Here’s a great, easy to make, light summer meal. Harissa lamb meatballs are made of minced lamb, flavoured with onions and harissa. Serve them in flatbreads with a red cabbage and  apple slaw. Absolutely delicious, even if I say so myself.

My family loves this type of dish –  fun, casual and easy to  eat. It’s up there with Fajitas, as a favourite midweek meals. The fact that it is also easy to make  suits me just fine. Harissa meatballs are perfect for a summer’s day – lots of zingy flavour and not too heavy. To be fair though, we eat them at any time during the year. Being this easy and tasty it would be silly to restrict it just to the summer months. To make it into a more substantial meal, I usually serve it with some chips. My  Oven roasted chips made with both regular and sweet potato are ideal.

I like to serve the meatballs in flatbreads. Pile them into the bread with the slaw and dig in.  No knives and forks required!  Flat bread is a generic name for  breads that have been rolled into a thin flattened dough before baking. Many are unleavened  (made without yeast) but some such as pita are lightly leavened. We like these best.

A simple yogurt sauce flavoured with garlic completes the dish.

Step by step Harissa lamb meatballs

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Harissa Lamb Meatballs

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

20 mins

Total Time

40 mins

 

Tasty meatballs served with a red cabbage and apple slaw. A simple meal made easy.

Course: Main

Author: Jacqueline Bellefontaine

Ingredients

for the meatballs

• 500 g lean minced lamb
• ½ small onion finely chopped
• 2 tbsp harissa
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

for the red cabbage and apple slaw

• ½ small red cabbage shredded
• ½ small onion thinly sliced
• 1 apple thin matchstick, cored and cut into julienne or coarsely grated
• 1 ½ tbsp lemon juice

for the yoghurt sauce

• 200 ml full fat natural yogurt
• 1 clove garlic crushed
• snipped chives or chopped parsley

Method

To make the meatballs

1. Preheat the oven to 180℃ /170℃ Fan/ gas mark 4. Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and season well with salt and paper. Mix with your hands until all the ingredients are really well combined.
2. Shape into about 30 small balls. Place on a baking tray. Bake for about 20-25minutes until cooked through and golden.
3. Meanwhile make the slaw by placing all the ingredients in a bowl. Season well and toss to combine. Set aside. Combine the yogurt, garlic and seasoning. Sprinkle with a few snipped chives or some chopped parsley and set aside.

To serve

1. Warm the flat breads in the oven for a couple of minutes if desired.
2. Serve the flatbreads filled with the slaw and meatballs. Spoon in a little yogurt sauce and enjoy!

Place all the ingredients for the meatballs in a mixing bowl.

Mix well with your hands until all the ingredients are thoroughly combined.

Shape into small meatballs .

Bake in the oven.

Meanwhile make the slaw. Shred the cabbage.

Cut the apple into thin juilinenne or coarsely grate. Combine with all the other ingredients and toss to combine.

Hints, tips and variations

• I like to make small meatballs for this dish, not least because they cook quickly. But if you find that a bit fiddly you could make larger ones . Allow extra cooking time.
• I’ve used lamb but you could also use minced pork or beef.
• If you don’t have harissa  add a tbsp tomato puree and some chopped fresh chilli instead.