20+ Recipes That Can Elevate Your Leftover Lamb Into A New Height

Once upon a time, I used to fret over my leftover lamb in the fridge, and then a fairy appeared and granted me these beautiful recipes to deal with it. Just kidding! There’s no fairy in this story, but the part about “my recipes” is 100% true.

After tons of trials and errors, I have come up with these recipes to get rid of all the lamb left in the fridge. Your lamb will taste just as new, if not better, and your family won’t even complain about having lamb for successive days.

Do You Realize Any Of Those Lamb Recipes?

All these leftover lamb recipes I present here come from different regions and require various cooking methods. That way, you can freely choose what is the most suitable for you based on your preferences and circumstances.

Stews

1. Lamb Tagine
2. Lamb Stew
3. Lancashire Hotpot
4. Lamb Korma

Soups And Sauces

1. Rogan Josh (Indian Lamb Curry)
2. Lamb Ragu
3. Lamb Shakshuka

Baked Dishes

1. Shepherd’s Pie
2. Dingle Pie
3. Lamb Moussaka
4. Lamb Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pie)
5. Lamb Pizza
6. Lamb Flatbread

Wrapping Dishes

1. Lamb Pitas
2. Lamb Gyro

Others

1. Lamb Frittata
2. Lamb Croquettes
3. Mongolian Lamb
4. Lamb Pilaf
5. Lamb Sandwiches
6. Lamb Salad

Don’t let your lamb wait any longer in the fridge, start reading now!

You Won’t Recognize Your Leftover Lamb With These Stews

When it comes to leftover food, making a stew is always my first choice as you can’t go wrong with this cooking method. Just toss everything in your fridge in a broth and simmer them, you’ll get your hearty meal in no time!

Lamb Tagine

While in North Africa, tagine needs to be prepared in pottery cookware, here you can use any regular pot to make it. As the lamb is already cooked, it won’t take long to finish. Thus, an authentic tagine pot is unnecessary.

And don’t worry, the flavor still stays the same with all the richness from your lamb mixed with vegetables, nuts, and dried fruits. You’ll have a sweet and sour stew for yourself, suitable with all the rice dishes and salads.

Not sure if your lamb tagine is authentic enough? Here is the secret to it!

Lamb Stew

What if you have more leftovers than just lamb? Take them out and make a massive pot of stew with them!

It’s incredible how refrigerated foods can change into such a comforting dish like this! You won’t realize your leftover dishes any more. And this satisfying recipe takes no more than 30 minutes to make since all the ingredients are cooked beforehand.

Use it with vegetables to lighten the flavor or with bread if you’re starving.

Lancashire Hotpot

If stew is too heavy for you, this Lancashire hotpot is an ideal replacement. With its light flavor, you can enjoy this dish even on hot summer days.

Traditionally, you’ll need lamb kidneys and oysters besides lamb meat. But some can’t handle kidneys’ flavor well, and oysters’ price has gone up drastically compared to when the Lancashire hotpot was created.

Lamb Korma

Many people have confused korma with Indian curry since they have pretty similar textures. However, in fact, these two are totally different, especially with the seasonings used in each dish.

Korma is more of a stew, with meat getting braised in yogurt with spices for a long time. Then, people would add gravy to the dish and keep simmering the meat in it until it turns into a thick sauce.

With Your Uneaten Lambs, These Soups And Sauces Are Even Tastier

While stews are often served as the main dish, soups and sauces tend to be appetizers and side dishes. But that doesn’t mean you should underestimate their flavor!

Rogan Josh (Indian Lamb Curry)

What’s better to hide the fridge odor on your lamb meat than making an Indian curry with it? All you can taste is robust flavors coming from all the seasonings and herbs.

While traditional rogan josh doesn’t contain tomatoes, many American versions include it in their recipes. They argue that tomatoes make this dish more flavorful and easier to eat.

Serve it with pilao, an Indian rice recipe, for your fabulous dinner meal. Or you can prepare some veggies to balance the flavor.

