Easter Sunday is awfully early this year, but the truth is that it usually always sneaks up on us. And since we like the tradition of an Easter dinner, we usually throw together a ham and try to glaze it in some special manner. That means we’ve run through orange juice honey, and pineapple juice. And we still need to come up with something fun for National Glazed Ham Day in April. So this year, we’ve bee really determined to come up with something different for Easter–which brings us to the topic of Roast Lamb.
Some people might think that serving Roast Lamb for Easter isn’t much better than serving some Roast Rabbit. We wish we were that sensitive–and that lamb was less delicious. The only problem we have with lamb is when people don’t serve the mint sauce on the side. Not everybody likes that mint sauce. And not everybody knows the tradition of Roast Lamb at Easter, which is a dish that originates from the older Christian tradition of the Passover feast. You can feel pretty good about serving up lamb this Sunday–and you’ll feel even better if you remember that lamb needs to be cooked at an internal temperature of 135 degrees to be completely done…
Ingredients
1 boneless leg of lamb (5-lb)
1/4 c chopped fresh oregano
2 tsp pepper
2 1/2 tsp salt
2 lemons, halved and divided
1/4 c olive oil
1 c low-sodium chicken broth
1 garlic bulb, unpeeled
Kitchen string
Garnishes: lettuce leaves, roasted garlic cloves, baby carrots and radishes
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Unroll lamb, if needed. Rub 1 lemon half on every part of the lamb while squeezing juice from the lemon. Stir together pepper, oregano and salt, and then rub on the lamb. Roll up the lamb and tie with the kitchen string.
Place the lamb on a lightly greased rack in a roasting pan. Separate the garlic peels and place around the roast. Drizzle olive oil over the lamb and garlic cloves.
Squeeze the juice from the remaining 1 1/2 lemons into a bowl. Stir together the chicken broth and juice. Pour the mixture into the roasting pan.
Bake the lamb for 2 hours to 2 hours and 15 minutes or until the desired degree of doneness. Remove the lamb from the pan and cover it with aluminum foil. Allow it to stand for 10 minutes before slicing. Garnish, if desired.
There’s room for other spices and flavors, of course. Consider working with coriander, mint, balsamic vinegar, curry, and rosemary. This recipe is easy and delicious, and can be combined with scrumptious side dishes for a traditional Easter meal.
