Uhmmm, mouth watering going on here as I look at this photo. This would make a great Easter dinner entrée if you are inclined to have lamb.
A few weeks ago I was at a cooking class with Tarla Fallgatter. I’ll be posting most, if not all, of her recipes from the class. Can’t wait to make some of the dishes myself. Including this one. I love lamb. I just don’t love the calorie count when I do have it. Obviously the wool-covered critters store up lots of fat amidst their meat, hence lamb, although it doesn’t look like it’s full of fat, it is! Darn.
Anyway, this recipe uses a boneless leg of lamb, butterflied. That means rolling it out and cutting butterfly slices all over the meat to make it a bit more flat. There’s a big hunk of the lamb leg that always sticks up high – – it needs to be butterflied and pounded some. If you’ve never done this before, you’ll see what I mean when you unroll that nice big boneless leg (Costco’s are a great price). Make some butterfly slices, then pound it some.
You make a lovely, big batch of herbs (Italian parsley, fresh mint leaves and fresh cilantro) and mix it with garlic, smoked paprika, salt and cayenne. Some oil is added to this mixture, then you pour off 1/4 cup of it to which you add sherry vinegar and more olive oil. That part is slathered all over the outside of the rolled and tied roast – but later. Meanwhile, you use the bulk of the herb stuff to rub all over the interior part of the roast, the part that will get rolled inwards. The roast is tied well with kitchen twine, then you slather on that saved bit of herb stuff.
THEN, you put it in a plastic bag and chill it for at least 8 hours, or preferably 24 hours, so those herbs just permeate everywhere. Let it sit out for an hour before roasting, though. Into a 375°F oven it goes (in a roasting pan) and bake/roast for about 1 to 1 1/4 hours, or until the interior temp reaches 125°F (rare to med-rare) or up to 135°F for medium to med-well. Personally I want it pink in the middle everywhere, so I’d be removing it at 125°F. So do start checking the temp after an hour to make sure you don’t cook it beyond your desired point. Remove from the oven and it gets tented for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, you put the roasting pan (roast has gone onto a cutting board and tented) and add wine and chicken broth to boil down a little bit. That little bit of stuff, with the pan juices gets added to the sauce that’s been kept aside. The lamb is carved into 1/2” thick slices (and then you’ll see all those beautiful swirly herbs rolled up inside). See photo. And then serve some of the herb sauce on the side, or spoon it right on top of the slice.
What’s GOOD: everything about this is good. Delicious. Fantastic in my view, but then I love lamb. I love cilantro and mint too. An altogether beautiful dish, excellent for a lovely spring dinner for guests (Easter). I’d serve it with some spring vegetables (asparagus?) and a casserole full of mashed potatoes, or au gratin potatoes, or sweet potatoes. But I prefer white potatoes with this.
What’s NOT: only that you need to plan ahead with this one – the roast needs to marinate for about 24 hours.
printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 15/16 file (click link to open recipe)
* Exported from MasterCook *
Rolled Leg of Lamb with Herb Garlic Sauce
Recipe By: From a cooking class with Tarla Fallgatter, 2018
Serving Size: 12
4 pounds boneless leg of lamb — butterflied
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup low sodium chicken broth
HERB GARLIC SAUCE:
1 tablespoon cumin seed — roasted and ground (or use ground cumin)
1 1/2 cups Italian parsley
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
2 large garlic cloves — peeled
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
6 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1. SAUCE: This must be made ahead as it is inserted into the raw roast and rolled, then refrigerated for 8-24 hours. Place all the sauce ingredients into a food processor (EXCEPT oil) and process until a coarse paste forms. With the machine running, add 4 T of the oil. Transfer 1/4 cup of the sauce to a bowl, add vinegar and remaining 2 T oil. Set that aside.
2. 1-2 DAYS AHEAD: Lay meat flat and pat dry with paper towels. Trim any excess fat. If there are portions that are much thicker than others, butterfly even those small sections so the whole piece if more evenly flat.
3. Lightly pound the lamb with a meat mallet (flat side), if necessary so the meat is more evenly thick. Season with salt and pepper. Spread the lamb with 3/4 of the sauce (the larger portion). Starting at the short end, roll lamb up tightly. Tie the roast well, then rub on the remaining sauce set aside earlier. Wrap roast well in plastic wrap and chill at least 8 and up to 24 hours. Let stand at room temperature for one hour before roasting.
4. Preheat oven to 375°F. Unwrap lamb and transfer to a roasting pan. Roast the lamb until an instant read thermometer inserted into the center of the meat reads 125° to 135°F depending on your choice of medium-rare to medium. This will take approximately 1 1/4 hours, but begin checking the temp earlier than that. Transfer meat to cutting board and tent with foil for about 20 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, add wine and chicken broth to the roasting pan and simmer until slightly reduced. Add the sauce that was set aside and mix. Slice lamb into 1/2″ thick slices, snipping away the twine as you go and transfer the meat to a heated platter. Add any juice from the cutting board to sauce. Serve lamb with the sauce.
Per Serving: 300 Calories; 19g Fat (59.4% calories from fat); 27g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 73mg Cholesterol; 889mg Sodium.

hddonna
said on April 2nd, 2018:
I’ll bookmark this one–looks delicious! I love lamb, too, and all the seasonings called for here. Would have liked to do lamb for Easter, but we our group was too big for that this year–40 people. My new granddaughter (2 weeks old) was baptized at our Easter service, and we had the whole family on both sides for dinner in the church basement. But there’s a leg of lamb lurking in my freezer–I know what to do with it now. Hope you had a happy Easter.
40 people? Oh my goodness, Donna! How nice that you can have a dinner in your church basement. Lots of work, though. Hope you had help? I had a very quiet Easter; brunch with friends then worked on various projects here at home for some of the afternoon. Yes, the leg of lamb is a good one. A friend emailed me last night, having made this on Sunday and she thought there was too much cumin in it. I didn’t notice it (but then, I really like cumin) but you might reduce it a little if there is any question your family would not like so much). . . carolyn t