Herb Roasted Leg of Lamb
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Lamb is a perfect for an Easter Sunday roast, and you can ramp up the flavour by infusing it with garlic and herbs, like I have in this recipe from New Zealand Lamb. The addition of dried apricots, walnuts and almonds into the pan, with carrots and fennel (although I switched the fennel for onions in my dish) make it a fab one-pan dish.
You start by make a marinade with olive oil, sliced garlic, fresh rosemary and thyme…this then gets pushed into slits that you cut into the leg of lamb, and any remaining marinade is rubbed over the meat. It then goes into the oven on its own before the additional ingredients -dried fruit, nuts and vegetables are added. The juices that come out of the lamb, make a delicious gravy, and the nuts give a delightful crunch to the dish. We served ours with steamed asparagus, grilled aubergine, and of course, roasted potatoes!
The herb roasted leg of lamb smelled and tasted delicious – we cooked ours for longer than the recipe stated, as we like our lamb to be more well done. I was worried that the longer cooking time would make the meat dry out, but it was a worry for nothing, as the meat was very juicy. We also added more water during the cooking to stop the nuts from burning, and it helped to produce the gravy too.
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.
Herb Roasted Leg of Lamb
Ingredients
- 1 x 2 – 2.5kg leg of New Zealand Lamb can be chilled or thawed from frozen
- 4 cloves garlic peeled and sliced
- the leaves from 15cm stalk of rosemary chopped
- 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 4 heads of fennel cut into 6 wedges each
- 2 bunches baby carrots skins scrubbed
- 10 dried apricots halved
- 100 g whole almonds
- 60 g walnut pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven 180˚C / Gas 4
- Place the lamb in a roasting dish and poke a thin small knife into the flesh in 12 places.
- Mix the garlic, rosemary, thyme and olive oil with a little salt and pepper and poke this into all of the holes and rub the remainder over the leg.
- Place in the centre of the oven and roast for 45 minutes. After 20 minutes, add 100ml water to prevent the garlic from burning.
- Tip the fennel and carrots onto the lamb and turn the leg over then roast for 30 minutes.
- Take the lamb from the dish, add the apricots, walnuts and almonds, then replace the lamb, again turned over, and put back in the oven.
- It will be cooked medium (which is lovely for leg of lamb) in another 15 – 25 minutes depending on the size.
- Remove the lamb from the roasting dish and sit on a plate loosely covered with foil and a tea towel, and rest in a warm place for at least 15 minutes.
- Turn the oven off, put the roasting dish back in, and keep warm
Nutritional information is always approximate and will depend on the quality of ingredients used and serving sizes. If you need exact calories and macros, please do your own calculations.
Caroline - My Family Ties
April 14, 2015 @ 9:28 am
I love the sound of this recipe and the garlic and herbs must taste great, I must try it! :)
Michelle Ordever
April 14, 2015 @ 10:53 am
Garlic and rosemary are perfect for lamb! x
Beautyqueenuk
April 9, 2015 @ 11:56 am
Oh my that lamb does look amazing, sadly my mister hates lamb so I never really have it x
Michelle Ordever
April 14, 2015 @ 10:53 am
Buy a few lamb chops and treat yourself :D x
Kara
April 9, 2015 @ 7:50 am
I cooked this recipe and the lamb tasted gorgeous. Wasn’t so sure about the apricots though
Michelle Ordever
April 9, 2015 @ 10:52 am
I can see why, I’m not sure how much they really added to the dish, I think it would be better to have them stuffed into the meat for a bit of a North African twist. Glad it tasted good though despite the apricots!
Louisa
April 8, 2015 @ 10:24 pm
This looks delicious. Lamb is my all time favourite meat although I never marinade it, it looks worth it to take the extra time though.
Michelle Ordever
April 9, 2015 @ 10:52 am
Lamb is so delish! We don’t eat it too often, but it’s always worth taking the time over it when we do :D
Claire Toplis
April 8, 2015 @ 10:37 am
I do enjoy a good leg of lamb
Sarah Bailey
April 7, 2015 @ 8:28 pm
Oh my goodness this looks so tasty! What a delicious meal. x
Michelle Ordever
April 8, 2015 @ 10:19 am
It really was! I The fact that my son requested to have it again soon tells me it was good! x
Victoria MyLittleLBlog
April 7, 2015 @ 4:27 pm
this looks lovely!! My in-laws cooked Lamb roast this Easter weekend, i cant stand pink in my meat but your pictures look yummy and with no pink)
Michelle Ordever
April 7, 2015 @ 4:29 pm
It tasted lovely too! For some reason, I can’t eat pink lamb, although steak I’m fine with – weird! Hope you had a happy Easter!
Clare Mansell
April 7, 2015 @ 11:00 am
You can’t beat roasted leg of lamb in the spring – delicious!
Michelle Ordever
April 7, 2015 @ 11:05 am
Completely agree – it’s such a fab spring meal! x
Clare Nicholas
April 5, 2015 @ 9:58 pm
This looks lovely. I never cook lamb and no one else eats it but I may just serve some soon anyway, they can eat it or go hungry
Michelle Ordever
April 6, 2015 @ 2:34 pm
lol, that’s usually my motto! Although,after making this, my son asked if I could cook lamb more often :D
emmaand3
April 4, 2015 @ 9:33 pm
ooh I’m having Lamb tomorrow for Easter dinner!
Michelle Ordever
April 8, 2015 @ 10:18 am
Hope you had a lovely Easter! x