The roast as an event — spice-crusted, slow-cooked, shredded into warm flatbreads

Shawarma is what happens when a kebab shop takes its time, and this is the version you can pull off at home with the roast from your lamb share. A deep spice paste goes on early, the oven runs low all afternoon, and the lamb comes out dark, sticky and falling apart — ready to be shredded through its own juices and rolled into flatbreads with pickles, red onion and lemony tahini. It's a project, no argument. But it's the kind where the oven does the hours and you take the applause.

5 hrs 50 mins 6 servings Prep 1 hr 30 minsCook 4 hrs 20 minsMain CourseMiddle Eastern

Ingredients

  • 1 Your Farmer grass-fed lamb roast (approx 1.5kg, leg or shoulder)
  • 4 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground allspice
  • 1/2 tsp chilli powder
  • 2 tsp salt
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 60ml olive oil
  • 250ml water
  • 80g tahini
  • Juice of 1 lemon (for the sauce)
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed (for the sauce)
  • Pinch of salt (for the sauce)
  • 80–100ml cold water (for the sauce)
  • 6 large flatbreads or Lebanese bread, warmed
  • 6 pickled cucumbers, sliced lengthways
  • 1 red onion, very thinly sliced
  • Handful flat-leaf parsley leaves

Instructions

For the marinade

Stir the garlic, all the ground spices, salt, lemon juice and olive oil into a loose, dark paste.

4 cloves garlic2 tsp ground cumin2 tsp smoked paprika60ml olive oil

Cut deep slashes all over the lamb and work the paste into every cut and across the whole surface. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (overnight is optional and better again).

1 lamb roast

For the slow roast

Heat the oven to 150°C (130°C fan-forced). Sit the lamb in a snug roasting dish, pour the water around it, cover the dish tightly with foil and roast for 3½ hours.

250ml water

Uncover, turn the oven up to 200°C (180°C fan-forced) and roast a further 25–30 minutes, until the edges are dark, sticky and starting to crisp.

Rest the lamb under loose foil for 20 minutes, then shred it with two forks, turning the meat through the pan juices as you go.

For the tahini sauce and flatbreads

While the lamb rests, whisk the tahini with the second lemon's juice, garlic and a pinch of salt, adding the cold water a splash at a time — it will thicken and seize before it loosens into a pourable cream. Keep going.

80g tahinijuice of 1 lemon1 clove garlic

Warm the flatbreads in the turned-off oven or over a dry pan.

6 flatbreads

Pile the shredded lamb into the flatbreads with pickles, red onion and parsley, drizzle generously with tahini sauce, roll tightly and serve while everything's still steaming.

6 pickled cucumbers1 red onionparsley leaves

Appears in

Lamb Share A only — Roast (~1.5kg)

Your Farmer CSA grass-fed lamb share — Pack B selection of pasture-raised lamb cuts, vacuum-sealed, NSW & ACT delivery
CSA Pastured Lamb Share
From $183.33

From the Spit to the Slow Oven

Real shawarma turns on a vertical spit, shaved off in ribbons as the outside crisps. No home oven does that — so the home answer is to borrow the spice work and give the lamb the other thing it loves: hours of gentle, covered heat. The roast in a Your Farmer® pastured lamb share is a leg or shoulder cut, and both are built for exactly this. Taken slowly past the pink stage, the connective tissue that would make a fast-cooked shoulder chewy melts back into the meat instead — that's the silkiness you're pulling apart with two forks at the end. And the dark, sticky edges from the hot uncovered finish are the closest a domestic oven gets to the crisp shavings off the spit. Some in this house would say closer than close.

Swaps and Variations

No spice drawer deep enough for the full list? Two tablespoons of harissa paste loosened with the oil and lemon gets you most of the way there. Garlic yoghurt can stand in for the tahini sauce if that's what the fridge holds, and the whole thing works as a rice bowl — lamb, pickles, onion and sauce over steamed rice — when flatbreads run out before the lamb does, which they will. If you're cooking for a genuine crowd, a whole pastured lamb cut your way gives you the roasts to double the batch without touching the method.

Storage and Leftovers

Store the shredded lamb in its pan juices, covered, for up to 3 days in the fridge — the juices are what keep it from drying out, so don't drain them off. It freezes the same way for up to 3 months. Reheat gently in a covered pan over low heat with a splash of water. The best leftover move: pile warm lamb over a plate of hummus with a scatter of parsley and a drizzle of the tahini sauce, and mop it up with whatever bread survived. For the full story on where this lamb comes from, our guide to lamb box delivery versus the local butcher is worth ten minutes of your time.

Frequently asked questions

Do I really need to marinate it overnight?

