Roast Leg of Lamb

Isn't this sheep cute and attentive to the camera? It may be in poor taste to show a live animal as you're about to talk about the cooked version, but photos of raw meat are never appealing. So, excuse the illustration I've chosen to accompany a lamb recipe.

Buying lamb at my local grocery store is a hit or miss activity, and I think they only sell it in weeks leading up to Easter. Once when I was determined to serve grilled chops for dinner, I went to five different stores in three different towns before giving up.

Over the weekend, I discovered they were selling boneless leg of lamb. I've made lamb stew and roasted lamb chops, but never a leg. I prefer not to think about body parts when I cook meat, and with beef or pork, it's not an issue. We don't cook leg of calf or boneless pig leg.

Anyway, I went to work looking for recipes for cooking this thing that looks like a roast, and I combined two to come up with this:

1/4 large onion roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tablespoon fresh mint leaves
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of cinnamon
1/4 cup olive oil
juice of half a lemon

Boneless leg of lamb—2 to 3 pounds

In the bowl of a food processor, combine all the ingredients except oil and juice. Pulse into a paste. Add oil and juice and pulse until thoroughly combined.

Preheat oven to 450˚. Place roast in a shallow roasting pan and coat with seasoning mixture. Roast for 30 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 375˚ and roast an additional 30 minutes or until roast reaches an internal temperature of 140˚ for medium. Allow roast to rest for 5 to 10 minutes before carving.

To make this an entire meal, I added halved new potatoes to the roasting pan when I turned down the oven temperature. And I broiled asparagus spears coated with olive oil for 5 minutes while the meat was resting. Enjoy!