An Easy Spring-Like Asparagus and Lamb Chop Tray Bake

Early season spring lamb and asparagus seem like a marriage made in culinary heaven for me. And whilst I love to cook a whole leg of lamb for a Sunday lunch sometimes I prefer a shorter cooked and smaller portioned alternative. This Spring time variation where the lamb is cooked as chops with asparagus, peas and potatoes with rosemary as a tray bake, is currently getting thumbs up at Bariatric Cookery. It has just 5 ingredients, has little preparation time, and seriously does deliver on flavour! A win, win, win I think ….

I find this recipe will serve 4 if there is another course like a starter or pudding on offer, but if it’s for a single course meal and you have man-sized, non-wls appetites to feed, then it may well only serve 2 of those, or 2 plus a half-sized wls portion we have found. You can of course double-up or add more lamb chops etc as you think fit. It’s a highly adaptable recipe so make it work for you.

I think it is the ideal dish to cook when you fancy a no-fuss mid-week roast but it also doubles up as a good alternative when cooking a Sunday roast for just a small number rather than large round-the-table crowd.

BRITISH ASPARAGUS AND LAMB CHOP TRAY BAKE

Ingredients

METRIC/US

250 g/½ lb white potatoes

low-fat cooking spray or mist

4 lean lamb chops

few sprigs of fresh rosemary

250 g/8 oz asparagus (I used new season British), trimmed

250 g/scant 2 cups frozen peas

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 C/400 F/gas 6.
Scrub the potatoes (or peel if you prefer) and cut into 3-4 cm/1¼-1½ inch chunks. Add to a pan of boiling water and cook for 10 minutes then drain.
Spritz a large frying pan with low-fat cooking spray or mist, heat, and once hot, add the lamb chops and sear on all sides until browned.
Place the potatoes in a medium non-stick oven tray and nestle the lamb chops in amongst them. Add the rosemary, asparagus, peas and salt and pepper to taste. Roast in the oven for 10-12 minutes until the asparagus is cooked and the potatoes are crispy. Serve at once.

SERVES 4 (or see guidelines in intro)

WLS PORTION: ½

CALORIES PER PORTION: 305

PROTEIN: 23.6 g

CARBOHYDRATE: 18.6 g

FAT: 15.2 g

Image courtesy of britishasparagus. com