One hour is the honest minimum and the recipe works with it. But the spice paste keeps travelling deeper the longer it sits, so if you can rub it on the night before, the flavour goes from surface-deep to all-the-way-through.

Can I make this in a slow cooker?

Yes — cook it on low for 8 hours with half the water, then transfer to a tray and blast under a hot grill for 10–15 minutes to get the dark sticky edges. Don't skip the grill step; that crust is half the dish.

Why did my tahini sauce turn thick and pasty?

That's normal — tahini always seizes when the lemon juice first hits it. Keep whisking in cold water a splash at a time and it will suddenly loosen into a smooth, pourable cream. Stop when it's the thickness of pouring custard.

How do I know when the lamb is ready to shred?

Twist a fork in the thickest part. If it turns with almost no resistance, you're there. If it fights back, re-cover the dish and give it another 30 minutes — the difference between nearly-done and done is patience, not temperature tricks.

What flatbreads work best?

Lebanese bread is the classic and rolls the tightest, but pita, pide or any soft wrap does the job. Whatever you use, warm it first — a cold flatbread cracks when you roll it.

0 commentson Lamb Shawarma-Style Slow Roast with Flatbreads

Three Simple Steps

A whole table of real food.

Your Farmers grow grass-fed beef and lamb, pastured eggs and the best eco-grown veggies and produce — every item grown to the same ecological standard, every farmer one you can know by name. One subscription, your whole real-food shop.

01

Reserve your share — or try a pack

Subscribe to a share of the harvest, or start with a one-off fixed pack.

02

Make it your own

Pick your delivery rhythm and what's in the box. Skip or cancel anytime — no lock-in.

03

Cook, savour, know your farmer

We deliver in a reusable esky we collect next time. No couriers, no waste.

5.0
Vendor:Your Farmer

CSA Grass Fed Beef Share

Price$176.67
Vendor:Your Farmer

CSA Pastured Lamb Share

Price$183.33
Vendor:Your Farmer

Grass-Fed Steak Box

Price$158.89
Vendor:Your Farmer

Grass-Fed Mince, Sausage and Diced Beef Pack

Price$264.44
Vendor:Your Farmer

Grass-Fed Beef and Lamb BBQ Box

Price$286.67
Vendor:Your Farmer

Pastured Lamb Roast and Slow-Cook Box

Price$155.56
Vendor:Your Farmer

Quarter, Half or Whole Cow: Grass-Fed Beef, Cut Your Way

Price$1,145.00
Vendor:Your Farmer

Whole Pastured Lamb, Cut Your Way

Price$525.00

More Recipes

View all

Osso buco-style braised grass-fed lamb chump chops in tomato sauce over soft polenta, topped with gremolata.

Osso Buco-Style Braised Chump Chops with Gremolata

The Milanese treatment — chops braised low in white wine and tomato, lifted at the end by lemony gremolata

Osso buco is Milan's great braise, and the finishing touch is what makes it: gremolata, a raw scatter of lemon zest, garlic and parsley chopped fine, stirred in right at the end. Against an hour and a half of slow, rich braising, that fresh, sharp hit is a revelation — it stops the whole thing feeling heavy and makes you reach for another spoonful. Lamb chump chops stand in beautifully for the traditional veal shin here, their fat and connective tissue melting into a glossy sauce over soft polenta. It takes time, but almost none of it is yours. This is a dish to be proud of.

Read moreabout Osso Buco-Style Braised Chump Chops with Gremolata

A thick bowl of split pea and lamb bone soup topped with shredded lamb and mint.

Split Pea and Lamb Bone Soup

Pea-and-ham thinking, straight from the lamb paddock

Every Australian family has a pea-and-ham soup story, and every one of those soups leans on the same trick: a bone in the pot doing the heavy lifting. This is that trick with lamb bones instead of a hock. The split peas collapse into a thick, velvety base, the bones give the broth real depth and body, and a pinch of smoked paprika stands in for the smokehouse if you want that familiar edge. It's the thriftiest pot in this whole collection — pantry peas, add-on bones, one lazy afternoon — and it eats like a hug.

Read moreabout Split Pea and Lamb Bone Soup

Grass-fed T-bone steak sliced and served with homemade tarragon bearnaise and chips, bistro style.

T-Bone with Bearnaise from Scratch

The sauce that turns a steak into an occasion

Béarnaise has a reputation as chef's territory — it isn't. It's three egg yolks, a sharp tarragon reduction and a stream of warm butter, whisked over gentle heat until it turns thick, glossy and faintly wobbly. Twenty minutes of honest attention, most of it while the steak rests. And there's no better steak to learn it on than a grass-fed T-bone: the fillet side was born for béarnaise, and the sirloin side isn't far behind. This is occasion cooking you can pull off on an ordinary Saturday.

Read moreabout T-Bone with Bearnaise from Scratch