Dinner night · New Zealand
Lamb Chops with Kūmara and Mint
New Zealand's Sunday roast shrunk to a weeknight: pan-seared lamb loin chops, roasted kūmara (sweet potato), minted peas and a quick homemade mint sauce, all in about 45 minutes.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 30 min
- Total
- 45 min
- Serves
- 2 adults + 1 child (two chops each for adults, one for a child)
- Budget
- $28–$42
Roast lamb with kūmara, peas and mint sauce is the classic New Zealand Sunday dinner. A leg takes two hours; this weeknight version gets the same plate from thick lamb loin chops seared hard in a skillet while wedges of kūmara (sweet potato) roast on a sheet pan. The mint sauce is the real thing, chopped fresh mint dissolved in sugar, vinegar and hot water, sharp and sweet, and a bowl of peas with more mint rounds it out. It is a plain, generous plate of food, which is the point.
Why it's on our list
Lamb barely appears in our rotation of dinners, and the reason is that I have always treated it as a roast, which means a weekend. Chops change that: ten minutes in a pan. I also want to taste proper mint sauce, the thin vinegary kind, rather than the sweet green jelly sold in US supermarkets, because New Zealanders are particular about it and I suspect they are right. Kūmara I know as sweet potato, but learning that Māori grew it here centuries before Europeans arrived gives a familiar vegetable a different story to tell at the table. My son already likes roasted sweet potato, so this is a low-risk way to try lamb.
Field notes · Origin & culture
Lamb became New Zealand's signature food after refrigerated shipping, beginning in 1882, made frozen lamb exports to Britain the backbone of the rural economy, and the British Sunday roast tradition settled in with the settlers. Through the twentieth century, roast lamb with gravy, mint sauce, potatoes, peas and kūmara was the national Sunday meal. Kūmara is older than any of that: Polynesian ancestors of Māori brought the sweet potato with them around the thirteenth century, and because most tropical crops failed in the cooler climate, kūmara became a treasured staple, stored through winter and replanted in spring. The red and gold kūmara sold in New Zealand today are later varieties introduced from the Americas; the Dargaville area in Northland grows most of the national crop. Mint sauce remains a point of Kiwi pride.
Noteworthy ingredients
- Lamb loin chops: Small T-bone-shaped chops, about 1 inch thick, from the supermarket meat case or Costco; New Zealand or Australian lamb is often what is on sale. Shoulder blade chops are cheaper and also work but are chewier. Budget 2 per adult, 1 per child.
- Kūmara: New Zealand grows red-, gold- and orange-fleshed types. An ordinary orange sweet potato is the closest match in US stores; a white or purple sweet potato from an Asian market is a fun variation.
- Fresh mint: The sauce needs a generous handful, not a sprig. Buy a big bunch and use the rest in the peas and the drink.
- Malt vinegar: The traditional base for mint sauce. White wine or apple cider vinegar is a fine substitute.
- Frozen peas: Entirely acceptable and what most New Zealand homes use.
Prep — 15 min
- Heat the oven to 425°F. Take the lamb out of the fridge, pat dry, and season both sides generously with salt and pepper. Rub with 1 minced garlic clove and a little chopped rosemary if using. Let it sit at room temperature while the kūmara roasts.
- Scrub the sweet potatoes (peel or not, your choice) and cut into wedges about 1 inch thick. Toss on a sheet pan with 2 tablespoons olive oil, 3/4 teaspoon salt and pepper, and spread in one layer.
- Make the mint sauce: finely chop a packed 1/2 cup of mint leaves. Put them in a small bowl with the sugar and pour over 3 tablespoons boiling water; stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the vinegar and a pinch of salt. Let it steep; it should taste sharp first, sweet second.
- Chop another 2 tablespoons of mint for the peas. Cut the lemon into wedges.
Cook — 30 min
- Roast the kūmara wedges 25–30 minutes, turning once halfway, until browned at the edges and soft in the middle.
- When the kūmara has 12 minutes to go, heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until very hot. Add 1 tablespoon oil.
- Lay in the chops without crowding (do two batches if needed). Sear 3–4 minutes on the first side without moving them, until deeply browned. Flip and cook 2–3 minutes more for medium (130–135°F) or 4 minutes for medium-well. Sear the fat edge for 30 seconds by standing the chops up with tongs.
- Move the chops to a plate, tent loosely with foil and rest 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, bring 1/2 cup water to a boil in a small saucepan, add the peas and a pinch of salt, cover and cook 3 minutes. Drain, toss with the chopped mint, a teaspoon of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.
- Tip any juices from the resting plate into the mint sauce and stir.
Serving
Put two chops on each adult plate and one on a child's, with a pile of roasted kūmara wedges and a spoonful of minted peas. Pass the mint sauce in a small jug the New Zealand way and keep lemon wedges handy. There is no heat here; for a mild plate, serve a chop plain with kūmara and offer the mint sauce separately, since its vinegar edge is the only thing a child might balk at. Leftover lamb is good cold in a sandwich with mint sauce; leftover kūmara reheats well in the oven.