Spiced lamb meatballs with cucumber and yoghurt sauce
I didn’t truly understand how much I loved meatballs until I had my daughter. They are such a family friendly dish, and a fantastic way of stretch a packet of mince and get a bit more bang for your buck. These lamb meatballs are a firm favourite, they’re packed full of flavour with a lovely herbaceous note thanks to copious amounts of fresh parsley and the mix of Middle Eastern spieces. I use a homemade 7 spice mix, but you can easily find a Baharat mix and use this to make things easier.
What I think is integral to the success of these meatballs though, is the breadcrumbs which results in not only a wonderful flavour, but the texture is almost reminiscent to that of kibbeh, which if you’re unfamiliar is a dish made of ground meat, spices and bulgur wheat. I love serving these on a bed of sort of tzatziki, with dried oregano and mint it’s perhaps more similar to a Lebanese khyar bi laban (cucumber and yoghurt sauce) – the mint takes it to another planet, trust me!
Serve it with rice and a crunchy salad and you have yourself a perfect meal.
Spiced lamb meatballs with cucumber and yoghurt sauce
Ingredients
For the meatballs
- 500 g lamb mince
- 1-2 cloves of garlic grated/minced
- An entire bunch of parsley finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 45 g breadcrumbs dry
- 1 egg
- Pepper to taste
- 1/2 tbsp 7 spices I make a blend of equal parts black pepper, cumin, coriander, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and all spice – also found sold as Baharat spice)
For the cucumber and yoghurt sauce
- 200 g pot set Greek style yoghurt
- 1 garlic clove grated/minced
- 1 Lebanese cucumber grated and set over a strainer for 20 min to remove as much liquid as possible
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried mint
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180c /160c fan-forced.
- For the meatballs, combine all of the ingredients and shape in a large bowl and using your hands, squeeze and knead the mixture until well combined.
- Use an ice cream scoop to measure a ball of the mince mixture, then roll this between your hands to form a meatball – make sure to roll until smooth.
- Heat olive oil in a large pan and working in batches of 8, sear the meatballs for 2 minutes on each side before transferring to an oven dish.
- Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes.
- Meanwhile make the cucumber and yoghurt sauce by combining all of the ingredients.
- Serve the meatballs on a bed of the yoghurt sauce and enjoy.
