Stuffed Leg of Lamb. Tomato Braised Lamb with spinach, feta and pine nut stuffing. Slow cooked to tender perfection and delicious served with roasted potatoes or your favourite pasta!
Stuffed Leg of Lamb.
Originally published Jan. 2023.
This is a recipe I developed for the Slow Cooked Sundays chapter of my first cookbook back in 2014. I’ve long been a proponent of a relaxing weekend cooking day. It’s one of my favourite times to cook for family.
Slow Cooked Sunday is not only about what is in the oven or on the stove top. It is about taking the time to slow down yourself while something simmers away on the stove or slowly braises for hours in the oven.
It’s also about the promise of a great comfort food meal at the end of the day. Whether it is more practical for you to do so on a Saturday or a Sunday, the weekend is meant to be a time for your family, big or small to re-energize and reconnect after a long, busy week. What better way to regenerate than a soul restoring family meal?
What’s better than a meal which needs very little attention after their initial preparation? Then, take some time to relax while dinner slowly takes care of itself. Isn’t that what a weekend day off should be all about?
Boneless leg of lamb or even lamb shoulder is great. for this recipe.
From the cookbook:
Leg of lamb is a real treat for me because I rarely make it at home. I love lamb but a single rack of lamb for one is usually how I have to enjoy it because it is one of the few dinner menu
sticking points for the rest of the family.
I blame Spouse for some of this. Her late father Len had a distaste for it and had what we’ll call a “colorful phrase” for declaring it unfit to eat. A an off-putting phrase he used often for the remainder of his 70 plus years.
He, of course, found it quite humorous but it was bound to have had an effect. I’m slowly winning the rest of the family over though and this new recipe was my greatest
success to date.
Stuffed Leg of Lamb.
Stuffed Leg of Lamb, great Mediterranean flavours!
They all love the Mediterranean flavors of Greece where lamb is such a culinary staple, so I started there and threw in a little Italian for good measure with the famous canned San Marzano tomatoes that are the base for many sauces at our house, including the best pizza sauce ever. Grown in the volcanic ash enriched soil near Mt. Vesuvius, there’s something almost intangibly magic about their flavor.
Not too acidic and retaining much more of their natural fresh flavor when canned, they really can’t be bested. Use them if you can get them.
Although plenty of other Mediterranean ingredients like feta and pine nuts bring much to this flavor party, I think the San Marzano tomatoes are still the key ingredient in this tender braised lamb recipe.
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Stuffed Leg of Lamb
Stuffed Leg of Lamb. Tomato Braised Lamb with spinach, feta and pine nut stuffing. Slow cooked to tender perfection and delicious served with roasted potatoes or your favourite pasta!
#easter #sundaydinner
Ingredients
- 3 lb leg of lamb (deboned)
Spinach Feta and Pine Nut Stuffing
- 3 cups good crusty bread (toasted)
- 1 small red onion
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano (or 1 tbsp dried oregano)
- pinch salt
- pinch black pepper
- 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 1 cup chopped spinach
- 2/3 cup veal or beef stock
- 1 egg
Tomato Braising Sauce
- 3 cloves minced garlic
- 4 cups chopped canned San Marzano Tomatoes (or plum tomatoes)
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- salt and pepper to season
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano (or 1 tbsp dried oregano)
- 1 1/2 cups lamb, veal or beef stock
Instructions
To prepare the stuffing
- Sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil until softened.
- Then add them to a large bowl along with the bread, oregano, salt and pepper.
- Toss together well,
- Whisk together the stock and the egg.
- Pour over the stuffing and toss well.
- Let stand a few minutes, occasionally pressing down on the bread cubes to ensure they absorb all of the liquid.
To prepare the lamb
- Set the deboned lamb on a cutting board, cover with plastic wrap and pound flat with a meat mallet to about 1 to 1 1/2 inch thickness.
- Place the stuffing evenly along the center line of the flattened roast.
- Bring the sides of the roast up over the stuffing and tie with several lengths of butcher string to close.
- I usually use a couple of lengths of butcher string to tie the two ends closed as well, so that they cross the other strings at a 90 degree angle.
- Season the outside of the roast with salt and pepper.
- Heat a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat.
- Add the lamb roast/s to the pan and brown it well on all sides.
- Transfer the browned roast to a covered roasting pan or oven-safe covered dutch oven.
To prepare the tomato braising sauce
- Mix all ingredients well and pour over the browned leg of lamb.
- Cover with a layer of aluminum foil before adding the lid.
- Place in a preheated 325 degree oven to slowly braise for up to 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
- Check on the roast about every hour and if you feel the sauce is thickening too quickly, add a little more stock or water and turn the heat back to 300 degrees F.
- Remove the roast from the sauce and tent it under a sheet of aluminum foil to rest for 10 or 15 minutes before removing the strings and carving.
- Skim any excess fat off the tomato braising sauce and serve it with the lamb along with cooked orzo or other pasta. I love roasted potatoes with this dish too.
Nutrition Information
Yield
8Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 786Total Fat 48gSaturated Fat 19gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 25gCholesterol 262mgSodium 502mgCarbohydrates 16gFiber 2gSugar 6gProtein 69g
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.