By Australian Lamb

As the leaves start to turn, and cosy evenings follow crispy sunny days, this season is the time to perfect the ultimate Autumn dish – the Aussie Lamb roast. Now we’ve all got a bit more time to spend in the kitchen, renowned chef of Three Blue Ducks, Darren Robertson, shares his favourite roast recipe, cooked from his home in Byron.

Pick up your ingredients from your Spuds & Plums or Top Chop.

Serves: 4

Cooking time: 1 hour 45 mins

Ingredients

• 1 x 1.5kg lamb leg (room temp)
• 3 cloves garlic (grated)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 half small butternut pumpkin
• 1 sweet potato peeled and roughly chopped
• Pinch smoked paprika
• 2 handfuls of mixed herbs (bay leaves, rosemary, oregano, parsley all work well) – leave some aside some for the dressing
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp honey

Yogurt dressing

• 1 tsp of the remaining lamb marinade mix
• 1 tbsp chopped roasted pepita
• 6 tbsp yogurt

Water melon, tomato and radish salad

• A 100g piece of water melon (peeled)
• Half a lime
• 1 handful picked coriander leaves
• 1 handful picked mint leaves
• 1 Lebanese cucumber peeled 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Half a jalapeno chili (if desired)
• 6 baby red radishes (washed)
• 1 vine of tomatoes

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 °C
2. Chop the herbs and mix with the garlic, lemon zest, olive oil, paprika and a pinch of salt and pepper.
3. Pop the lamb, pumpkin and sweet potato in a roasting tray.
4. Gently pierce the fat of the lamb leg then cover in the marinade. Dress the pumpkin and sweet potato with the same marinade and drizzle a little honey over the pumpkin. Leave a tsp of the marinade for the yogurt sauce.
5. Cook the lamb for 1 hour 15 mins for medium rare or 1 hour 30 mins for medium.
6. Remove lamb, pumpkin and sweet potato from the oven, take out of the tray and rest the lamb for 20 minutes. Deglaze the tray with the yogurt and leftover marinade mix, season with a little lemon juice, add pepitas and pour into a bowl.
7. For the salad, wash the radishes and cut them into quarters, dice the watermelon, chop the cucumber into irregular shapes and remove the eye from the tomato and roughly dice. If you like heat, then add very thinly sliced jalapenos. Mix all ingredients into a good size bowl, season with a little salt, pepper, lime juice and olive oil. Add the herbs, toss and serve.
8. Carve the lamb against the grain. Serve up with veggies, yogurt sauce and salad. That’s it!

Tips

• It’s important to pierce the lamb to let the marinade do its magic.
• Bringing the lamb up to room temperature will allow for an even cook.
• Feel free to replace veggies and herbs with whatever you have available.
• Use up your leftover lamb in sandwiches with mustard and pickles or toss through a beetroot rocket and hazelnut salad. For more leftover lamb recipe ideas visit Australian Lamb.