Donal Skehan's roast lamb with rosemary and garlic recipe

Roast Lamb with Rosemary and Garlicwww.donalskehan.com

A delicious roast lamb with rosemary and garlic recipe from Irish wonder chef Donal Skehan. That's your Sunday dinner sorted!

Here's what Donal Skehan has to say about his lamb with rosemary and garlic recipe: "In this roast lamb recipe, I use the classic combo of garlic & rosemary to flavor the lamb leg.

"An easy side dish to serve alongside the roast lamb is simply braised baby gem, with peas in white wine and thyme. In springtime, wild garlic appears all across Ireland in shaded woodland areas. It is easy to recognize from its distinctive garlic smell. The leaves can be harvested and treated like any salad leaf or used to make a pesto to serve alongside the lamb."

Our mouths are already watering!

Donal Skehan's roast lamb with rosemary and garlic recipe

Serves 6

For the roast lamb:

1 leg of lamb, on the bone (roughly 4.5 lbs to serve 6-8)
4-5 garlic cloves, sliced into slivers
3 sprigs of rosemary, leaves finely chopped
3 tablespoons of rapeseed oil
Sea salt and ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Place the lamb in a large roasting dish. Make a number of incisions all over the lamb and stud with the garlic slivers and rosemary sprigs. Drizzle with rapeseed oil and generously sprinkle with sea salt and ground black pepper. Place in the oven to roast for 15 minutes per 1lb for medium-rare or longer if you prefer your meat more well done. Remove from the oven and rest under tin foil before serving in thin slices.

For the pesto: (optional)

3.5oz of wild garlic washed and dried
2oz of pine nuts
2.5oz of Parmesan or mature Coolea cheese, grated
12 fl oz of extra virgin olive oil or Irish rapeseed oil

Place all the ingredients in a food processor or pestle and mortar and blitz until smooth. Season with sea salt and ground black pepper. Set aside.

For the braised baby gem and peas:

1 tablespoon of butter
3.5oz of smoked streaky bacon, roughly chopped
Zest of 1/2 lemon
75ml of white wine
A few thyme sprigs
2.5 fl oz of chicken stock
7oz of frozen peas
6 spring onions, trimmed and sliced in half
6 baby gem lettuce, sliced in half

Melt the butter in a large high-sided frying pan. Fry the bacon until sizzling and crisp. Pour in the wine and allow to sizzle for about 30 seconds before adding the thyme sprigs, lemon zest, and chicken stock. Add the peas to the liquid and then nuzzle in the spring onions and Baby Gem lettuce. Cover with a lid and cook for about 5-8 minutes until the lettuce is just braised. Serve with slices of the warm lamb.

Watch Irish chef Donal Skehan discuss his delectable recipe here:

*Donal Skehan is a home cook, food writer and television presenter who has written five cookbooks. He presents the TV show Kitchen Hero on RTÉ One in Ireland, Grandma's Boy on FOX International and is a judge on BBC's Junior MasterChef. In celebration of St. Patrick's Day 2015, Donal was involved in a YouTube collaboration (#DonalsPaddysDayCollab) with chefs from all over the world, cooking Irish inspired recipes just for you. This recipe was part of that series.

* Originally published in 2016, updated in March 2020.

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