While rice cooks, prepare kofta. I recommend Casbah brand which can be found at Whole Foods and is healthier than Mahatma. I'm a former professional chef from NYC who loves to eat, cook and talk about food. My hubs and I fought over the last meatball (more like meat-oval, but you get it). While rice cooks, prepare kofta. I also substituted the cilantro with mint because I am one of those people. My kids (7 & 4) ate it enthusiastically! After cooking it was slightly greasy... draining lightly and served. Gently flatten between the palm of your hands. It was quick and delicious! I subbed the lamb for ground chicken and used yellow rice. One last note on the kofta is that I thought the cooking time was a bit long â mine were done in around 8 minutes total. Place a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, add a tablespoon of olive oil. Using your hands, mix well to incorporate. Kofta is basically a patty of well-seasoned, ground lamb–mixed with lots of garlic, parsley, mint, cumin and a touch of cinnamon. Another issue is that if you cook a pound of lamb patties in a skillet on a stove-top your house is going to smell like sautéed lamb patties for a noticeable amount of time...days really. Suitable for children if you reduce the amount of spice added. Unfortunately the store was out of lamb. Love this recipe. Portion size is rather small: for four adults, better add a big salad, fruit, or bread. Pulse until finely chopped … Delicious, easy recipe. This recipe is brought to you by Seasoned Cookery School. And for the kids, eating meat on a stick may be appealing enough to get them to try it! Kofta, also called “Kufteh” or “koofteh” is a Middle Eastern and South Asian comfort food often resembling a meatball or dumpling, although they can be made in various forms. It can be made numerous ways. This was a very tasty meal that came together quickly. Repeat the above process with the remaining lamb-mixture until you have made 10 kofta skewers. It gives a similar color and, although I can't honestly compare because I've never sucked it up and purchased saffron, tastes good enough that I'm very happy. It'sa quick and easy Middle Eastern dish that your family will love. Typically includes flatbreads, raw shredded vegetables, vegetable pickles, yoghurt or sour cream sauces. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Store-bought whole wheat naan would also be a good, inexpensive, carb-y accompaniment to the koftas. Soak the skewers in water for about 10 minutes. A new favorite. In India, sometimes you will see kofta made with fish, but that is not as common. We'll definitely make again! I’m thrilled you are reading my blog and love hearing from readers. Please try again. This dish was excellent, the only glitch was I had trouble finding ground lamb let alone - the degree of "lean-ness". I'll definitely make this again. The only other substitution I made was to use Sriracha chili sauce instead of the red pepper flakes in the sauce. So good! A trip to Iceland put lamb back on my radar–one of my sons, who does not eat fish, ate lamb almost every night while we were there. LOVED this recipe. Decent meal/recipe, but I donât think Iâll make it again. Combine cilantro and next 9 ingredients (through lamb); shape into 12 oblong patties. Everybody understands the stuggle of getting dinner on the table after a long day. The email addresses you've entered will not be stored and will only be used to send this email. To prepare rice, cook boil-in-bag jasmine rice and saffron in boiling water according to package directions. Mix well and set aside. Sprinkle with green onions. Step 3 Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Place a skewer in the center and use your hands to mold the lamb around the skewer, covering it completely. Place the nuts in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Otherwise, perfect. It’s more often than not served with rice dishes, hummus or a combination of the above. Something went wrong. My mom’s soup somehow always did […], Shepherd’s pie, or “cottage pie” as it’s also known, is a meat pie with a mashed potato topping. When we returned, I started looking for ways to add more lamb to our meal repertoire. I sure do. Add the lamb koftas into the sauce and the coriander and cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Add the passata and stir. A note to others...you can sometimes find saffron at Trader Joe's for a fraction of the cost at other supermarkets...and it comes in an adorable glass jar, which can be used for a bud vase! Using kitchen tongs, flip the kofta and sear for an additional 2 minutes. My husband and a friend loved this recipe. You could easily add some leafy greens to a pita if you wanted to amp up the nutrition profile even further. I always thought I was going to be a lawyer, but going to culinary school was one of the best decisions I ever made. I pretty much kept to the recipe but used my food processor for the harissa sauce which was divine! This is going into our recipe rotation! I followed the recipe except for using non-fat Greek yogurt and lean beef instead of lamb. My only change was to add a TB of liquid egg white to the meat mixture and to cut the cumin and corriander in the sauce by one-half. Made rice and steamed zukes. I substituted ground beef for the lamb which tasted very good. I served it with a simple cucumber salad - with dill and a dash of rice vinegar. Set aside. Loved the greek yogurt sauce. Get the recipe: Chimichurri Sauce Harissa sauce worked well together and made this very tasty. Serve with cucumber-yogurt sauce on the side. I have always loved lamb kofta but, surprisingly, I have not made it very often until recently. Will have to double next time. Roll the lamb mixture into pieces the size of golf balls and flatten them into patties about 1 cm thick. I would very happily serve this to company. I just used a few drops, as it's very spicy and it worked very well. However, as with most recipes on this site, the spice portions are just too mild to be noticed. If I make this again I would 1/2 the cumin as it overpowered the other flavors. Not the easiest recipe, but not hard either. First off, I think thereâs too much garlic everywhere in the meal...and this is coming from someone who loves garlic. Instead of rice, I made whole wheat orzo with parsley, feta cheese, a squeeze of lemon. For the Cucumber-Sauce: In a small mixing bowl add the yogurt, cucumber, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper. It was tender, moist and flavorful. For the sauce, I left out the peppers because I didn't have any. Mouthwatering lamb kofta with Moroccan sauce. The sauce portions are PERFECT. Traditional kofta recipes mix in white rice and yellow split peas, but my recipe omits that and focuses on the meaty flavor without the added starch. Served with sautéed zucchini from our garden. For the kofta: Using a medium size bowl add the lamb, toasted bread, onion, garlic, cumin, paprika, salt, cayenne, nutmeg, black pepper, parsley and mint. Also, rather than purchase saffron I use less than the recommended amount of turmeric in the rice. The kofta were great! If you leave a comment, please be respectful and follow the basic rules and guidelines listed below. The name “kofta” is derived from the Persian word “kuftan” which means “to beat” or “to grind” or “meatball”. My family did not really like this recipe. Everyone loves it. Thanks! I did reduce the garlic to 1 tsp for both the sauce and kofta, but kept the other spice amounts the same. I've made this twice now - the first time with ground pork (and nonfat Greek yogurt) and the second with lamb (and 2% Greek yogurt). The whole family loved this dish. The rice was kind of a waste, so if I made it again I would probably put the meat into pita pockets or something. Place on the prepared baking sheet and set aside. Place on a serving plate and sear the second batch of kofta. 1 piece of white or sourdough bread, toasted and crumbled, 2 tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil, divided, 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice. More than most other foods, I think that soup often has memories attached to it: like being nursed back to health with some homemade chicken and dumpling soup prepared by my mom. I made the sauce without the red bell peppers. The amount of spices in the Kofta were too much. I love to make mine on skewers and serve it with a salty cucumber-yogurt sauce on the side. My kids both devoured these!