Roast Lamb with White Beans and Coffee

Many families have holiday food traditions like Thanksgiving turkey and Christmas cookies. Spring holidays also have food traditions, some avoid eating meat during Lent, for instance. The Passover Seder is another example. My family always had lamb for Easter supper.

I took a quick survey of everyone at Coffee by the Roast and discovered we all agreed on colored eggs and bunny-shaped treats for Easter traditions. We disagreed, though, about Easter supper. Half agreed with me that Easter meant lamb while the other half always had baked ham. Whichever you prefer, we have a recipe that uses coffee with it. Since the recipe with ham, red-eye gravy, is often used with leftovers. I’ll share that in a later post. Here’s my favorite recipe for Easter Lamb:

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Roast Lamb with White Beans and Coffee

serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1 leg of lamb (approx 6 lbs)

1 large garlic clove, cut in small slivers

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp marjoram

salt

freshly ground pepper

1 cup brewed coffee (can be hot or cold, decaf coffee works well, too)

2 15 oz cans cannellini (white kidney) beans

½ onion, chopped

4 or 5 mushrooms, sliced

1 stalk celery, chopped

chopped parsley

Method:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Trim the lamb of excess fat and cut away the purple-stamped skin, if any. Insert garlic slivers into the meat near the bones. Place lamb in a shallow roasting pan, squeeze over the juice of a lemon and sprinkle with marjoram, salt and pepper.

Pour the coffee into the bottom of the pan and put into the oven for 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375 degrees F and continue to roast for 12 minutes a pound. Count the time from the moment the meat went into the preheated oven.

Fifteen minutes before the meat is done, drain the beans and mix with the onion, mushrooms and celery. Stir in parsley. Remove the lamb temporarily to a platter and spread the bean mixture over the bottom of the roasting pan. Add hot water or broth to the beans if necessary, they must have a creamy consistency.

Return the lamb to the pan and put it back in the oven to finish cooking. When done, turn off the oven, crack open the door, and let the meat rest for 10 minutes and serve.

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Do you have any spring holiday food traditions? If so, we'd love to hear about them. Please join the conversation and share your thoughts on the Facebook thread or in a comment on this blog. Or, if you'd like to share your opinions with the wider world, leave us a coffee review on Google or on your favorite review site. Not only do we value your opinions, but reviews help more people find us. Help us connect coffee lovers to fresh, quality coffee!

Thanks!

~ Carrie, Paul and all of us at Coffee by the Roast