Spicy Grilled Lamb Chops with Tzatziki, Roasted Eggplant & Summer Squash and Lemon Rice

We’ve received an over-abundance of cucum­bers from our CSA this sum­mer. While try­ing to come up with ideas for what to do with them, Megan men­tioned tzatziki sauce. That made me think of gyros which made me think of lamb and sud­denly I wanted lamb chops.

For the veg­eta­bles I started by roast­ing toma­toes with chunks of white egg­plant and yel­low squash. Once roasted, I chopped the toma­toes. In a large pot i sautéed some gar­lic in some olive oil and added the veg­eta­bles, includ­ing the juice form the toma­toes. To this I added fresh chopped basil and rose­mary along with half a chopped cayenne pep­per and salt & pepper.

While this was sim­mer­ing I rubbed New Zealand lamb chops with some thai chili paste for a nice spicy kick and grilled them over hot coals (direct heat) for 2 1/2 min­utes a side.

For the lemon rice I pre­pared some white rice and added to it salt, pep­per and the juice of a lemon and topped it with fresh lemon zest. While the lamb was rest­ing after grilling and every­thing else was sim­mer­ing, I quickly made fresh tzatziki sauce. Here’s my recipe:

Tzatziki Sauce

1 cup Greek yogurt, drained
2 small cucum­bers, seeded & chopped
1 clove gar­lic, minced
1 tea­spoon extra vir­gin olive oil
1/2 tea­spoon red wine vine­gar
pinch of sea salt
pinch of cumin
1/2 tea­spoon fresh chopped mint

Mix all ingre­di­ents except for the mint in a small bowl. put 2/3 of mix­ture into a blender and add mint. purée and add back to remain­ing mix­ture. Stir to combine.

Altogether this was a fan­tas­tic Greek/Mediterranean feast