetables, salt, add 3 pinches of ras el-hanout, stir and cover the pan with a lid. Cook gently for about 10 minutes.

Drain the chick peas and pour three-quarters of their cooking liquid into the sauté pan. Stir and cook for 5 minutes.

Then add the lamb meatballs and the chick peas, cover the sauté pan and simmer gently for 10 minutes.

Arrange the chick peas, vegetables and lamb meatballs in a dish.

Filter the cooking liquid on top through a conical strainer. Sprinkle with the reserved parsley leaves and serve.