Roast Lamb with Mint Sauce

Method

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1. Leave the lamb at room temperature 1 hour before it goes in the oven.

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2. Make slits all over the leg with a small knife and push a sliver of garlic and a piece of rosemary into each.

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3. Rub with the oil, salt and pepper.

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4. Lay the onion slices in a roasting tin as a trivet and set the lamb on top.

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5. Roast at 220C fan / 240C / gas 9 for 20 minutes, then reduce to 170C fan / 190C / gas 5 and roast a further 50 minutes for pink, or 65 for medium.

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6. Lift the lamb onto a warm dish, cover loosely with foil and rest 30 minutes.

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7. Meanwhile, put the chopped mint and sugar in a jug, pour the boiling water over and stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the vinegar and salt and leave to stand.

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8. Skim the fat from the tin, add the stock and boil hard on the hob, scraping, until reduced by half. Strain.

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9. Carve across the grain and serve with the gravy and mint sauce.

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Chef’s Tips

• Thirty minutes resting, loosely covered. Not optional.
• Boiling water on the mint and sugar before the vinegar.
• An hour out of the fridge first, or the outside overcooks.

Common Substitutions & Variations

• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the usual stand-in when you are out of fresh garlic — it will not caramelise the same way, but it carries the flavour.
• Vegetable stock in place of the chicken stock makes this meat-free without changing the method, if that is what you need.
• A dry vermouth keeps for longer than an open bottle of white wine and is the closer swap than a random white left in the fridge; for an alcohol-free version, use the same amount of stock with a squeeze of lemon.

Pairing Suggestions

• Roast potatoes
• Buttered peas
• Redcurrant jelly

Storage & Reheating

Refrigerated for 3 days. Best cold in sandwiches rather than reheated.

Common questions

Nutritional Highlights

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list. Treat these as an estimate — brands and cuts vary.