Hi all, I hope you’re doing well. Question for you – how often do you cook? I cook every day, and although I photograph dishes from my test kitchen and make notes, I find the bulk of my time is taken up reviewing restaurants and doing the write-ups. I have a tonne of recipes to write up, both original and from cookbooks and I’ve promised myself to do more recipe write ups, so you’re in for a treat. Last night I cooked lamb koftas with salad, a recipe from the Australian Women’s Weekly Express. I picked it up from Costco last month and felt compelled to flick through it yesterday. There’s nothing worse than a mountain of lovingly curated books gathering dust, right? Here is the gorgeous book:

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I try to eat healthily whenever possible, although this can be a teeny bit difficult when I’m reviewing across the country. This recipe was quick, simple and I substituted the lamb for turkey mince, which had less than 7% fat. From fridge to table, took just under 30 minutes, which is great for a mid-week meal. Here is the recipe, enjoy.

Turkey koftas with salad

Prep and cook time 20 minutes, serves 2.

Ingredients:

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1 small brown onion (80g) chopped coarsely

1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

1/4 cup fresh mint leaves

300g minced turkey (original recipe called for ground lamb, which I subbed to be healthier)

1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves (extra for salad)

2 cups butter lettuce coarsely chopped

4 small radishes (40g) thinly sliced

2 flatbreads

1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses (I didn’t use this as I couldn’t source, using balsamic vinegar instead)

1/3 cup Greek style yogurt

Method:

  1. Place spices, onion and herbs in a food processor and pulse for around 10 seconds. Add mince, blitz for a further 40 seconds, until combined.
  2. Place 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a pan and heat on a low/medium setting. Divide the meat mixture into four portions and using wet hands, shape each portion into 12cm long oval koftas. Thread onto a metal skewer and cook in the now hot frying pan for around 8 minutes, or till golden brown and cooked through.
  3. Meanwhile, combine the extra parsley with lettuce and radish in a small bowl. Serve with koftas, pomegranate molasses and yogurt.
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Pulse mince meat and herbs.
Mixture when combined should look like this.
Mixture when combined should look like this.
Fried koftas all done. Just need plating up now.
Fried koftas all done. Just need plating up now.

Pomegranate molasses are made by cooking pomegranate juice until it is reduced down into a sweet and sour syrup. I searched delis and Middle-Eastern food stores, but couldn’t find anywhere. I used balsamic vinegar instead, which mimicked the pomegranate molasses flavours and tasted great.

You also don’t have to use metal skewers. Using them speeds up the cooking process, as metal is a conductor. If using bamboo skewers, don’t worry about soaking them off (a step not needed, as it won’t be coming into direct contact with flames).

The koftas were slightly spicy and moist. I also added in half a red chilli along with first blitzing of the herbs, as I prefer spicier food. It’s the first time I’ve made koftas, hence the, ahem, rustic appearance. I’m also not a fan of using cinnamon in savoury food (IT BELONGS IN CHRISTMAS CAKE AND APPLE PIE!), but it worked great here. I didn’t take a photo of the final plate, I was too hungry so we scarfed the lot down pronto. Take it from me, it was delicious!