Tonight I was in the mood for a little Middle Eastern food mixed with a little bit of Greek. Sounded like the perfect combination 🙂
For the Lamb Kebabs I used:
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1lb lamb mince
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 2oz fresh chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)
- 4 cloves garlic chopped up
- 4 green chillies de-seeded and chopped
- ½ tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- ½ tsp black peppercorns (crushed)
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- ½ tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp powdered ginger or 2 tsp fresh grated ginger
- 1 tsp salt
I started off mixing my minced lamb and lemon juice and put that to the side.
Then I added the rest of the ingredients to my mini food processor and whizzed away until they were nicely blended and then added that concoction to my lamb.
Out came the skewers and with wet hands I skewered the meat into long sausage shapes. Rotate the meat around the skewer, pressing gently all round and place on a baking pan. Brush each kebab lightly with some oil.
These of course can be grilled on a BBQ or cooked in the oven. I placed mine under the broiler in the oven on high setting for about 10 minutes on each side.
Whilst they were cooking I stared working on my Tzatziki sauce.
For this I used:
- 3 cups of greek yogurt
- 3 tbs of lemon juice
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 large english cucumber (long and skinny ones)
- 1/2 tbs chopped fresh mint
- 1/2 tbs chopped fresh dill
Peel cucumber, remove seeds and cube, then place in food processor with the lemon juice, garlic, mint and dill and combine them together nicely. I then placed the mixture in a colander and squeezed all the excess water out of it.
Add mixture to yogurt and add salt and pepper to taste and mix well.
By now my kebabs were ready, I toasted some Smart Pockets (they are like a healthy version of Pita Bread, stuffed them with a few of the lamb kebabs, added some Tzatziki sauce and it was totally and utterly heavenly! The cooling and refreshing sauce worked wonders with the full flavored, slightly spicy kebabs <3
