Lamb kebabs with fruity couscous & pomegranate raita

Pomegranates. They’re probably as trendy as a fruit can be. Open a food mag or check out food packaging and chances are these ruby jewels will feature – on pretty much anything, from chocolate cupcakes to raw boerewors. (I get the former, the latter is a bit weird.)

My memory of pomegranates is a nostalgic one that goes way back. Back to before they were fashionable or indeed available in shops at all. You had to grow them yourself. I can’t remember a single garden in the small Highveld town we lived in that did not boast a pomegranate tree or two. We’d watch with great anticipation and not pick them until they were so ripe, their skins practically burst. Then we’d sit there, right under the tree, and devour them in minutes.

That’s still my favourite way of eating pomegranates. I don’t mean barefoot in the dirt under a tree of course. I mean just the fruit, unadorned. And you absolutely have to wrestle them out of their clingy white membranes yourself, none of this shop-bought nonsense where the work is done for you.

But I do also love cooking with them. So when SABC 3’s Expresso morning show recently asked me to come up with a savoury recipe that uses pomegranate, naturally I said yes. Middle Eastern and Moroccan come to mind when I think savoury and pomegranate. A tagine was too complicated for a breakfast TV slot, I needed quick ’n easy.

So I grabbed some lamb steak strips, and marinated them in lush full cream yoghurt along with all the wonderful warming spices one would normally find in a lamb tagine. I threaded the strips on skewers, pan-fried them briefly, and served them with fruity couscous and a pomegranate raita. Eat it just as is, or combine with large lettuce leaves for a delicious, healthy wrap.