One-pan minted roast lamb
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 10 to 30 mins
- Serve
- Serves 1
A mini roast dinner for one that you can have on the table in about 20 minutes. Lamb chops cook really well in the air fryer, giving you tender meat and crisp fat. The simple roast vegetables and fresh mint sauce balance out the richness.
This recipe is part of an air fryer meal plan for one.
Each serving provides 761 kcal, 55.5g protein, 49.3g carbohydrate (of which 22.3g sugars), 35g fat (of which 10.6g saturates), 12.9g fibre and 0.5g salt.
Ingredients
- 150g/5½oz small new potatoes, quartered
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into short batons
- 1 small parsnip, peeled and cut into short batons
- 1 tbsp olive oil or sunflower oil
- good pinch dried thyme or ½ tsp fresh thyme leaves
- 1 medium courgette (around 175g/6oz), halved lengthways and cut into 1.5cm/⅝in slices
- 2 lamb loin chops
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the fresh mint sauce
- 2 heaped tbsp chopped fresh mint, plus extra to serve
- 1½ tsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 2 tsp olive oil or sunflower oil
Method
Put the potatoes, carrots and parsnips in a large bowl with 2 teaspoons of the olive oil. Add the thyme, a good pinch of salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Toss together well and set aside.
Mix all the sauce ingredients plus 1 teaspoon water together in a small serving dish. Set aside to allow the flavours to mingle.
If necessary, preheat your air fryer to 200C for 3 minutes, or until it reaches temperature.
Put the mixed vegetables in a single layer on the crisper plate, taking care not to overcrowd. Cook at 200C for 8 minutes, turning or tossing after 4 minutes, until tender and lightly browned.
While the vegetables are cooking, put the remaining olive oil and all the courgette into the now-empty mixing bowl, season with salt and pepper and toss together. Turn or toss the cooked root vegetables and scatter the courgette in a single layer on top, but do not stir. (The courgette will help prevent the other vegetables from over-browning).
Season the lamb with salt and pepper on both sides, then place both chops on top of the vegetables. Cook for 4–5 minutes at 200C. Turn the lamb chops over and cook for a further 4–5 minutes or until the lamb is cooked to taste and the fat is lightly browned (4 minutes for pink lamb; up to 6 minutes for well-done). Transfer to a warm plate.
Spoon any pan juices that have collected at the bottom of the air fryer over the lamb and vegetables. Serve scattered with a few fresh mint leaves, if you like, and the mint sauce on the side.
Recipe tips
Choose small new potatoes, so they cook at the same rate as the other root vegetables. If yours are larger, you may need to start them off for a couple of minutes in the air fryer before adding the other vegetables, as they will take longer to cook.
When you cut your vegetables into batons, aim for them to be roughly 6cm/2½in long and around 1–1.5cm/½–⅝in wide for best results.
If you have a large courgette, cut it into four lengthways before slicing.
You can use mint sauce from a jar instead of fresh mint sauce if you prefer.
This recipe was tested using a 4–litre capacity air fryer. If yours has a much larger or smaller capacity, you will need to adjust the cooking times.
