Best Recipe for Herbed Leg of Lamb With Roasted Turnips
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.
- Photograph by Jonny Valiant
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