Simple roast leg of lamb with earthy spice rub
- Portion size: Serves 4-6
- Hands-on time 20 min, plus at least a few hours marinating (preferably overnight). Oven time 25-35 min
- Difficulty: easy
A leg of lamb is rubbed with an earthy spice blend before roasting – which really brings out the deep, savoury flavours of the meat – in this simple recipe. It’s a Sunday roast game-changer.
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Ingredients
- 800g butterflied lamb leg
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp thyme leaves and sprigs to garnish
For the spice blend
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- 2 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
- 5g dried mushrooms
- ¼ tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
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Method
- Toast the whole spices in a hot dry pan until starting to brown (up to 2 minutes). Leave to cool, then put in a grinder or pestle and mortar with the mushrooms and grind to a powder. Stir in the turmeric and salt.
- Rub the spice blend all over the lamb, then cover and put in the fridge to marinate for at least a few hours (preferably overnight).
- Heat the oven to 180°C/ 160°C fan/gas 4. Put a large frying pan over a high heat. Once smoking hot, add the oil, then the lamb, skin-side down. Cook until golden and caramelised all over (about 5 minutes on each side). Put the meat in a baking dish and cook for 25 minutes for medium rare or 35 minutes for medium. On a meat thermometer, the centre of the lamb should read 65-75°C depending on how pink you like it.
- Rest the lamb in a warm place for 10 minutes, then carve and garnish with fresh thyme.
Nutrition
- 315kcals Calories
- 17g (6.8g saturated) Fat
- 39g Protein
- 1.5g (0.8g sugars) Carbs
- 0.9g Fibre
- 0.6g Salt
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