Monday 19 August 2013

Sesame-Spiced Turkey Meatballs with Smashed Chickpea Salad and Yoghurt-Sumac Sauce




Cook' em...



Roll' em...



brown' em...


bake' em...



smash'  em...


 
eat' em.


My kids won't eat a garden pea to save their lives, but they'll inhale a truck-load of chickpeas. I'm thankful for small mercies.



Sesame-Spiced Turkey Meatballs with Smashed Chickpea Salad and Yoghurt-Sumac Sauce
slightly adapted from Deb Perelman's The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook
Serves 4

For the Meatballs:
Olive oil
600g ground turkey
60g fresh white breadcrumbs
4 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 egg
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
Pinch chilli flakes
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted

For the Chickpea Salad:
450g cooked chickpeas (or you could use a couple of cans, drained and rinsed)
A large handful of stuffed olives, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon sumac
Chopped fresh parsley
Juice and finely grated zest of a lemon
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
Olive oil

For the Yoghurt-Sumac Sauce:
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup low fat Greek yoghurt
1 teaspoon sumac, plus extra for sprinkling

Make the Meatballs:
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Combine all the meatball ingredients in a bowl and knead together with your hands until everything is well mixed.

Form the mixture into 4cm balls and put them on one of  the prepared trays.

Heat some oil in a large frying pan and brown the meatballs in batches. Put the browned meatballs on the other prepared tray. When all the meatballs are brown, put the tray into the oven and bake until cooked through.

Make the Chickpea Salad:
Put all the salad ingredients into a large bowl and mash it lightly with a potato masher. You don't want the mixture too smooth, it should be quite nubbly.

Make the Yoghurt-Sumac Sauce:
Put everything into a blender and blitz until smooth.

Assemble the Dish:
Spoon the chickpeas out onto a large serving plate and dress with a extra virgin olive oil. Place the meatballs on top and drizzle with the Yoghurt-Sumac Sauce. Sprinkle with extra sumac.

16 comments:

  1. This is SO wild you posted this today... we are having this for dinner tonight! And now I'm even more excited than I already was...

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    1. We are definitely on the same wave-length Marie. We loved this - there wasn't a morsel left. Hope you loved it too.

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  2. Okay that's my type of recipe for sure. I can't believe how delicious it looks! With all those ingredients, it's impossible to not love it :)

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    1. So true Gabrielle. Those ingredients were made to be together on the same plate.

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  3. Woman, you are a Trojan! How do you keep producing so much blogging goodness? Anyway, in this case I am glad you did. Yum yum. I know what I'm going to eat tomorrow!

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    1. Haha Laura. My name is Jen, and I'm a blogaholic. Seriously though, I just blog whatever we are eating on the day. This food was gone minutes after I took "the money shot", literally.

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  4. Oh goodness, these turkey meatballs are calling my name! I would just eat them by myself with a smile on my face!

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    1. Thanks Pamela. Me too. I could eat a whole plate of these by myself, except my family wouldn't let me.

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  5. Jen, never used sumac in cooking. What is it? This recipe looks so delicious.

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    1. Hey Patty. Sumac is a berry that is dried and then ground into a powder. It has an almost lemony taste. It's used in Middle Eastern cooking and is fabulous for finishing dishes were you might use a squeeze of lemon juice.

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  6. These look really yummy and a great alternative to the usual suspects. As always, well done!

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    1. Thanks Jessica. They are a great combination of flavours - they really work well together.

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  7. That is gorgeous looking stuff! I need to get my hands on some of that sumac too!

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    1. Thanks Maria. I know you love lemons, so I think you'll adore Sumac.

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  8. Made this tonight, and was so fantastic. Whole family loved it and even said that they'd pay for it! Biggest compliment huh?!

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    1. Absolutely! That's fantastic. Well done you. PS: May you could charge next time :)

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