Lamb meatball pitta salad
Serves: 4
Prep time: 30 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Martin Poole
Lamb meatball pitta salad
Inspired by two classic Middle Eastern dishes – arayes and fattoush – grilled meatballs and pitta are tossed with a lemony salad and served over tahini yogurt.
Serves: 4
Prep time: 30 minsTotal time: 
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Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
875Kcal
Fat
63gr
Saturates
20gr
Carbs
38gr
Sugars
11gr
Fibre
4gr
Protein
38gr
Salt
2.2gr
Spencer Lengsfield
Our Senior Food Producer Spencer was born in Los Angeles, so has an inherent love for all things Mexican, Japanese, and Korean but is also heavily influenced by her family’s Louisiana heritage. She loves spice, bright flavours, and fusion food, and she has a soft spot for a chocolate chip cookie.
See more of Spencer Lengsfield’s recipes
Spencer Lengsfield
Our Senior Food Producer Spencer was born in Los Angeles, so has an inherent love for all things Mexican, Japanese, and Korean but is also heavily influenced by her family’s Louisiana heritage. She loves spice, bright flavours, and fusion food, and she has a soft spot for a chocolate chip cookie.
See more of Spencer Lengsfield’s recipes
Ingredients
- 2 shallots, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 x 30g pack parsley
- 500g 20% fat lamb mince
- 1 tbsp baharat spice blend
- 1 medium egg
- 1 tsp pomegranate molasses
- 50g breadcrumbs
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 pitta, roughly torn
For the tahini yogurt
- 300g 5% fat Greek yogurt
- 3 tbsp tahini
- 1 garlic clove, grated
For the salad
- 1 tbsp sumac, plus extra to serve
- juice of 1 lemon
- 100ml olive oil
- 1 tsp runny honey
- 250g tomatoes, diced
- 1 cucumber, roughly chopped
- 6 radishes, quartered
- 1 Little Gem lettuce, roughly chopped
- 3 tbsp pomegranate seeds, plus extra to serve
Step by step
- Put the shallots, garlic and parsley (leaves and stalks) in a blender or small food processor, then blend until fairly smooth. Transfer to a large bowl with the mince, baharat, egg, molasses, breadcrumbs and salt. Mix together, then shape into about 15 meatballs. Put on a tray, drizzle with the oil and shake to ensure the meatballs are coated, then chill until ready to cook.
- Meanwhile, put the yogurt, tahini and garlic in a bowl with a pinch of salt. Mix with a balloon whisk, until thick. For the salad dressing, whisk together the sumac, lemon juice, olive oil, honey and seasoning in a jug. In a separate bowl, combine the tomatoes, cucumber, radishes, lettuce and pomegranate seeds (don’t add the dressing yet).
- Heat the barbecue for direct and indirect cooking (the coals heaped to one side). Grill the meatballs over the direct heat until cooked through and nicely charred – about 10-15 minutes. Transfer to a plate to cool slightly for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the torn pitta over indirect heat until crunchy and lightly browned.
- Add the pitta to the salad bowl along with the meatballs, which you can roughly break into bite-sized chunks. Pour over the dressing and toss together. Spread the tahini yogurt over a large serving plate, then top with the meatball salad. Finish with an extra pinch of sumac and the extra pomegranate seeds.
