If you’ve never cooked a roast dinner, this roast loin of lamb recipe is a great place to start. The lamb is easy to prepare, cook and carve.
Ingredients
- 850g boneless lamb loin (see tip below)
For the stuffing
- Large handful dried apricots
- Handful almonds
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh herbs, such as thyme or parsley
Method
- 1. Preheat the oven to 180°c/ fan160°c/gas 4. Cut the apricots into quarters with scissors, and put into a bowl. Cut the almonds in half with a knife and add to the apricots. Add the chopped herbs and mix everything in the bowl together with your hands.
- 2. Open the lamb loin out flat and rest on a board, with the darker meat facing upwards sprinkle it with a little freshly ground black pepper.
- 3. Put the apricot stuffing in the middle of the lamb and roll the meat around the stuffing to make a long roll – fold the flap of skin over, to keep the stuffing inside the meat. Hold the roll of lamb together, and ask someone to tie a piece of kitchen string around it. It’s a good idea to tie it around in 2 places, to hold it all together during cooking.
- 4. Put the lamb in a roasting tin and cook in the oven for 55 minutes, until it’s piping hot all the way through. With lamb, it doesn’t matter if it is still slightly pink in the middle – it’ll taste good and is safe to eat. Leave the lamb to ‘rest’ on a plate for 10 minutes before carving (this makes it more tender and juicy). Ask an adult to carve, and serve with the roast potatoes and cabbage.
Chef's tip
Ask the butcher to take the bone out of the lamb loin, and to leave a flap of skin to fold over to keep the stuffing inside the meat. You can also ask him to score the fat, so that it looks nice when it is cooked.