Summer is officially over, which hopefully means that even those of you without temperature controlled apartments have regained use of your oven. What better way to celebrate than to heat it up and cook lamb chops smothered in pistachios and spices.

This recipe calls for meat masala, an Indian spice mix. If you can’t find it, you can use garam or chaat masala instead. I initially got my masala spice mix when I first made chana masala, an Indian chickpea dish, and it quickly became my husband’s go-to spice when he cooks meat, fish, and even fried eggs. We sometimes put it on homemade popcorn. If you can’t find it or if you’re not convinced of how versatile masala can be, you can use a sprinkle of each of the main ingredients it contains instead: ground coriander, cumin, fennel, and black pepper.

We usually get three lamb loin chops, one each plus another to share, so the recipe yields three pork loin chops and two servings of roasted baby potatoes on the side.

P.S. Yesterday was the first anniversary of my first post!

Low-sodium Pistachio Masala Lamb Chops with Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

Lamb chop recipe adapted from Deb Perelman‘s The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

• Pistachio Masala Lamb Chops

  • 1/2 cup (60 g) shelled, unsalted pistachios
  • 2 teaspoons (10 mL) meat masala
  • 2 teaspoons (10 mL) paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) ground cumin
  • a pinch of cayenne pepper
  • 3 lamb loin chops (0.72 lb/327 g total)
  • freshly ground pepper, to taste
  • olive oil, for searing

• Rosemary Potatoes

  • 6.3 oz (179 g) baby gold potatoes, about 8 small potatoes
  • 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • freshly ground pepper, to taste

Directions

• Prepare roasted potatoes

  1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
  2. Wash, dry, and chop in half the baby potatoes.
  3. In an oven-safe pan with a lid, mix together the potatoes with the rosemary, olive oil, and pepper until they are evenly coated. (We used our cast-iron pot.)
  4. Turn all of the potatoes cut-side down and roast, covered, until browned, about 16 minutes.
  5. Stir and continue roasting until the potatoes are fully cooked, about 25-27 minutes more.

• Prepare lamb chops

  1. In a food processor, grind the pistachios, masala, paprika, ground cumin, and cayenne pepper together until the pistachios are coarsely ground.
  2. Spread the mixture out onto a flat plate and set aside.
  3. Season the lamb chops with freshly ground pepper. Allow the lamb to sit at room temperature for about 10-15 minutes before cooking.
  4. Preheat oven to 425°F.
  5. Heat a medium-sized pan over medium-high heat. Once hot, carefully coat the pan with olive oil. Once the oil is hot but not smoking, add the lamb chops. Sear each side for about 2 minutes. Lower the heat if the oil begins to smoke.
  6. Holding the chops by the bone, dip them in the pistachio mixture and cover all of its sides. Transfer them onto a roasting pan or a baking sheet. Scoop extra pistachio mixture on top of the chops if desired.
  7. Roast the chops in the preheated oven until the lamb is cooked to your preference. Ours cooked to be medium done (with a touch of pink) in 10 minutes. The internal temperature of the chop was 140-150°F when measured with a meat thermometer.
  8. Remove the chops from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Process photos

Pistachios and spices

Pistachio and spice mixture

Rosemary potatoes

Seared lamb loin chops

Tips

Sources of sodium

• Lamb
• Potatoes

Approximate sodium intake per serving: 78 mg-112 mg

• 68mg per lamb chop, which has 70 mg per 4 oz (113 g) serving
• 10mg for four baby potatoes

• These values are calculated from the nutritional labels of the ingredients I used

Modifications

• Increase the sodium

  If you aren’t worried about your sodium intake, season the lamb chops with salt before their initial resting period. You can also season the potatoes with salt before roasting.

• Masala alternatives

  We used meat masala. The original recipe calls for chaat masala. Garam masala should also work. Failing that, you can use a sprinkle of each of the main ingredients meat masala contains instead: ground coriander, cumin, fennel, and black pepper.

• Other cuts of lamb

  If you’d prefer to have rib chops instead, they will take much less time to bake, about 4 to 5 minutes. The pistachio mixture should be enough for 6 lamb rib chops.

Did you make this?

• If you recreate this recipe, I’d love to know! Leave a comment here and tag @alickofsalt on social media.