Lamb meatballs with slaw & courgette tzatziki
Ingredients
Serves 4-6
For the lamb meatballs:
- 1kg lamb mince 20% fat
- 1 clove garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- 2cm fresh garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 handful basil leaves
- 2 small spring onions, outer skins removed and roughly chopped
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 2 pinches Maldon Sea Salt
- Really good grind black pepper or 1 small chilli
- 2 teaspoons rapeseed oil
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 tablespoon rapeseed oil for frying
For the slaw:
- 1/4 small red cabbage, outer leaves removed
- 1 carrot, peeled
- 1/2 apple skin on
- 1 small medium green chilli, seeds removed and finely diced
- 3 capfuls rapeseed oil
- 2 capfuls cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds or chopped nuts
- Pinch Maldon Sea Salt
- Good grind of black pepper
For the courgette tzatziki:
- 1/2 courgette, peel on
- 1 small clove garlic, peeled and crushed
- 1 tablespoon rapeseed oil
- 3 large tablespoons Greek yoghurt
- Juice of 1/4 lemon
- Maldon Sea Salt
- Good grind of black pepper
Timings
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Total time: 40 minutes
Lamb meatballs with slaw & courgette tzatziki
This is a beautiful meal for spring bringing with it lots of freshness and hints of summer. I like to make meatballs with different meats – lamb, beef, pork, chicken and turkey. Each add their own taste and texture and you can pair different flavours with them. Lamb has a creamier, mustier flavour to it so I’ve spiced it up with ginger, garlic, spring onions, basil, cumin and soy. You might be surprised how mellow these are once they are combined. It’s more of a subtle hint rather than a full-on kick. If you prefer stronger flavours turn them up them a notch and double the quantity.
Method
Preheat the oven to 180/350/gas 4. You will need a food processor.
In a frying pan over a high heat, toast the cumin seeds for 2 minutes or until they pop. Take them off the heat and grind to a fine powder in a pestle and mortar.
In a food processor, blitz all of the meatball ingredients together apart from the oil for frying. Once they have combined use your hands to create small balls with the mince, about the size of a 2p coin.
Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan over a high heat and brown the meatballs. Once browned roughly on all sides, remove the meatballs and place in a roasting tray. You might have to do this in batches as you don’t want to overcrowd the frying pan otherwise the meatballs will not brown properly and will stew instead. Browning meat adds to the flavour and is an important part of the process. Once you have finished browning them all, roast the meatballs in the oven for 10 minutes or until cooked.
Meanwhile prepare the slaw and tzatziki. Slice the red cabbage very thinly and put it in a bowl. Grate in the peeled carrot and apple, and add the chilli, salt, pepper, oil, vinegar, fish sauce and sesame seeds. Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary.
To make the tzatziki, grate the courgette on the large grate (peel on) into another bowl. Add the garlic, lemon, oil, yoghurt, salt and pepper and give it a good stir. Taste and season as necessary.
Serve with sweet potato fries or boiled new potatoes and enjoy!
DOWNLOAD OR PRINT RECIPE HERE.
Don’t be scared by the long list of ingredients here. I have broken the meatballs, slaw and courgette tzatziki into segments and each can be used as a building block for another meal allowing you to pick and choose as you wish.”
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