“This is the best roast I’ve had in my life” – Mum

What I used:

For marinating:

One large leg of lamb (mine was over 2kg)

Approx 12-15 cloves of garlic

Approx one 2 inch piece of ginger

Juice of 3 fresh lemons or limes

Approx 1/3 of a whole raw papaya

1 or 2 green chilli’s depending on how spicy you want it

1 tsp fresh rosemary

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp regular salt

2 tsp of honey

2 tbsp yoghurt (I used Greek yoghurt)

2 or 3 big knobs of butter

A good glug of olive oil

For the rest of the recipe:

8 more cloves of garlic (I used 2 full bulbs of garlic in total for this recipe)

Small bunch of fresh rosemary

The skin of 3 lemons or limes (save them after you juice them for the marinade)

Unsalted butter

Large slices of red onion

What I did:

Throw all marinade ingredients except the yoghurt into a mini blender and blend well together.

Once blended stir in the yoghurt.

Take your washed and cleaned leg of lamb, and using a large sharp knife, stab the leg several times all over on both side, ensure your cuts are reasonably deep but don’t go all the way through to the other side.

Using your hands spend AT LEAST a good five minutes rubbing your prepared marinade all over the leg, rubbing it into all the grooves, use a small teaspoon to pour marinade into all the cuts you made too, rubbing it in well.

Lightly crush with the back of a spoon the 8 clove of garlic you saved, separate them out and shove a small piece of garlic into each of the cuts you made in your lambs leg.

Cut up the lemon/lime peels and do the same as the garlic, along with a stick of rosemary and small strip of unsalted butter, in each cut.

Wrap the whole thing tightly in cling film and put in the fridge to marinate overnight, or for at least a few hours.

Remove from the fridge 1 hour before cooking to bring it back to room temperature.

When you are ready to cook, pre heat the oven to 220c.

Prep a tray with a little bit of olive oil and lay out your large slices of onion to cover the bottom of the tray.

Remove cling film from your lamb, place on top of the onions, cover loosely in foil, and put it on the middle shelf of the oven for 1 hour.

After an hour, take it out, spoon the liquid that has collected in the tray all over the lamb, turn the leg over, lower the temperature of the oven to 200c, re-cover it loosely in foil, and put it back in the oven for another hour.

After the second hour, take it back out the oven, repeat the process of spooning the juices over and turning it over back to the first side, re-cover in foil, put it back in the oven again for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes remove the foil from the top, and cook it for another 20 minutes uncovered to get a nice colour and crust on the top. Please note, cooking and resting times will vary depending on the size of your leg, so keep a close eye on it to make sure you don’t overcook it!

After the final 20 minutes, remove from the oven, cover loosely in foil again, and leave to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes. Please don’t skip this step! It stops your meat being dry and makes all the difference!

Use the juices and the sliced onions from the roasting tray to make a super easy gravy:

Heat up the juices and onions in a saucepan, along with any bits of garlic that fell out during the cooking process, blend them using a hand blender to get a smooth sauce, add some boiling water and a spoonful or two of Bisto to thicken it, until you get the amount/consistency you need.

Serve the lamb with gravy, roast potatoes and some vegetable sides.

I used this roast potato recipe and it is AMAZING, but I added turmeric to the boiling water for colour and tossed them in cumin seeds before roasting.

I tossed some sliced carrots and parsnips in olive oil, salt and dried herbs and roasted them in the oven until tender.

I also steamed some fresh green beans and tossed them in lemon juice, olive oil, salt and crushed black pepper.

My family loved this recipe and said it was one of the best meals they have ever had!

If you try this recipe please comment below, share, like and follow me on Instagram!

This recipe is also recorded on my Instagram and saved in my recipe highlights.

Love you alwayss! xx