Leg of Lamb and Orzo Stew

Happy Sunday! We are finally nearing 2021 and, fingers crossed, the new year brings a much better year for everyone! I know a lot of people are already making Christmas treats, and I promise I’ll be posting some recipes soon! But, it still feels too early for me to post Christmas stuff quite yet. Join me in another week when I plan to spend a week dedicated to Christmas treats… cookies, cakes, toffee, and, the most important recipe, alcohol! 😂 (seriously though, the cranberry sauce mojito I have coming is AMAZING!)

Anywho, today is not a Christmas recipe. It’s a good ol’ Sunday dinner recipe. And, Sunday dinners are a thing in my house. Growing up, most Sunday dinners were spent at my grandma’s house with a good roast beef, ham, or chicken with all the goodies! Now, Sunday dinners, for me, have expanded beyond a traditional midwestern meal. Sunday dinners now mean the one meal each week where some love and attention go into it. 

That doesn’t mean they have to take forever to make, although some do! But it’s a meal that you generally wouldn’t make the rest of the week. Whether it’s spaghetti sauce from scratch or slow cooked short ribs or even sticking with a traditional roast with the most flavorful chicken roast you can make! This week I want to share one of my family’s favorite Mediterranean recipes that is a perfect Sunday dinner.

This recipe uses lamb shanks, and I love lamb. I wish it was cheaper and easier to get. The only place I can usually find it is at Whole Foods, which is notoriously expensive. So, that means lamb dishes are a treat. I generally think of lamb recipes as Irish, British, or Mediterranean. It’s generally a very gamey tasting meat, which means it pairs really nicely with sweet and savory flavors ~ mint, honey, sweet potatoes, cinnamon, etc. This dish uses honey, cinnamon, cumin, and coriander with the lamb slow roasting in diced tomatoes and chicken stock.

The key to tender meat is searing it on all sides. This is really the longest hands-on time to this recipe. After the meat is seared, sauté the onions until they’re just starting to soften… they’ll soften all the way as the dish slow roasts in the oven. Then, you let the oven do the work. After an hour and a half, add water and the orzo, cover, and let it finish cooking for another half an hour. And, that’s it!

Seriously, this dish could not be easier. It’s a great Sunday dinner because it does take a couple of hours in the oven, but it’s also a super easy Sunday dinner because most of the cooking time is hands free! This let’s you have a lazy Sunday afternoon or allows you to catch up on all those chores you’ve been pushing off!

This dish is one of my husband’s favorite Mediterranean lamb dishes! By the time it’s done cooking, the meat is super tender and goes so well with the orzo and tomatoes.

Enjoy!