Roast Lamb with Mint Sauce
Roast lamb served with golden potatoes, vegetables, gravy and a proper fresh mint sauce. The classic family Sunday lunch.
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 1 h 40 min
- total
- 2 h 5 min
- serves
- 6
- level
- medium
This is the roast that defines a certain kind of Australian Sunday: lamb studded with garlic and rosemary, golden potatoes roasted in the same pan, and a proper mint sauce, sharp with vinegar rather than sweet like the jellied version.
Let the lamb rest properly before you carve it. That ten or fifteen minutes under foil is what keeps the juice in the meat rather than pooling out onto the board the moment you cut into it.
Part of our 20 best Australian recipes list.
method
Preheat the oven to 220°C (430°F). Make small incisions all over the lamb and push the garlic halves and small sprigs of rosemary into them.
Rub the lamb with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Place it in a roasting pan.
Roast at 220°C (430°F) for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180°C (355°F).
Add the potatoes and carrots to the pan around the lamb, tossed in a little of the pan fat, and roast for a further 70 to 80 minutes, until the lamb reaches your preferred doneness and the vegetables are golden and tender.
Rest the lamb on a board, loosely tented with foil, for 15 to 20 minutes before carving. Keep the vegetables warm.
For the gravy, skim excess fat from the roasting pan, place it over medium heat, stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute, then whisk in the stock and simmer until thickened.
For the mint sauce, dissolve the sugar in the boiling water, stir in the vinegar, then add the chopped mint and let it sit for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Carve the lamb and serve with the potatoes, carrots, gravy and mint sauce.
chef's tips
- Mint sauce, not mint jelly, is the traditional Australian and British pairing: fresh mint steeped in a vinegar and sugar solution, sharp rather than sweet and jammy.
- Resting the lamb properly before carving matters as much as the roasting itself. Skipping it loses a noticeable amount of juice onto the board instead of staying in the meat.
- Tucking garlic and rosemary into small incisions, rather than just scattering them around the pan, gets the flavor further into the meat itself.
- This is the classic family Sunday roast, and the leftovers, especially cold lamb in a sandwich the next day, are considered by many to be just as good as the meal itself.