Healthy Lamb Main Dish Recipes

This slow-cooked lamb and eggplant stew melts in your mouth. Sumac, a lemony-flavored spice, gives the dish a fruity, tangy aroma. Look for it in Mediterranean markets or spice shops. Serve the stew over mashed root vegetables, bulgur or brown rice.

In this elegant lamb recipe perfect for entertaining, boneless leg of lamb gets a mint and garlic rub. The butterflied lamb cooks in record time and the varying thickness means some slices will be more done than others, so there's something for everyone. The recipe calls for a cut that's large enough to serve about 16 people and still have enough leftovers to make an awesome sandwich or pasta.

This brothy stew is boldly flavored with a blend of characteristic Middle Eastern spices and finished with fresh spinach and fiber-rich chickpeas. Economical lamb shoulder tenderizes beautifully when leisurely cooked in a slow cooker. If you can't find boneless shoulder stew meat, do not substitute more-expensive lamb leg--it tends to dry out during slow cooking. Instead, purchase lamb shoulder chops and debone them. Serve over bulgur and accompany with a salad.

These healthy burgers get a Mediterranean twist with a yogurt sauce seasoned with oregano, lemon and feta cheese. If you can't find ground lamb, ask the butcher to grind some for you.

Merguez is a Maghrebi (Northwest African) lamb sausage spiced with cumin, coriander and fennel seeds as well as harissa. In this installment of Diaspora Dining, Jessica B. Harris' series on foods of the African diaspora, the author and historian recalls visits to Morocco, and offers her recipe for tzatziki (with plenty of mint), the Greek yogurt sauce she loves with merguez. While you're cooking the sausages, tossing in some peppers, onions and scallions makes for a delicious addition.

Here, a little of the lemon-garlic vinaigrette used to season the orzo also gets stirred into yogurt for a flavorful and creamy topping.

The meat sauce in this healthy pasta recipe is a Greek take on a red chili. This recipe calls for ground lamb but you could easily use ground beef or ground turkey instead.

Lamb with mint jelly is a tried-and-true combination and this recipe takes the idea to new heights. The sweet, shocking green jelly is transformed into a richly flavored and pleasingly dark sauce. Make It a Meal: Serve with whole-wheat couscous and peas.

A red-wine gravy finishes these braised lamb shanks for a tender, rich main dish that is sure to impress.

The sauce in this recipe is a heavenly mixture of tomatoes, spices, herbs and mustard. It provides amazing flavor to the lamb as they spend up to 12 hours together in the slow cooker.

Kefta, seasoned ground meat, is one of Morocco's most popular street foods. Traditionally, kefta is washed down with a glass of sweet mint tea. It's delicious served with ratatouille.