Lamb Ragu

Ragu is one of my favorite choices to accompany pasta. However, making it with fresh meat is team-consuming. That’s why I always opt for leftover roasted lamb for this dish. BBQ lamb is also a decent choice if you have some in your fridge.

How about the bones from those lambs? Take them to make the sauce! Your ragu will now be filled with lamb flavor. And to enjoy it to the fullest, prepare some bite-sized pasta to serve with it.

With this lamb ragu, your pasta will be better than the best! Check out this video:

Lamb Shakshuka

When tomato season comes, make sure this dish is on your list. Basically, shakshuka is eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce. Really simple, right? Thanks to its simplicity, people are free to create as many versions as they like. And this lamb variant is one of those.

I use leftover harissa lamb in this recipe, but you can use whatever is left in your house. This lamb shakshuka is now satisfying enough for your dinner meal. Make sure to serve it with some bread slices so that you can mop up all the tasty sauce.

Your Leftover Lamb Will Taste Just As Fresh In These Baked Dishes

Baking sometimes is time-consuming to cook the filling thoroughly. But now, as your lamb is cooked already, these dishes will take less time and remain delicious as ever.

Shepherd’s Pie

Do you know that Shepherd’s pie is made initially of grounded lamb? Today, people often use this name and “cottage pie” interchangeably, raising some confusion between these two dishes.

Simply put, while cottage pie uses beef or red meat, Shepherd’s pie requires only lamb. And don’t worry about the “grounded meat” part. You can just finely chop your leftover lamb to make this recipe.

This Shepherd’s pie is as good as when you make it with fresh lamb! Check out this video:

Dingle Pie

You can make this dish as an Irish equivalent of Shepherd’s pie. However, instead of the ground meat, the filling here is a luscious lamb stew.

And let me tell you this in advance. This recipe is pretty different from the original ones. Why? It’s because some traditional ingredients are hard to find these days and need to be switched out.

For example, use your leftover lamb for the mutton, or instead of hogget suet, take some butter instead.

Lamb Moussaka

There are so many versions of moussaka that you can make. The most regular choice is the Greek version, as all the ingredients are layered on top of each other. Or you can choose the vegetarian variant as Egypt people make.

In this part, I’ll introduce the Greek recipe with potatoes and lamb as the main components. Aside from them, prepare some bechamel sauce and cheese for the toppings. And since it contains cheese, I recommend serving moussaka right when it’s still piping hot.

This lamb moussaka will take you to Greece right away! Let’s see this video:

Lamb Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pie)

Here is a leveled-up version of the regular spanakopita with roasted lamb added to the filling.

But first, let’s get to know about the original recipe. Initially, this pie only contains spinach and feta cheese. Other white, salty cheese can be a decent replacement if you can’t find feta cheese in your area.

You can serve spanakopita whole or cut it into medium pieces for a better appearance.

Lamb Pizza

Pizzas with ham, sausages, bacon, seafood,… and even vegetarian pizzas are already familiar. So why don’t you make some twists by adding lamb meat to the topping?

Some Italian cuisine fanatics may get angry with this recipe, but as long as it tastes good, who cares about being traditional or not, right?

And preparing toppings for pizzas may be time-consuming, depending on what you want. That’s why having cooked lamb will take lots of work off your shoulder.

Lamb Flatbread

Isn’t it a flatbread pizza? Well, it isn’t. Compared to pizza, flatbread uses unleavened dough, making it thinner and crispier than even the thinnest pizza.

Also, flatbread often plays an appetizer role in a dinner meal, while pizza is often the central star. However, you can still serve flatbread as a main course by making a whole one for each guest.

Besides that, flatbread stays pretty the same as a pizza as it also has lots of topping ingredients and gets baked in the oven.

Why throw your leftover lamb when you can make this beautiful flatbread? Let’s see this video:

2 Wrapping Lamb Dishes For Your Midday Snack

These two dishes will lighten up your midday snack with their filling full of smoky lamb and exotic dressing from Greece. If you want a fun change besides regular tacos, they are perfect options.

