Garlicky Leg of Lamb with Yogurt Sauce

For some reason, I felt like I needed to try a lamb recipe this year for Easter. I narrowed it down to a leg of lamb, since that was the most cost effective cut that I could find. When I saw this step by step recipe in my April issue of Cooking Light I knew that this was what I needed to make.

Garlicky Leg of Lamb with Yogurt Sauce
From: David Bonom,Cooking Light magazine, April 2011

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
1 (6-pound) bone-in leg of lamb, trimmed
10 garlic cloves, halved
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cooking spray
1 cup plain 2% reduced-fat Greek yogurt
1/4 cup diced English cucumber
1/4 cup diced plum tomato
1/4 cup diced red onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 garlic clove, minced

Directions:
Combine first 5 ingredients in a small bowl. Cut 20 (3/4-inch-deep) slits in lamb. Press 1 garlic half into each slit. Rub lamb with lemon mixture. Cover and marinate in refrigerator at least 5 hours.

Preheat oven to 450°.

Sprinkle lamb with 1 teaspoon salt and pepper. Place lamb on a wire rack coated with cooking spray; place rack in a roasting pan. Let stand at room temperature 20 minutes. Bake lamb at 450° for 20 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 375° (do not remove lamb).

Bake an additional 55 minutes or until a thermometer inserted in thickest portion registers 130°. Let stand for 15 minutes; cut across the grain into slices.

Combine yogurt and remaining ingredients in a medium bowl. Serve with lamb.

The Result:
This was delicious and picture perfect for our special Easter meal. It was fairly easy to put together, however these recipe instructions do not tell you how to trim the leg of lamb beforehand (the magazine had a step by step photo guide). I tell ya, the trimming was probably the hardest part of this whole process. If you can't find detailed help with photos on how to go about doing this, then I would highly suggest having you butcher take care of it for you. Other than that, this lamb recipe was awesome and everyone loved it!

Lamb Pitas with Lemon-Mint Sauce

The cookbook project isn't shaping up to what I thought it would be, so I think I am going to loosen up the parameters a bit. After all, it was my idea...so I can change it, right??? Anyway, due to time and budget constraints, I am just going to pick a cookbook and cook out of it until I get tired of it. Then, I will move on to the next. I could make just one recipe or several. I could use that particular book for just one week or spread it out over a few. The point is that it should make the project easier to juggle. I will still go through my collection one at a time, but I won't be hard-pressed to only pull the majority of my dinners for the week out of one resource. Whew! That makes it a lot less stressful.

I have one recipe slated for this week (this one), and two more recipes on tap next for week from the Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2007 cookbook.
Every year, Cooking Light will take it's entire catalog of magazine recipes and compile them into one volume. I love these compilation books, because I can recycle all my old magazine copies and still have the recipes from that particular year at my fingertips. I had some ground lamb that needed to be used, and I found this pita dish hidden in the back of the book. I decided to start with this as my first book (and recipe) for my project; especially since I had everything on hand for it, and it was a new twist on pitas for us.

Lamb Pitas with Lemon-Mint Sauce
Adapted From: Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2007 cookbook

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 lb. of ground lamb
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of dried thyme
1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup of fresh chopped Italian parsley
1/4 cup of fresh chopped mint
whole wheat pita pockets, opened
lettuce of your choice
cucumber slices
sliced tomatoes

For Sauce:
1/2 cup of plain, fat-free Greek style yogurt
zest of one lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon (or more to taste)
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon of tahini
chopped fresh mint to taste


Directions:
Mix sauce ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Saute onions and peppers with a pinch of salt. Once onions are start to caramelize and are soft, remove mixture to a plate. In the same skillet, cook ground lamb with salt, pepper, cumin, thyme, and red pepper flakes. Break up large chunks of meat with a wooden spoon and cook thoroughly. Once lamb is no longer pink, add minced garlic and cook for another 30 seconds or until garlic is fragrant. Add onion and pepper mixture back to pan and remove from heat. Add mint and parsley to pan, stir to combine.

Stuff pita pockets with a handful of lettuce, meat mixture, sauce, tomato and cucumber slices. Serve immediately.



The Result:
My final dish barely resembled the original published recipe (linked above), but it still turned out to be fantastic. We really loved these pitas, and some glazed carrots were the perfect side dish to go with our sandwiches. Yum!