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Serves
8 meatballs - two to four people depending appetite
Author Notes
I love meatballs - Italian style or otherwise - and this recipe came from looking for an alternative that took advantage of my favorite springtime veggies - as well as finding a way to make greek meatballs in a healthy dish. —Robert McDiarmid
Ingredients
- Koftas (Meatballs)
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1/2 pound
ground dark meat ground turkey
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1/4 pound
ground lamb
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1
egg
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2 tablespoons
sesame seeds
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2 tablespoons
tahini (sesame paste)
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2 tablespoons
champagne vinegar
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2 stalks extremely fine-diced celery
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1 teaspoon each of cumin, oregano, and paprika
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3 tablespoons panko style bread crumbs
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season with salt to taste
- Quinoa Salad
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the zest and juice of two lemons
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1/2 an english cucumber finely diced
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1 tablespoon mint, parsley, cilantro and dill
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4 tomatoes - cut into bite size chunks (eights?)
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2 stalks of finely diced celery
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2 tablespoons cumin
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salt and pepper to taste
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1 cup plain yogurt
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1 tablespoon
ground coriander
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1 tablespoon
cumin
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juice of one lemon
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1/3 cup
Olive Oil
Directions
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Mix all the Kofta ingredients together in a bowl - cover - and refridgerate while we make the Quinoa Salad
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I make a cup of scarlet quinoa (add 1 cup of dry scarlet quinoa grain to 1 1/4 cup boiling chicken stock) stir in the quinoa - and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes - take off heat and leave covered for 5 minutes - then fluff with a fork. and set aside to cool.
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Mix all the diced vegetables together and the olive oil, salting and peppering to taste.
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I put the BBQ on high heat.
Make kafta meatballs with a tablespoon - and then roll your meat balls in olive oil, fresh ground pepper, sesame seed and a little ground sea salt.
these will grill very fast on the grille - literally - as you finish setting your meatballs down - immediately start turning them from where you started. MAX 1 minute on each side - then put them on a lightly oiled baking pan - and into the oven for five minutes at 350.
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Mix the veggies and quinoa together. Add the quinoa a little at a time or it is liable to clump up. (not pretty)
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Plate the still sizzling koftas fresh out of the oven on a bed of the scarlet quinoa salad - and garnish with the yogurt/coriander/lemon sauce.
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