Whether it’s a Sunday dinner or celebrating at the holidays serving lamb is a favorite in our house! For this Roasted Lamb in Red Sauce recipe, it only takes a few simple ingredients to turn a leg of lamb into a mouth-watering dish. Plus the leftovers are just as to die for as when it comes straight out of the oven
Typically when we cook lamb (legs or shanks) we either do a latholemono (lemon sauce) or a tomato-based sauce. And we’ve made it so many times but for some reason have yet to make a blog post about it! So we’re going to walk you through how we make Roasted Lamb in Red Sauce. The key to this recipe is really being patient and letting the oven do its magic until the lamb is so tender that it literally falls apart. Also, with the red sauce version, you don’t need to marinate the lamb ahead of time.
Ingredients
- Leg of lamb (boneless or bone-in)
- olive oil
- garlic cloves
- onions
- 28oz can of organic diced tomatoes
- 8oz can of organic tomato sauce
- cumin
- salt & pepper
How to make Roasted Lamb in Red Sauce
Preparing the lamb
You can use fresh or frozen leg of lamb. If you are using frozen lamb make sure you properly thaw it ahead of time. If the lamb has been in the refrigerator take it out before cooking to come to room temperature.
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Roasting the lamb
To start the roasting process we first need to brown the lamb. Add olive oil to the bottom of a glass pan, with a paring knife cut small slits in the lamb and place garlic cloves in the slits then season both sides of the lamb with salt and pepper. Add to a preheated 450 degree oven for 15 minutes. Then flip the lamb and cook for an additional 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and lower the heat to 325 degrees.
Add the sliced onions, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce around the lamb. Season with salt, pepper and cumin. Cover the lamb with a layer of parchment paper followed by a layer of aluminum foil and set it on the middle rack of the oven.
We like to check the lamb once every hour or so for a few reasons. The first is to make sure that the liquid does not overflow. When the onions and tomatoes break down a lot of liquid can be created. If there is too much liquid, just remove some into a separate bowl and set aside. The other reason is to baste the lamb with the sauce. And finally, the last reason is to flip the lamb, you don’t need to do this every time but a few times over the course of the entire roasting process.
What to serve with Roasted Lamb in Red Sauce
This dish has SO much flavor, we like pairing it with simple sides like Lemon Potatoes to soak up all the delicious sauce and a Greek Peasant Salad (Horiatiki) for a fresh, crisp contrast! Really you can’t go wrong when picking a side to pair with Roasted Lamb in Red Sauce. A nice piece of crusty bread, fluffy rice, or quinoa would be great options too!
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Roasted Lamb in Red Sauce
Ingredients
- 5-7 lbs leg of lamb (boneless or bone-in)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 large onions sliced
- 28 oz can organic diced tomatoes
- 8 oz can organic tomato sauce
- 1 tsp cumin
- Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. In a 9×13” roasting pan add olive oil.
- Cut slits on the lamb and add garlic cloves. Next salt and pepper both sides of the lamb and add to the pan.
- Cook for 15 minutes and then flip and cook for another 15 minutes to brown the lamb.
- Remove the lamb from the oven and turn the oven down to 325 degrees. Add the sliced onions around the lamb followed by the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce.
- Sprinkle it with salt, pepper and cumin. Cover with a layer of parchment paper and then tightly with aluminum foil. Add to the oven.
- Check the lamb every hour to hour and a half and flip the lamb. If you notice that there is too much liquid remove some into a bowl and reserve for later. Make sure after you have checked the lamb that you put the aluminum foil tightly back on.
Being a fellow Greek, I absolutely love to cook lamb any way, any time. This was an unusual take on a recipe, but it turned out beautifully, it literally fell apart. I served it with a side horitika salata and hilopitas which I added some of the tomato sauce into the hilopitas before serving. My heart was very happy!! Absolutely making this often!!!
Kalimera Konstantina,
We do too! We grew up having lamb dishes all the time for dinner. You prepared perfect side dishes to go along with your lamb! Salata and hilopites are the best!
Christina & Alexa
Very easy to make. Made the lemon potato recipe that accompanied this one. That was easy as well. Also made rice pilaf and poured the sauce over that. Absolutely delicious.
Hi Chuck,
We’re so delighted to hear that you found the Lamb with Red Sauce recipe easy to make and that you enjoyed it! It sounds like you created a wonderful meal by pairing it with the lemon potato recipe and rice pilaf.
-Christina & Alexa