The start of the summer this year has been quite pleasant. Cool breezy evenings and softer sunlight call for lovely salads, cold soups, lemonades and even grilling meat. I know it won’t stay like this forever and it will be extremely hot in couple of weeks. But for however short or long, let’s be generous and enjoy. Like my every other recipes, this one’s too is really simple. The meat is tender and takes no time to cook, plus it gets yummier because of addition of this lovely middle eastern spice mix called Za’atar. It’s a lovely spice mix of sesame seeds, sumac and dried thyme leaves. If you haven’t tried it yet, I suggest you definitely should soon. Just simply rub it on your meat and go grilling! It even tastes great as a lovely dip for your bread if mixed with the gorgeous extra virgin olive oil. Now that reminds me of soft spiced pretzels I baked last year. The spice mixed with olive oil gave the bread that amazing heady carom aroma. I served the lamb chops with the simple tomato, beetroot and pomegranate tabbouleh salad. That’s just another version of the corn and pomegranate tabbouleh I made previously, so I am taking the liberty of not writing the recipe again in this post. All you need to do is to replace or add the cooked and chopped beetroot if you want to.
- 6 lamb chops
- 2 tbsp Za'atar spice
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp sea salt
- Freshly crushed pepper
- Mix all the ingredients except lamb chops.
- Rub the marinade on lamb chops generously. Place them in fridge for one hour or more.
- When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 180 degree C. Heat a pan on stove and cook the chops for 2 minutes on each side. This will help seal the moisture within.
- Place the chops on a baking tray. Cover with aluminium foil completely such that steam doesn't escape out, while cooking.
- Bake them in oven for 30 minutes. Take out of oven and let rest for 10 minutes.
- Serve them warm with the tabbouleh salad.