Traditional koftas are the wonderfully flavorful, heavily spiced and lesser known middle eastern cousins of the meatball. If I’m going to give you any piece of advice for these, please make sure your harissa is fresh, this wonderful spice paste is your main source of flavour in these little balls of joy but the older it gets the more the flavour fades away. This is my vegan version and just like any ‘meatball’, they’re incredibly flexible but I’ve always enjoyed eating with my hands so my favorite way to serve them is family style, with a pile of gluten free pita breads, rocket and fresh herbs like mint and parsley, wild rice, cucumber, tomato, tahini sauce, and pickled red onions.
This is one of those recipes that can take a while to pull together but you don’t have to spend the entire time keeping an eye on it. Because of this, that makes them the ideal partner for now as its the perfect partner for working from home, so do one step then go back to work, add the spices and answer your emails while it rests, maybe roll the koftas while on a conference call or with the kids. Your multitasking will be rewarded with these little balls of tasty joy that work really well as dinner party food, pair well with pitas, or stuff into a sub for mid-east inspired take on a vegan, meatball sub maybe (with tahini instead of the red sauce – trust me, it really works!).
- Makes: Serves 4 - 6 (Depending on how hungry you are!)
Ingredients
- 400g Red Split Lentils
- 170g Mixed Quinoa (White, Red & Black)
- 2 tsp Ground Cumin
- 1 tsp Ground Coriander
- 1 tbsp Paprika
- 2 tsp sumac
- 1 tsp All Spice
- 1 tbsp Tomato Puree
- 3 tbsp Harissa (If you like your spice then be generous here)
- 2 tsp Chili Flakes
- 100ml Olive Oil
- 100g Walnuts
- 1 Lemon, juice and zest
- 1 Large Red Onion
- 2 Spring Onions
- 1 Red Pepper, finely diced
- 1 Large Bunch of Mint, roughly chopped
- 1 Large Bunch of Parsley, roughly chopped
Directions
Put the lentils and quinoa into a large pan with 1 litre of water and bring to the boil then simmer for 25 minutes. Strain if needed, then gently stir in the spices, olive oil, tomato puree, and harissa before removing from the heat and set aside to cool.
While cooling, put your walnuts, red onion, and spring onions into your food processor. Pulse until your walnuts are blended – almost reminiscent of mince. Roughly chop your bunches of herbs and now is the time to drag out your biggest mixing bowl. Throw in your cooled lentil mix along with all your other ingredients and mix well. I like to roll my mix out in to the traditional kofta shape (I’ve left a picture of my complete koftas for a guide above but as a size guide they were each about the size of a tablespoon) but feel free to be creative here – want to try the meatball sub idea I floated above so plan to go with little balls? Go for it! Think these might work as burgers? Try it! What ever you do, let these babies rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, before cooking – if you can give them longer then great.
Put some oil in a pan on a medium heat and add the koftas. Don’t touch them until they have formed a good tasty crust on the side facing the pan, turn very gently and repeat until they are browned all over. Serve, preferably eating with your hands, to many friends.
Notes
If you’re making these for the first time then they go really well served on some flatbread with sides like wild rice, leafy greens mixed with fresh herbs, tahini sauce and pickled red onions.
Allergy Notes; These Koftas are Gluten Free and Vegan but they do contain nuts – if walnuts are an allergen for you then try using oats that have been lightly toasted in a dry pan instead. You won’t get the quite the same effect but it’ll be close!
