Greek Lamb Traybake

With travel restrictions lifted and the chatter of people around mentioning sunny vacations or just any vacations that aren’t in Ireland, my mind is drifting back to the years past.

When I think of holidays abroad, my mind jumps instantly to Spring trips to Lanzarote with my mother and sister and also back to visiting my father in Corfu. Since my father became ill a good few years back, I haven’t visited Corfu as my father has been coming to us several times a year. But boy oh boy my memories of Corfu and the food in particular are soul stirring.

Today I am sharing a recipe that is inspired by one of my favourite dishes, Kleftiko, which is a dish of slow cooked lamb with potatoes, peppers, tomatoes and in my dad’s village they add Feta. To die for!

Seeing as my kid won’t touch this with a bargepole and I don’t want to be eating a roast lamb by myself for weeks, I simplified it into a 2 step easy peasy traybake that will make 2 to 4 portions perfect for any day of the week, including your Sunday roast. And my son has been known to eat some of this which is a miracle (just the meat, cut up into tiny pieces and nothing else). In case you don’t know, my son won’t eat mixed foods, so if everything can be separate on a plate there is a chance he will eat it, and of course, with no sauce!

This traybake is so simple and so good. Lamb chops oven roasted with mixed peppers, onion, aubergine (or potatoes) and feta with a lemon and oregano sauce. All done on one oven tray and cooked in just 25 minutes. The preparation is really simple and there is no hassle involved. It is great for Sunday roast or any day of the week busy or not and also suits any weather.

Take the leftovers and turn them into a salad the next day by adding fresh rocket leaves and it feels like a totally different dish!

GREEK LAMB TRAYBAKE

• 425 g lamb chops
• 300g mixed peppers, sliced thick and rough
• 1 large aubergine, I use aubergine in place of potatoes these days but if you want to include potatoes, I recommend using waxy potatoes for this dish. Cut the aubergine into large wedges.
• 1 large red onion or 2 smaller ones, halved and quartered
• 200 g cherry tomatoes
• 250 g Greek feta, cut into large chunks or thick slices
• 100 ml of stock
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced in half
• 1 tbsp oregano
• Juice of one lemon , about 50 ml
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt and pepper

THE HOW

Preheat the oven to 200°C (fan oven). The trick here is to cook at a high temp quickly. This gives a nice char to the veg and the fat on the meat.

On a large shallow baking tray place the sliced peppers, quartered red onions, the aubergine wedges, garlic and the feta.

Next lay the chops on top of the veg. not directly on the tray.

Pour over the stock.

Pop into the oven for 15 minutes.

While this cooks, mix the olive oil, lemon juice and oregano.

After 15 minutes, take the tray out and add the cherry tomatoes and pour the oil/lemon mix over.

Pop back into the oven for 5 to 10 minutes. This is the complete cook. It is so simple and is ready to serve as soon as you take out of the oven.