Lamb Pitas

If you have come to Greek or the Mediterranean, you will see thousands of street stores selling pitas, a traditional wheat flatbread. While they appear in both pocket and pocketless styles, the former ones are more favorable.

And with some leftover lamb, you can make your own pitas at home. Prepare some Greek yogurt-based dip and salads beforehand. Then, when you’re hungry, just dump them all with your lamb in the pitas and heat them in the oven.

These lamb pitas are so delicious that you’d want to devour them all alone! Let’s see this video

Lamb Gyro

While most gyros you find are filled with chicken or pork in Greece, this recipe uses tons of lamb meat instead. And you don’t want to skip it, especially when you have several boneless lamb legs left uneaten.

You can go all traditional with this dish by making a tzatziki sauce to go with your meat. Or, if you don’t want to extend the cooking part any longer, ketchup or mustard are decent substitutes.

Your Leftover Lamb Will Gone In An Instant With These Recipes

It’s hard to group these dishes below into a particular group because some of them require more than one cooking method. But all in all, there’s no doubt about their taste!

Lamb Frittata

Nothing cleans your fridge of leftover foods better than a frittata. All other components are left for you to decide on with only the beaten egg mixture as the main ingredient. But no matter what you choose, they all mix nicely together with eggs as the connection.

I often choose spinach to accompany my leftover lamp since that would balance the flavor back, and the dish doesn’t become too heavy. With this satisfying combination, you can even eat frittata for lunch or dinner.

Lamb Croquettes

The most convenient way to make use of your leftover lamb is making some croquettes with it. Why do I say that? It’s because these croquettes require nothing but ground meat, mashed potatoes, and some vegetables.

Also, croquettes are a foolproof dish, especially now your lamb is already cooked. So no matter if you’re good at cooking or not, with some attention, you’ll surely succeed in making them.

Mongolian Lamb

Though its name contains “Mongolian”, this dish has no connection with Mongolian, or even Chinese cuisine. But it still tastes no less delicious and is well-received by thousands of Chinese food lovers.

While many Mongolian lamb recipes in take-out restaurants follow American palates, you can make yours stay more on the Chinese side by adding five-spice to your sauce, producing a signature sweet and sour flavor.

Lamb Pilaf

Pilaf has always been a signature recipe in Europe. By stirring the grains in butter or oil and simmering them in stock, you get a light and fluffy rice dish. Many cooks favor basmati, but any long-grain rice will do.

Aside from rice and lamb, other ingredients in this recipe are your decision. For me, I’d like to add some tomatoes or Greek yogurt at the last step for more sourness. They also help to balance the flavor.

This lamb pilaf will disappear right when you just serve it. Let’s see this video:

Lamb Sandwiches

If you don’t have time to make any complicated dish like those before, just combine your leftover lamb with other vegetables and sauces to make sandwiches for your breakfast, lunch, or snack.

It’s even better and easier to slice your cooked lamb thinly since it has already turned cold after being refrigerated or frozen. Don’t worry about the cold meat, you can heat your whole sandwich in the microwave or oven later.

Lamb Salad

I know salads tend to relate to freshness, but they’re also a perfect choice to solve your leftover lamb. Of course, you need to refresh your meat for a bit.

Usually, I’ll roast them again for the smokiness. But if you want something new, feel free to dress your lamb with a light corn flour coating and fry it. The result is a batch full of crispy lamb pieces, totally suitable for your salad.

Now, Let’s Rescue Your Leftover Lamb!

I must admit lamb is not easy-to-cook meat. But if you manage it right, you will get a dish that’s rich, sweet, with a hint of smokiness. Even after being refrigerated, these characteristics won’t change. So, let’s make it anew instead of throwing it in the waste bin.

If you have some relatives who share the same worry, don’t hesitate to share this article with them. And feel free to write down all your thoughts and questions in the comment section below.