I prepared this lamb for Christmas dinner II, the version that we do at my parents’ house with just my immediate family members and our significant others, and I’ve only just gotten around to writing about it. At the time we were in the home stretch of the holiday season, and I had elected to move away from more traditional holiday dishes in favor of something I had been craving – a small taste of summer with some meat on the grill. I wanted something fresh and garlic-y, spiked with lemons and smothered in creamy cukes. This grilled lamb with tsatsiki, which I also served with grilled rosemary flatbread, was the perfect answer to the holiday eating blues.

This recipe begins with a simple marinade made of fresh mint, greek yogurt, cumin, salt, fresh ground pepper, and some red pepper sauce (I used classic Tabasco). I also added the juice of one lemon, even though the recipe did not call for any. Ideally, this mixture should go into the food processor to be blended until it is smooth and almost completely uniform. Unfortunately, my mom does not have a food processor, so I made due with a hand blender, which I do not recommend.

Trim the fat from a de-boned leg of lamb and cut small slits into the surface, about 1/2 inch deep. Insert large pieces of chopped garlic cloves into the slits. 

Rub the marinade all over the lamb, cover it with plastic wrap, and allow to sit in the fridge for a minimum of 8 hours (24 hours is preferable).  

A couple of hours before you are planning to serve, prepare the tsatsiki by combining 2 cups peeled, shredded cucumbers, 1 cup greek-style yogurt, 1/4 cup chopped dill, 3 cloves of finely chopped garlic, salt, and fresh ground pepper and place in the fridge, where the garlic and flavors will have some time to mix together.

This is simply a great lamb dish when you are craving grilled, Greek food. It was the perfect meal for us when we could not imagine another round of stuffing, gravy, and pies.

Yogurt-Mint Marinated Grilled Leg of Lamb with Tsatsiki
Adapted from Bobby Flay’s recipe at Food.com 

For Lamb:

1 de-boned (5 pound) leg of lamb, trimmed of excess fat 

5 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced 

2 cups Greek-style yogurt 

1/2 cup fresh mint leaves 

2 teaspoons ground cumin 

3 to 5 dashes hot pepper sauce 

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Using a paring knife, make several small slits over the entire surface of the lamb, and stuff the slits with the sliced garlic. Add the yogurt, mint, cumin and hot pepper sauce to the work bowl of a food processor and process until smooth. Place the lamb on a large baking sheet and rub the entire leg with the yogurt mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours, or overnight.

Preheat the grill to high. Remove the lamb from the marinade and season well with salt and pepper. Place the lamb, skin side down, on the grill. Grill until the skin side is golden brown, then turn the lamb over, and reduce the heat of the grill to medium so that the grill maintains a constant temperature of 350 degrees F. Continue grilling until a thermometer inserted deep into the meat reaches a temperature of 145 degrees F for medium-rare doneness, about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. Remove lamb from grill, cover with foil, and let rest for 10 minutes. Slice the meat on the bias into 1/4-inch thick slices.

For Tsatsiki:

2 cups de-seeded, grated cucumber

1 cup Greek-style yogurt

1/4 cup fresh dill, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper

Remove the seeds from a peeled cucumber and grate. Put the grated cucumber in a strainer and allow the liquid to run off. Squeeze out any additional liquid and then transfer to a medium-sized bowl. Add all other ingredients and stir well. Allow tsatsiki to sit in the fridge for at least an hour to allow the flavors to develop. Serve over lamb.