Herby lamb kofta with yoghurt sauce
Herby lamb kofta with yoghurt sauce
The easiest way to make these Middle Eastern-inspired herby lamb koftas is to blend a flavour paste with the onions, herbs, raisins and spices in a food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, simply chop all the ingredients up very finely. Use your hands to mix everything together and shape into slightly flattened torpedo shapes as is tradition. You could also roll them into meatballs and flatten lightly or even make burger patties and serve as a lamb burger. Use a griddle pan to cook these and to prevent them from falling apart or oven roast for 30 minutes on a greased baking sheet at 180C.
Recipe - serves 4
500gms lamb mince
1 free-range egg
1 tsp dried oregano
Salt and pepper (a generous amount)
Lemon wedges to serve
Pita bread & salad to serve
Flavour paste:
1 onion roughly chopped
20gms parsley
20gms fresh coriander
10gms fresh mint
50gms seedless raisins or sultanas
50 gms blanched almonds, almond flakes or pine nuts, toasted
1 tsp cumin
¼ tsp turmeric
¼ tsp cinnamon
Yoghurt sauce:
1 cup full-fat yoghurt
½ tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp cumin
Juice of a 1/2 lemon
1 Tbsp finely chopped chives or parsley
Salt & pepper
Place the lamb mince, egg, oregano and a generous amount of salt and pepper in a large bowl.
Add all the flavour paste ingredients to a bowl of a food processor and blend until you have a rough paste. Add this to the lamb mixture and using your hand's mix well.
Shape into the kofta or meatball shape, flatten slightly, and cook on a griddle or frying pan with a little olive oil until cooked through and firm.
Make the yoghurt sauce by combining all the ingredient and seasoning with salt and pepper according to taste.
Serve with toasted pita bread, yoghurt sauce and a salad of your choice. Cucumber, tomato and red onion works really well here