Greek roasted leg of lamb

Garlic is one of my most favourite ingredients. The strong aroma of it cooking makes any home feel warm and inviting. The flavour is pungent and lives on your taste buds for hours on end. It’s a B-E-A-utiful ingredient. However, I can’t say that so much for your breathe afterwards!

This family favourite dish, Greek roasted leg of lamb, has a lot of garlic in it. Along with accompanying herbs, it is literally packed with strong, robust flavours. It is usually made on special occasions, like in this case it was specially made for Mother’s day. My father prepped the meat and stood outside roasting it on the Webber, while the mother’s sat back and relaxed for the day. He took care in making sure the meat was seasoned and cooked to everyone’s liking. What came out was a rich, more-ish meal, full of unforgettable, melt-in-your-mouth bite size moments! I couldn’t get enough of it; I had to go back for seconds. That’s the true and honest result of a successful meal in my eyes.

Luckily for my family’s health we only have this meal once in a blue moon. Regardless of how often we make it; it’s easy and the recipe isn’t hard to recall by memory. We served this star piece of roast with a fresh Greek salad, cucumber minty (and garlic) yoghurt salad and roast potatoes. I urge anyone that loves lamb and garlic to try this recipe out. It won’t disappoint.   

  

Ingredients:

2 ½ kg Leg of lamb

125 g soft margarine or butter

Tub of fresh sprigs rosemary

Tub of fresh sprigs Thyme

1 Tbsp Origanum

7 – 8 tsp crushed garlic

1 Tbsp Aromat

Sachet rosemary, garlic and olive oil basting or

¼ cup of olive oil and ½ cup of water.

Set aside two sprigs of rosemary and thyme and roughly chop the rest. Mix the origanum, chopped up thyme and rosemary, garlic and Aromat together with the margarine. Piece the leg of lamb all over and spoon in as much of the herb mixture into each piecing. Rub any remaining herb mixture over the outside of the lamb.

Place the leg of lamb in an aluminum roasting pan. Pour the rosemary, garlic and olive oil basting sachet over the meat and into the pan. *If you cannot find a sachet of rosemary, garlic and olive oil basting at your local grocer; drizzle olive oil over the lamb and pour water into the bottom of the roasting pan. Place the 2 leftover sprigs of rosemary and thyme into the pan and cover the pan with tinfoil.

Put your roasting pan on the Webber at a medium to high heat and close the lid. Turn every 20 minutes and baste the lamb each time with the juices in the pan. Put the tinfoil and lid of the Webber back each time. Leave the lamb roasting for 2 ¾ hr or gauge your preferred doneness by cooking the lamb for ½ an hour for each 500g of meat. For the last 20 minutes, remove the tinfoil but place the Webber lid back on, to infuse some of the smoky flavour into the meat. Take the meat off the heat and set it aside to rest for 10 – 15 minutes. Dish up with a fresh Greek salad, some roast potatoes and a little bit of gravy and mint sauce on the side.