When you are having guests over, the last thing you want is to be bogged down with a complicated meal. This simple recipe is the perfect rescue. It brings together a handful of ingredients and delivers maximum flavour. The aroma of saffron, garlic and thyme as it roasts is simply irresistable and the final dish makes for a perfect Sunday roast.
Middle Eastern Roast Leg of Lamb
(serves 6-8)
- 5 lb leg of lamb
- 18 g garlic cloves, cut in half
- pinch of saffron
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3 tsp dried thyme
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 850 g baking potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced
- 450 g (about 4 small) onions, thickly sliced into rings
- 225 g (about 2) lemons, ends trimmed and thickly sliced
- 2-3 whole heads of garlic, trimmed at the top to expose the cloves
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme
- roasted carrots and asparagus for serving or any vegetable of your choice
- For every piece of garlic, make incisions in the lamb (bottom side) and press the garlic into it.
- Soak saffron in 1 tbsp of boiling water for 5 minutes.
- Combine saffron water, lemon juice, olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper. Rub mixture over the lamb and let marinate for 2-4 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350 °F.
- In a large baking pan, layer potato, onion and lemon slices. Place lamb on top, pour remaining marinade over the lamb.
- Roast for a total of 2-2 1/2 hours, basting occasionally. It’s best to use a meat thermometer. For lamb, the reading should be 170 °F for well done.
- After one hour of roasting, add garlic heads to the pan and roast these for the remainder of the time.
- Garnish with fresh thyme and serve with roasted carrots and asparagus.
Yum! Just found my recipe for Easter brunch!! 🙂
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Super! That makes me so happy! 🙂
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This looks so good! I am always intimidated by Lamb but it seems like everyone is doing it lately! This post raises my confidence level! Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you! I am intimidated by all meats. My husband is the chef behind this one… but this one in particular is not too complicated. It’s delicious, well worth the try!
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Looks and sounds absolutely amazing…it’s definitely a must try❤
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Thank you Marisa!
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I’m drooling in front of the screen here. 🙂
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Lol… as long as it’s not on the keyboard. 🙂
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This looks fabulous! Leg of lamb is the ultimate – one of my absolute favourites. And I love the flavours, Annika. Saffron, garlic, thyme and lemon – yum!!!
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Thank you, Tracey. The aroma coming out of the oven is amazing with these ingredients.
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Wow, now that’s a feast. I’m really mouthwatering. I love leg of lamb and this looks out of this world. The photos too, with the beautiful blue pan. Amazing.
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Thank you, Myra… we did not roast in the blue pan, we actually used a much larger pan but it wasn’t very photogenic so I had to carefully place everything in the blue one… everyone was waiting to eat so by the time I took a few photos, there was not even any time to photograph a plateful.
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looks and sounds delicious!
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Yum this looks so delicious and you have me looking forwards to the lamb I have to look forwards to on Easter Sunday!
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Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe! ❤ We can't wait to try it out. ❤ As always, fabulous photography. ❤
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As always, thank you so much for your kind words and encouragement!!
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That looks absolutely delish!
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Thank you Kunal!
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😊
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This looks very appealing. Great photos. I’m so hungry now and it is late.
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Thank you. I have this problem all the time… I do most of my blogging late at night after the kids have gone to bed… it’s the worst time to want to eat!
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