Sluttishly Simple: Mint sauce for lamb (two ways)

If you are having roast lamb over Easter then the chances are you will have some mint sauce on the table too. Homemade mint sauce is so easy and tastes a million times better than shop bought. I usually make 2 versions, a regular mint sauce and one pimped up version with a bit of kick to it.

You can buy jars of artichoke hearts in olive oil from most supermarkets (fennel is also really good for this if you can find it) and any that you don't use you can add to pasta for a really easy dinner. I love this sauce so much that I often end up eating most of it on a hunk of soda bread before it even makes it to the dining table (in fact sometimes it doesn't even make it that far!).

Mint Sauce

• 25g bunch of mint
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoon caster sugar
• 3 tablespoons vinegar (red wine, cider vinegar or tarragon vinegars are my favourites for this)
• 3 tablespoons boiling water
• pinch salt
• few grinds black pepper

Finely chop your mint then combine it in a bowl with everything else, adjust to your own tastes adding more vinegar/sugar as you like. Let it sit for at least 20 minutes before serving so that all those lovely mint flavours are drawn out into the liquid.

Mint and Artichoke Sauce

• mint sauce (from above recipe)
• 25g flat leaf parsley (chopped)
• good pinch dried chilli flakes
• 4 artichoke hearts in oil (chopped)
• 1 very finely grated clove garlic (or 1 tsp garlic powder for a mellower flavour)

Again just combine everything in your bowl, add a bit of the oil from the artichoke hearts and more chilli if you fancy it.  Maybe even throw a few chopped capers in there too along with a bit of lemon zest.