Alexandra Hill

lamb kofta

Alexandra Hill
lamb kofta
 
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Can you tell how much I love lamb!?

I’m honestly obsessed and I have a leg of lamb in the refrigerator right now waiting to be seasoned for some tacos! Anyway, I’ve been craving some gyros or anything with lamb and tzatziki, which I’m also very obsessed with lol. I whipped up this lamb kofta with tzatziki & a red pepper salad on some warm, crusty pita bread. Whew! It was so damn good. I literally sat down with my camera still around my neck and crushed it in like 5 minutes.

These lamb kofta’s would be great on the grill as well, if you have one! Get that smokey, char flavor in there! try it below and let me know what you think!

Ingredients

Lamb Koftas

  • 1lb ground lamb (this makes about 5-6 lamb koftas)

  • wood skewers, soaked in water for 30 minutes so they don’t burn while grilling

  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt

  • 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

  • About 1 teaspoon of cumin

  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder

  • 1 teaspoon onion powder

  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

  • 1/4 onion, finely chopped

  • 2-3 garlic cloves, finely minced or grated

  • a dash of soy sauce

  • 1-2 tablespoons, freshly chopped Italian flat leaf parsley

Tzatziki

  • 6 oz greek yogurt (I usually get 2% fat or 5% fat)

  • 1/3 cup or so flat leaf Italian parsley, chopped

  • 2 garlic cloves, grated or FINELY minced

  • 1 english seedless cucumber, box grated or water squeezed out in a paper towel

  • Note: draining the water from the cucumber is key or your tzatziki will be watery and potentially turn green.

  • 1/2 lemon, juiced

  • salt & pepper, to taste

Red Pepper Salad

  • 1 red pepper, roughly chopped

  • 1/2 english cucumber, thickly sliced

  • 1/4 onion, roughly chipped

  • 2 tablespoons Italian flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

  • 1/2 lemon juiced

  • salt & pepper, to taste

  • Pita bread for serving

Directions

  • Season the lamb with all ingredients and let it marinate for at least 2 hours. Try not to overwork your ground lamb because then it once you grill/cook them they will be stuff so gently work the ingredients into the ground lamb.

  • To form the koftas, in your hand form them into a log and push the wood skewers into the logs and they are ready for the grill!

  • For the Tzatziki, combine all ingredients in a bowl and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least two hours for the flavors to meld together.

  • For the Red Pepper Salad, combine all ingredients together in a bowl. I would make it right before you serve your lamb kofta’s because the lemon will start to pickle the veggies and I still like a crunchy salad.

  • When you are ready to grill the kofta’s, coat your cast iron pan with some oil for grilling. I used extra virgin olive oil on medium heat. I cooked mine to medium rare (until 145 degrees) about 4 minutes each side, give or take.

  • For the pitas, I throw them on top of my gas stove on high for 5-10 seconds on each side to get a good char or you can warm them up in the oven on low, just to keep them warm.

  • Serve the lamb koftas with a good helping of tzatziki on the warm, crusty pita bread with lots of red pepper salad!

  • ENJOY and have lots of napkins near you lol!