Roasted Leg of Lamb With Mint Pesto
Perfect for a Dressed Up Sunday Supper!
This year I have been falling in love with Lamb, I believe this is the 4th recipe I’ve shared in the last 6 months. They have all been some of our favorite new recipes especially for special occasions. Lamb is more expensive so I don’t make it more than a couple times per month, it’s definitely worth it as a celebration or treat meal. I made lamb rack of lambs for Easter this year and it was incredible but unfortunately I need to make it at least one more time since I don’t have precise measurements and roasting times for this dish. This might be a next year’s blog since lamb rack of ribs isn’t easy to find locally.
I already have a ton of mint plants growing in my garden, I’ve made mint tea several times and pondering what all I could do with this beautiful, vibrant but sometimes overpowering herb. After doing some recipe research I remembered that I had made a mint spinach pesto pasta many years ago when I first met my husband. At that time using mint in a savory dish was all new to me. There are a variety of pestos and most pair well with your protein of choice. I’ve seen other recipes that used mint pesto with a variety of lamb cuts so I decided to make a lamb roast with mint pesto. I love the flavor of lamb therefore I didn’t want any other flavors to overpower it. Lamb meat has a stronger and somewhat gamy flavor and I thought it could handle the stronger flavor of mint and I was right. Since mint is a stronger flavored herb I added some parsley, spinach is a suitable substitute. I used parsley because I always have several plants growing in my garden during the summer and it’s also readily available at the local farmer’s markets.
I don’t know why but I always feel like I’m making a sophisticated and fancy meal when lamb is the main course. So then I use my antique dishes from my hutch, set the table and have a nice sit down dinner with my husband. This is always a nice change and something I look forward to on the weekends.
As always thank you for visiting my second most favorite place, Emma’s Daily Bread. Cheers to a Happy & Healthy Day!
Roasted Leg of Lamb With Mint Pesto
Ingredients
- 1 2 LB Leg of Lamb Roast
- Salt & Black Pepper
- INGREDIENTS FOR MINT PESTO
- 3 OZ Fresh Mint leaves Or Approximately 4 Cups Loosely Packed Leaves
- 1/2 OZ Fresh Parsley Or Approximately 1 Cup
- 2/3 Cup Walnuts or Pine Nuts I used walnuts and these are much less expensive than pine nuts
- 1 TBSP freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1/2 Cup olive oil
- 1/2 tsp Salt & Black Pepper
- 4 Cloves of Garlic Minced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, if you have approximately 4 hours before dinnertime you could roast it even slower at 300 degrees.
- Place all ingredients for the pesto in a food processor accept for olive oil and lemon juice. As you are mixing the ingredients drizzle in the olive oil than the lemon juice. This recipe makes 1 Cup of pesto and you won't use all of it for the roast. Check my separate blog post on mint pesto for other lunch and dinner ideas.
- Rub both sides of the roast with salt and black pepper. Spread 3 TBSP of the mint pesto over the top of the roast, more if your roast is 3 lbs or more. Place in a roasting pan and add enough water to cover the bottom of the casserole dish, approximately 1 cup which helps make the meat even more tender.
- Cover with a lid or aluminum foil, (not my first choice due to all the chemicals used to make aluminum foil) and roast at 350 degrees for 3 hours or until meat falls apart easily when pierced with a fork.
- I served this roast with peas, mashed cauliflower and mashed potatoes. I like mashed cauliflower but I usually had in some mashed potatoes because it just tastes so much better. It would also be delicious with a simple side salad.
