A roast dinner classic! This Simple Roast Lamb and Gravy is quick to prepare and quick to cook, but using plenty of rosemary and garlic ensures it’s packed full of flavour! Perfect for your Sunday lunch or Easter celebrations this year.
I love slow roast lamb as much as the next person, but sometimes I just don’t have 4 or 5 hours to spare! This Simple Roast Lamb is a quick and easy recipe for a half leg of lamb (1.5kg / 3.25lb) that takes just over 1 hour 30 minutes from start to finish – and for 1 hour and 10 minutes of that the lamb is in the oven, doing it’s thing, while I do mine…
The bonus of doing fast cooked roast lamb is that the lamb is cooked at a high temperature…ensuring the oven is at the perfect temperature to cook those all important roast potatoes! While the lamb is cooking and resting you can prepare and cook my Easy Peasy Roast Potatoes and Easy Peasy Roast Vegetables.
Add in a green vegetable or two and a jug of gravy and you have yourself a VERY easy and stress free roast dinner. Perfect for Sunday lunch or even your Easter Day celebrations.
This recipe will leave the lamb just a tiny bit pink in the middle. If you prefer your lamb well done, add an extra 5 or 10 minutes to the cooking time.
This recipe makes enough for 4, with enough leftovers to make my Leftover Roast Lamb Shepherd’s Pie. Or if you don’t mind having no leftovers (!) it will serve 6-8, depending on appetite.
My favourite wine match with traditional roast leg of lamb done like this with rosemary and garlic, would be a robust red such as a Rioja or a Rhone. Other options that would work well include a Chianti, Bordeaux or Chilean Merlot. This is one occasion when white wine just doesn’t really work (IMHO!).
Don’t be fazed by the garlic and rosemary part – it really is very easy. Simply use a small sharp knife to cut lots of holes in the lamb and then simply stuff with a small sprig of rosemary and a small slice of garlic. It looks fancy but it’s very easy and takes 5 minutes, tops!
Need ideas for your roast lamb leftovers?
Check out my collection of easy leftover roast lamb recipes >>>
Simple Roast Lamb
Ingredients
Lamb:
- 1.5 kg lamb
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- 4 large sprigs of rosemary chopped into small sprigs
- 3 garlic cloves sliced thinly
Gravy:
- 1 lamb stock cube
- 2 tablespoons plain flour
- 400 ml boiling water
- Lamb juices
Instructions
Lamb:
- Pre-heat the oven to 220C / 200C / gas mark 7 / 425F.
- Get your lamb out of its packaging and stand on a board. Cut lots of little holes all over the lamb. Drizzle the lamb with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Rub the oil, salt and pepper all over the lamb and then push a small sprig of rosemary and a slither of garlic into each hole.
- Put the lamb in the oven for 1 hour 10 minutes.
- When the lamb is ready, remove it from the oven and put it on a plate or a board (I usually use a clean roasting tin, or sometimes even a pizza tray!)
- Rest for 15 minutes and then carve and serve.
Gravy:
- While the lamb is resting you can make a simple gravy.
- Start by crumbling the stock cube into a jug and adding the plain flour. Mix to a smooth paste using a small amount of cold water and then add 400ml boiling water to the jug, stirring constantly.
- Remove the fat from the tin you roasted the lamb in and put the tin on the hob over a low heat. Pour in the jug of lamb gravy and stir to incorporate the bits on the bottom of the tin.
- Add the juices from the resting lamb and then cook the gravy on a low heat for about 5 minutes. Pour back into the jug and serve with the lamb.
Notes
Love Lamb? Check out my collection of Easy & Delicious Lamb Recipes
Pin Quick and Simple Roast Lamb & Gravy for later
FREE 4 Week Easy Dinners Meal Plan
Have you got your hands on a copy of my meal plan yet? If not CLICK HERE to download a copy of my FREE 4 Week Easy Dinners Meal Plan today!
Don’t want to miss a thing?
Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Or why not subscribe to my blog and get delicious, stress free recipes straight to your inbox every week?
Maureen says
Another hit!!!! Husband suggested the gravy could do with some wine – but I think that is just his rules – if in doubt add a dash of red! 6 year old loved gravy and lamb giving both a thumbs up. This is my new menu planning site!!! Thank you
Eb Gargano says
So pleased you liked it! Wine in the gravy sounds like a great idea. I do that too sometimes.
Corina Blum says
This sounds so tasty and the best thing would definitely be the leftovers the next day. I love to put lamb leftovers in a curry but I’m sure your shepherds pie is delicious too! Thanks so much for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice x
Eb Gargano says
Thanks! Leftover lamb in curry is good too. But leftover lamb shepherd’s pie is my favourite 😀 Eb x
Albert says
Love the technique of cooking the lamb at a high temperature, this looks amazing, plus anything with garlic and rosemary will be oh so good! great recipe 🙂
Eb Gargano says
It works so well. Not only is it quicker, but it also means you can cook your roast potatoes at the same time (and at the right temperature for roasties). And yep – totally agree about the garlic and rosemary Eb 🙂
jenny says
This looks fantastic Eb!My mother in law makes great Roast Lamb but I find it hard to cook myself as we used to farm them and they were so cute!!!So I eat it if someone else cooks it and this really does make me want to change my mind!
Eb Gargano says
Thanks so much Jenny! 😀 Eb x
Michelle Frank | Flipped-Out Food says
I have always done the low-and-slow method for roast lamb, so I’m totally jazzed to see a recipe that is done in a fraction of the time at a high temperature! Nothing says “special” quite like roast leg of lamb, so I’m sure that this will be making an appearance on my Easter Dinner table!
Eb Gargano says
I must admit, I do love the low and slow method too…and it’s great to make on a lazy weekend when I have ooodles of time…but sometimes I just don’t have oodles of time and then this method is perfect – and plus it’s just the right temperature for the roast potatoes…and you know how much I like my roasties 😀 Eb x
Jacqui Bellefontaine says
Roast leg of lamb is probably my all time favourite roast and I think it is better with a shorter roast and nice and pink inside. I only slow roast shoulder. Couldn’t agree more that it has to be red wine. Rioja being my fav. Thank you for sharing on #CookBlogShare
Eb Gargano says
Yes I agree – shorter and hotter tends to work better with leg…but shoulder is gorgeous slow roasted! Haha – glad you agree with me about the wine…I am actually quite often a real rebel when it comes to wine and will happily break all the ‘rules’ if I think the wine/food combo will work…there are some great non traditional pairings…but lamb and white wine is not one of them…or at least not a traditional leg of lamb like this! Lamb and a good bottle of Rioja on the other hand – yes please!! Eb x
Mel says
Your lamb would be my husband’s idea of heaven! For some reason, I’ve never been able to digest lamb so I don’t eat it. How on earth do you manage to make a piece of meat look so good? You’ve got skills, lady!
Eb Gargano says
Haha – thanks Mel! It’s amazing what you can achieve with a good camera and fancy editing software…this was actually a chicken! Haha – just kidding 😉 So sorry to hear you can’t eat lamb. 🙁 Eb x
Steffy says
Looks amazing, I’m gonna cook it tonite. Bit scared to make gravy as it never turns out good. But will give it a try, thank you so much for sharing.
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Steffy – hope it worked out well for you! Eb 🙂