Middle Eastern Lamb Roast with Avocado Yoghurt Salad on Pitas

Avocado, Recipes

The title of the recipe might be a mouthful, but we can assure it will be a delicious one! Lamb is beautiful roasted but we like to mix it up from the usual mint sauce, so for this recipe we are going with aromatic middle eastern spices. And rather than carving up the roast, this recipe treats it like a pulled pork, tearing it up and mixing it back into the juices in the bottom of the pan.

This meal is a bit of a long haul (start thinking a day in advance!), but will be perfect for a cold rainy day when you are stuck inside the house. The middle eastern spices will fill your house with the most amazing smell. With a whole leg of lamb you can also feed 8 people, so save it for when you have your friends over for dinner. Garam masala, ras el hanout and sumac aren’t the most common spice mixes but you should be able to find them in your supermarket.

Serves 6-8 

Ingredients

For the lamb

  • 2 tbsp garam masala
  • 2 tbsp ras el hanout
  • 1 tbsp sumac
  • 3/4 tbsp sea salt
  • 25g fresh ginger
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 40g coriander
  • 60ml lemon juice
  • 120ml peanut oil
  • 1 leg of lamb (bone in)

For the Yoghurt Salad

  • 150g Greek yoghurt
  • 4 tomatoes
  • 100g radishes
  • 1/2 cucumber
  • 1-2 Bayfarms Avocados
  • 2 spring onions
  • Handful of mint (15g)
  • Big handful of parsley (25g)
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • 60ml olive oil
  • 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 tbsp sumac

For serving

  • Pita bread (1 or 2 each)
  • Hummus
  • Optional: Extra avo, tahini, pomegranate, hot sauce, tzatziki
Roast lamb pitas with avocado yoghurt salad

Method

Lamb

  1. The lamb will take 4 hours to cook, and will need 2 hours+ (or overnight) to marinate, so start early!
  2. For the marinade, mix together the spices, salt, grated ginger, crushed garlic, chopped coriander, lemon juice and peanut oil.
  3. Score the leg of lamb in a few places making slits about 1.5cm deep. Place the lamb in a large roasting pan and rub the marinade all over, making sure it gets in all the cuts you made. Cover and let it marinate for as long as you can in the fridge (you can bring it out of the fridge an hour before cooking to get to room temperature before cooking).
  4. Preheat the oven to 160°C. Put the lamb in with the fatty side up and roast for 4 – 4.5 hours. After the first half hour add a cup of hot water to the roasting dish and then use the liquid at the bottom to baste the meat every so often (add more if it dries out).
  5. For the last 3 hours cover the meat with tinfoil so the top doesn’t burn or dry out. While the lamb is cooking you can make the yoghurt salad.
  6. Once the lamb is done leave it to rest for 10 minutes. Then shred the meat with some tongs and a fork. Mix the shredded lamb back into the juices left at the bottom of the oven tray, then move to a serving platter.

Yoghurt Salad

  1. Dice the tomatoes and cucumber. Thinly slice the radishes and spring onion. Crush the garlic cloves and chop the herbs.
  2. Mix all the ingredients together in a salad bowl, if you still have ages to go on the lamb, you can cover and refrigerate, but bring it out to warm up a bit before serving.
  3. If the yoghurt mix gets a bit runny, tear up a pita or two and toss them through the salad to absorb some of the juices.
  4. Just before serving chop up the avo and mix it through the salad, you can probably put it in earlier, but it might go brown.

To serve:

Heat up the pitas and serve one to everyone. Stuff the pitas with lamb, yoghurt salad and hummus and top with any extras, then enjoy! Hopefully you have room for second helpings, otherwise there is always tomorrow…

 

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