Iron and protein rich.Iron is an essential and highly important nutrient for your body throughout your life. Being anaemic or having low iron levels after the birth of your baby is not uncommon and can have particular effects in your health. Lack of iron can Increase your chance of developing postnatal depression, reduce your ability to fight infection, cause feelings of stress and anxiety, cause fatigue and exhaustion, and can even reduce the quality of your milk.

Suffering from any of the above is draining, making it even harder to care for your baby. A balanced and healthy diet is essential throughout your life, but it’s of even greater importance when you are carrying, nursing or caring for a baby. The recipe below is a great one that all the family, including little toddlers which is the case in our household. The lamb is iron, protein and vitamin B rich which is essential for the formation of healthy red blood cells. Spinach, and all dark green leafy vegetable are Iron and Folate rich and the tomatoes will help with the bodies absorption of Iron due to their high levels of vitamin C. Dried fruit and nuts and also great sourced of Iron.

Romilly Tollemache helped me research for this recipe and the photograph was taken by me.

Prep time 20 minutes

Cook time 30 minutes

Serves 4

For the meatballs

600g lamb mince, organic or grass fed is best

75g plump sultanas, roughly chopped

75g blanched almonds, toasted and roughly chopped

15g flat leaf parsley, chopped

1 egg yolk

3 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 small pinch dried chilli flakes

1 tbsp of milled flax seeds

Salt and pepper

For the tomato sauce

4 tbsp rape seed oil

1 Aubergine, finely diced

1 large red onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 tsp ground cumin

1 small pinch dried chilli flakes

500mls tomato passata

200mls chicken stock

200g washed baby leaf spinach

Brown Rice Salad

1, 220g pouch of steamed brown rice 9you can of course cook you own brown rice from scratch)

100g cucumber, diced

100g cherry tomatoes, chopped

10g chopped parsley or coriander

100g crumbled feta cheese

Juice of 1 lemon

50mls of extra virgin olive oil or rape seed oil

Start the recipe by making you tomato sauce. Place a sauce pan on the stove and add 2 tbsp of the rape seed oil. When it is nice hot, add in the onions and sweat for 3-4 minutes before adding the aubergine, garlic and the ground cumin and the chilli flakes. Season with salt and pepper and cook on a low heat for a further 3-4 minutes. Now add the tomato passata and the chicken stock. Simmer on a low heat for 15 minutes while you make your meatballs.

Place all the ingredients for your meatballs into a food processor and blend until smooth and well combined. Make sure you season the mix with salt and pepper.

Divide the mix into 16-18 meatballs and work into little balls in the palm of your hands. They should be just smaller than a golf ball.

Now add the remaining 2 tbsp of rape seed oil to a frying pan and turn the heat up high. When hot, add in the meatballs and cook for 2-3 minutes per side until golden brown all over. Transfer the meatballs to your tomato sauce and simmer for 15 minutes until the meatballs are cooked through. Once cooked, add the washed baby leaf spinach and allow to wilt into the sauce.

While the meatballs are cooking, heat the rice as instructed on the packet. Mix the heated rice with the cucumber, cherry tomatoes, feta, lemon juice, oil and herbs. Season with salt and pepper.

You are now ready to serve your dish. Its delicious with a tablespoon of full fat Greek Yoghurt on the side.

The post Lamb, Sultana and Almond Meatballs with Tomato and Aubergine Sauce and Brown Rice Salad appeared first on Sophie Wright Catering.