Herb-roasted leg of lamb with mustard dumplings recipe

Try a new roast lamb recipe for your Sunday dinner with our herb-roasted leg of lamb with mustard dumplings. This one has a delicious anchovy crust and comes with all of the trimmings like crispy dumplings and roast vegetables. This recipe serves 6-8 people and will take around 2hrs and 15 mins to make in total. This succulent cut of lamb has never tasted so good. The herbs add a real depth of flavour to each bite, served alongside the homemade mustard dumplings and you've got a great twist on a classic lamb dish. The vegetables that are cooked in this dish are bursting with flavour too thanks to the hearty lamb stock and hint of garlic. The whole family are going to love tucking into this dish.

Why not try our classic dumplings recipe with this dish instead?

Ingredients

For the lamb:

• 50g can anchovies
• 16 pitted black olives
• 2tbsp roughly chopped fresh rosemary
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1.9-2kg (approx. 4lb) leg of lamb

For the vegetables:

• 1-1.5kg (2¼-3lb) new potatoes
• 1 bunch of carrots, trimmed and scrubbed
• 2-3 large bulbs garlic
• 2tbsp light olive oil

For the dumplings:

• 350g (12oz) self-raising flour
• 175g (6oz) shredded suet (beef or vegetarian)
• 1 large egg
• 1tbsp wholegrain mustard

Method

1. Set the oven to gas 7 or 220°C.
2. Place the anchovies and their oil, olives and rosemary in the bowl of a small food processor and whizz until blended. Or finely chop the ingredients by hand and mix together. Season.
3. Cut slashes in the top of the lamb, and fill the slashes with the olive paste. Place lamb in a large roasting tin and cook in the centre of the oven for 30 mins.
4. Cut the potatoes into chunks, if they are large, and put them in a bowl, along with the carrots and halved garlic bulbs. Pour the oil over and turn the vegetables to coat them.
5. Take lamb out of the oven and reduce oven temperature to gas 6 or 200°C.
6. Arrange the vegetables around the lamb, preferably in a single layer. Return to the oven and cook for about 1 hr, turning the vegetables a couple of times so they cook evenly. The timings are for lamb that will be slightly pink (after the additional cooking with the dumplings in the tin). Allow a little longer at this stage if you like the meat to be well cooked, and less time if you like it to be quite pink.
7. To make the dumplings: Tip the flour into a bowl and stir in suet and seasoning. Beat the egg with the mustard and 125ml (4fl oz) cold water. Add the egg mixture to the flour and mix to a dough, adding a little more water if necessary. Divide the dough into 12 and roll each piece into a ball. Place the balls on top of the vegetables around lamb. Return roasting tin to the oven and bake for 20-30 mins, until the dumplings have risen and are golden.
8. Remove tin from the oven. Transfer the contents to a warmed plate, cover loosely with foil and keep in a warm place for about 10 mins before serving, so the meat rests.