Home-cooking: Easy Roasted Rack of Lamb Recipe (with side dishes)

A coworker asked me to post more recipes; I think it’s cuz she’s getting married soon and needs some simple home cooking recipes to feed her soon-to-be-hubby =) So here’s a simple lamb recipe for her to hopefully make one day to wow him!

Hitman and I collaborated on our Valentine’s Day dinner. We decided to stay in and prepare dinner together the day of ♥.

This is hands-down the fanciest dinner I’ve ever prepared in my life. It’s also probably one of the easiest. We made Roasted Rack of Lamb with sides of Hitman’s Roasted Potatoes (recipe handed down by his mom), and French beans with golden beets in a balsamic vinaigrette. The sides took more work than the meat itself actually. For this dinner I made the rack of lamb, and the French beans and golden beets side dish.

The beets were a bit of a happy accident since I didn’t realize that boiling takes away much of the sweetness of the beets. After boiling then tasting one plain I decided to whip up a quick vinaigrette to add some of the sweetness back into it. Hitman was initially unimpressed with the boiled beets but after adding the vinaigrette he ended up loving them! They also made a great cold salad as leftovers. If you want to try the traditional option which is also delicious I’m including a simple roasted golden beets recipe as well.

Everything for my part of the dinner I got from Costco. Who doesn’t love that place eh?

Roasted Rack of Lamb with Rosemary and Oregano Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 package Rack of Lamb (I got mine from Costco: best price, great quality. I eyeballed how much we needed…just pick the package best suited to your appetites)
Olive oil
Dried Rosemary
Dried Oregano
Salt and Pepper

Instructions:

I apologize in advance for not giving precise amounts of how much seasoning I use…I’m more the eyeballing type, tasting as I go, and it has worked out for me more often than not. You’ll see that this recipe is perfect for that approach.

Preheat oven to 400F on Bake setting.
Put your thawed rack of lamb on a baking sheet (or whatever you do your roasts on). Drizzle with a small amount of olive oil (just enough to cover all parts of the meat) and with your fingers spread the oil around so all parts of the meat are covered, not worrying about the bones.
Sprinkle all over with the rest of the seasonings. Just add more or less depending on your taste. You can even add/omit seasonings to your liking!
Let the meat rest for about 30 minutes to come to room temperature for even cooking. This also lets the oil and salt penetrate for a bit (you can also preseason the meat and leave in the fridge overnight…but still let meat come to room temperature before cooking!)
When the oven’s at temperature, place baking sheet with the rack on the middle shelf. Let bake for 20 minutes to achieve medium rare. Internal temperature should be at 125(rare) -135F (medium rare).
Remove baking sheet from oven and let meat rest for 10 minutes before serving.

French Beans with Golden Beets Recipe:

Ingredients:

Roughly 2 handfuls French or green beans
4-5 Golden beets
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

For the vinaigrette:

Balsamic Vinegar
Ponzu (a citrus soy sauce from Asian grocery stores)
Olive oil

Boiling Instructions:

1. Prep the beets:

Clean: Scrub beets under water until clean.
Boil: Boil beets for 40 minutes or until they can be easily pierced with a fork. Let cool and remove skin either with your hands or a peeler.

-or-

Roasting Instructions: Place beets in baking dish. Add enough olive oil to coat. Bake for 40 minutes or until they can be easily pierced with a fork. Let cool and remove skin either with your hands or a peeler.

When finished cooking with either method slice or cube beets. Place aside.

2. Cook the french beans:

Wash and strain beans. Place in steamer and steam for 3 minutes.

3. Combine beets and french beans.

I added splashes of balsamic vinegar (not too much, it’s quite strong), ponzu, and olive oil and mixed it all up. The balsamic adds the touch of sweetness that’s lost from boiling.
If roasting the beets, I would only mix everything up with olive oil, salt and pepper.