Absolutely one of our favorite BBQ dishes! We serve the lamb with a grilled, herby flat bread or homemade pita, and a rice pilaf. There’s no Pistachio Pesto in the photo, unfortunately, but if there were you’d be amazed by it’s lovely bright green color 🙂

The recipe below also has instructions for cooking the lamb in the oven, which we do in colder months.

Mint Marinated Lamb with Pistachio Pesto

Grilled or Baked

INGREDIENTS

For Grilled Lamb

• ½ cup olive oil
• ½ cup dry red wine
• ¼ cup fresh minced mint leaves, packed
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• Pepper to taste
• 1 5 lb boneless leg of lamb cut into large chunks—silver skin removed

DIRECTIONS

1. The day before, mix olive oil with red wine, mint, garlic, bay leaves, and pour into a 9×13″ baking dish and add lamb chunks and stirring to coat well.
2. Cover and refrigerate overnight, turning occasionally to coat.
3. Drain lamb from marinade, and season generously with salt and pepper.
4. At this point, you can insert several pieces of similar sized lamb chunks onto soaked and drained bamboo skewers—we skip this step now, and grill the lamb chunks individually.
5. Grill the lamb chunks!
6. Remove lamb from grill when the internal temperature reaches 145° (rare) to 160° (well done*)

For Oven Roasted Lamb

1. Rather than cutting the lamb into chunks, butterfly the leg of lamb.
2. Soak lamb in marinade overnight, turning to coat occasionally.
3. Preheat oven to 450°.
4. Drain lamb from marinade.
5. Season both sides of the butterflied leg of lamb with salt and pepper.
6. Arrange fat side down in a roasting pan, and roast for 15 minutes.
7. Reduce oven temp to 375°, and continue roasting until an internal temperature of 145° (rare) to 160° (well done*) is reached, about 30 minutes longer.
8. Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes, loosely tented with foil.
9. Cut into slices, discard any fat. Serve.
   • *According to the experts, lamb is best served rare.

Mint Pistachio Pesto

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups fresh mint
• 2 cups fresh parsley
• 1 cup shelled pistachios
• ¾-1 cup olive oil
• 1-2 tsp salt (to taste)

DIRECTIONS

1. Place all of the ingredients in a blender and whirl until finely ground.
2. Drizzle a small amount over the plate of grilled lamb.
3. Transfer the remaining pesto to a serving bowl to pass at the table.
4. Place a dab of pesto on each bite of meat, wrap in pita or flat bread, and eat!

This makes a large batch of mint pesto, and you will likely have extra. It freezes well, or use as a dressing for an orzo/feta/veggie pasta salad

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today!