Roast Lamb with Mint Pea Pesto
Home » COOK » Recipes » Meat & Fish Recipes » Lamb »A couple of weeks ago I mentioned to hubs that I really fancied a roast dinner, and bless him, he went out and bought the ingredients, picked up a recipe card from the supermarket and cooked us a delicious Roast Lamb with a Mint Pea Pesto – it was yummy and I’m sharing the recipe with you today!
The addition of the mint pea pesto to the lamb was fantastic and made a real change from a regular mint sauce. We served the lamb with new potatoes and some spring greens.
Lamb is often eaten around Easter, and I’ve got a collection of Easter Recipes that you might like to try out – right-click and open them in a new tab to read next.
Roast Lamb with Mint Pea Pesto
Ingredients
- 1 leg of lamb - the size will depend on how many you are feeding!
- garlic cloves, thickly sliced
- fresh rosemary
- 1-2 onions, peeled and cut into chunks
- 2-3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- olive oil
For the mint pea pesto (4-6 portions)
- 200g frozen peas
- 1 small bunch mint, leaves only
- 1 tbsp capers, rinsed
- 12 blanched almonds, toasted and roughly chopped
- 1 small clove garlic, crushed
- juice 1/2 small lemon
- 2½ tbsp olive oil
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Allow the meat to come to room temperature (about an hour) before preparing and cooking.
- Preheat the oven to 220C/Gas 7/200C fan.
- With a sharp knife, carefully make incisions all over the lamb and push a slice of garlic and some rosemary into each slit.
- Scatter the chopped onion and carrot into a roasting dish and place the lamb on top of the vegetables.
- Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and drizzle with a little olive oil
- Roast for 15 minutes and then turn the oven down to 190C/Gas 5/170C fan and cook according to the weight instructions for your joint of lamb. A 2kg leg joint takes about 1hr and 15 minutes. Allow the meat to rest for 20 minutes before carving. Cover with foil and tea towels to keep warm.
- To make the pesto, place the peas in a bowl and pour boiling water over to cover them. Leave for 2 minutes.
- Drain the peas and place into a food processor. Add the remaining pesto ingredients and whizz to form a paste. Season to taste
- Serve the roasted lamb with your choice of potatoes - new potatoes work really well, and with the mint pea pesto on the side.
Helen Brass
May 1, 2014 @ 9:26 am
Mmm…lamb and mint and peas and mint are two of my favourite combinations. This looks delicious – thanks for sharing.
Michelle Ordever
May 1, 2014 @ 12:19 pm
It was so delicious! I used the mint pea pesto as a pasta sauce the other night!