Recipe: Roast Lamb with Olives, Lemon & Fresh Oregano

Roast lamb is, without a doubt, one of our very favorite dishes.  In the spring we serve it with young vegetables: carrots, English peas, parsnips and fennel, but we’ve recently started serving it with Greek-inspired ingredients: olives, lemon, garlic and oregano.  And it is heavenly.  There is nothing quite light the vibrant perfume and flavor fresh oregano which, like its cousins marjoram and mint, marries well with lamb. (Click here to skip to the recipe.)

Greek oregano, unlike Mexican oregano, is a member of the mint family.  Its flavor is decidedly different, milder and more floral.  It’s also rich in phenolic compounds and flavonoids which may account for its potent antimicrobial and antioxidant activity. Moreover, preliminary research indicates that oregano may have an anti-proliferative effect on human breast cancer cells^{1, 2}.  It’s the potent essential oils of oregano that offer the most strongly medicinal effects.  Indeed, oregano essential oil can be a potent tool in the control of food-borne pathogens like listeria³ and salmonella⁴.  You can learn more about the medicinal properties of common culinary plants here.

Lamb, too, can be powerfully nutritive and we eat it frequently.  Grass-fed lamb arrives in our meat CSA periodically, and we also purchase a small whole lamb every autumn when local ranchers begin their harvest just before the snow sets in for winter.  Grass-fed lamb, like beef, can be a rich source of conjugated linoleic acid – a fatty acid known for its strongly anti-carcinogenic properties^5-7.  And while certain methods of cooking meat, such as grilling or blackening may increase the carcinogenic components of the food, it’s important to note that meat itself contains components that are critical in protecting against cancer such as selenium, B vitamins and CLA⁸ – it’s all about how you source and cook the meat.  Grass-fed red meat is considerably richer in these anticarcinogenic components than conventional, grain-fed meat – particularly CLA, omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and the vitamins A and E⁹.  Grass-fed butterfat is particularly rich in CLA making ghee or clarified butter one of the most potent sources available of this vitally wholesome fat. Lamb is also a rich source of trace minerals including zinc which is critical to healthy reproduction, cognitive function and a well-functioning immune system.  Indeed, a 3-ounce portion of lamb contains roughly one-third of the body’s daily requirement for this mineral¹⁰.