Skip to main content

Grilled Lamb Chops with Spinach and Feta Rolls

Grilled seasoned lamb chops served over spinach and feta rolls.

Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lamb and feta cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 102 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep10 min
Cook23 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Mix the olive oil with the rosemary, thyme, oregano, salt and black pepper. Set aside, and heat the grill to medium-high (about 400°F/204°C).

  2. Melt half the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the spinach and cook until wilted, then add a portion of the vegetable stock and simmer 2 minutes. Drain, cool slightly, squeeze dry and mix with the feta.

  3. Butterfly each lamb chop by cutting horizontally into the meat without cutting through, then open it flat. Lightly pound each piece to an even thickness.

  4. Brush the herb oil over the inside and outside of each opened chop. Spread the spinach and feta filling across each one, roll up tightly and secure with kitchen twine or toothpicks.

  5. Grill the rolls for about 12 minutes total, turning every 3 minutes, until the thickest part reaches 165°F (74°C). Stuffed meat needs this temperature.

  6. While the rolls grill, melt the remaining butter in a small pan, add the remaining vegetable stock and simmer about 5 minutes until slightly reduced.

  7. Rest the rolls for 3 minutes, remove the twine or toothpicks, slice into rounds and spoon the pan sauce over them to serve.

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Lamb + feta cheesetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together102 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Rosemary + oreganotop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together344 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Rosemary + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Thyme + oreganotop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together791 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Olive + feta cheesetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,438 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the oregano

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter, lamb, olive, rosemary, thyme, pepper):

  1. Parsleyabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Sageabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Marjoramabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Oreganothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, lamb, olive, rosemary, thyme, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).