| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 3 hr 30 min |
| Prep: | 1 hr 30 min |
| Cook: | 2 hr |
| Yield: | 8-10 servings |
Ingredients
- One 7- to 9-pound bone-in leg of lamb, hip bone removed, tied (ask your butcher to do this)
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- 3 lemons
- 3 pounds baby turnips with greens (about 8 bunches)
- 6 bunches scallions
- 1 cup fresh parsley
- 1 cup fresh dill
- 1/4 cup fresh marjoram
- 3 inner stalks celery, roughly chopped
- 3 cloves garlic
- 6 plum tomatoes, quartered lengthwise and halved crosswise
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 500 degrees F. Using a paring knife, make deep cuts, 2 inches apart, all over the lamb; rub with 2 tablespoons salt and several grinds of pepper. Transfer the lamb to a roasting pan, fat-side up. Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon on top.
- Roast the lamb until most of the fat is rendered and the skin starts to brown, about 30 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and let rest 30 to 40 minutes. Discard the fat from the pan and set the pan aside.
- Meanwhile, trim the greens from the turnips. Cut any large turnips in half.
- Roughly chop 2 bunches scallions and transfer to a food processor. Add the parsley, dill, marjoram, celery and garlic and pulse to form a coarse paste. Holding the bone, stand the leg of lamb up and rub the paste all over it; return to the roasting pan.
- Cut the remaining 4 bunches scallions into 2-inch pieces. Scatter the scallions, turnips and tomatoes around the lamb and season with salt and pepper. Squeeze the juice of the remaining 2 lemons over the lamb and drizzle with the olive oil. Loosely cover with foil.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and roast the lamb 1 hour. Uncover and continue roasting until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers 145 degrees F for medium, 30 to 45 more minutes. Let rest 15 minutes, then slice. Serve with the vegetables and pan juices.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 10 servings |
| Calories | 770 |
| Total Fat | 49 g |
| Saturated Fat | 20 g |
| Carbohydrates | 19 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 6 g |
| Sugar | 8 g |
| Protein | 62 g |
| Cholesterol | 216 mg |
| Sodium | 1397 mg |
Reviews
The dill and lemon are delicious with this leg of lamb. I did not have fresh so I converted the parsley and dill to dry (1/3 icup each) and then dry onion powder, a little fresh onion garlic and celery in the food processor. Happy Easter to us! Yum
We made yesterday for Easter. Delicious! We doubled the garlic and added a some olive oil to the herb mixture. The tomatoes and turnips were really great – don’t skip them.
Good like it.
The worst…full cooking time and its still raw. Not pink…not rare …RAW. Checked my oven temps and used an internal standing thermometer. Not enough cooking time. Best bet is to use a probe and listen for that rather than trust this recipe’s timing.. Better luck next time at a better recipe than this, folks.
I made this dish for Easter this year and it was delicious! We had purchased a 6 pound lamb and it took twice as long as it says in the recipe. I suggest cooking the lamb for 11/2 hours before checking the temp. And more garlic!! Enjoy~
This was delicious but I would definitely double the garlic.
Loved that tasty lamb I have never had lamb turn out so tender or taste so good its a darn great recipe!
I wanted to make something different for Easter, never made a lamb before. And this was the perfect recipe, it was Amazing. I use Turnips greens only and Wow!!