Recipe du Jour - Butterfly Lamb with Butternut Squash, Quinoa and Apricot Salad

OK, so yesterday was first day back in the office after the weekend and to be honest, my outfit was nothing to write home about! I was however cooking a scrummy meal for the BF, so decided my post would be a Recipe du Jour, rather than an Outfit du Jour. Let me know what you think!

After dog-walking on Sunday, we popped into the Ludlow Food Centre to pick up some goodies for dinner this week. They always have an incredible, great quality meat selection and lamb is a favourite in our household. Leg is always really good for roasting and when butterflied (bone removed) is super quick and easy to cook, plus Casper loves to nom down on the bone! I picked one up, along with an organic squash and some juicy apricots and thought I'd try to concoct something out of my ingredients.

First I roasted the squash, on a tray in some good quality olive oil. I cut it into small pieces and whacked it into the oven for about 20mins at 180 degrees.

Whilst those were cooking away nicely, I made a garlic, rosemary and lemon rub, again with some great quality olive oil to slather over the lamb. I used 2 springs of rosemary, the juice of one lemon and 4 cloves of garlic which I pummelled in a pestle and mortar. I coated the lamb and placed them on a tray on top of a bed of red and white onions and slices of lemon.

I popped this into the oven with the squash and roasted both for a further 25 minutes.

While these were cooking, I boiled up some quinoa in a pan with half a vegetable stock cube, a spoonful of english cider mustard from our local, (and best) cider maker Tom Oliver, and a smidge of garlic puree, until light and fluffy.

I took the lamb and squash out of the oven and set the lamb aside to rest. I sliced up the bed of onions and added them to the quinoa along with the lamb juice, squash and two neatly cubed apricots. 

The BF then sliced the lamb, as I'm pretty useless at it and tend to ruin it whenever I try! Plus there's an ongoing joke in our house that's it's a "man's job", just like taking out the bins! 

So, that's it! Simple and delicious! And here's the finished product, enjoyed with a nice glass of Rosé. Let me know what you think!