Fast Recipes

Lamb meatballs with tahini and pine nut sauce

A recipe that riffs on the Palestinian lamb siniyah.

By Max Adey
  • 20 mins preparation
  • 7 mins cooking
  • Serves 4
  • Print
    Print
This meatball recipe riffs on the Palestinian lamb siniyah, a dish of lamb baked with tahini. We've turned the lamb into meatballs and added crushed pine nuts to the tahini sauce for some more texture. To make this a full meal, try piling it all into flatbreads with sumac onions or serve a burghul salad on the side.

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • Sumac, torn mint leaves and lemon wedges, to serve
Lamb meatballs
  • 1 small red onion
  • 500 gm finely minced lamb
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely grated
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • ½ tsp ground allspice
Pine nut sauce
  • 50 gm pine nuts, coarsely crushed with a mortar and pestle, plus extra whole pine nuts to serve
  • 50 gm unhulled tahini
  • ½ garlic clove, finely grated
  • Finely grated rind of 1 lemon, juice of ½

Method

  • 1
    To make meatballs, finely chop onion in a food processor, scraping down the sides occasionally (1-2 minutes), then add mince, garlic and spices, season to taste, and process until mixture comes together (30 seconds-1 minute). Roll into 12 balls (about 50gm each) with wet hands and refrigerate until required.
  • 2
    For pine nut sauce, whisk ingredients in a jug with 100ml water to combine and season to taste.
  • 3
    Heat oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat, add meatballs and cook, turning occasionally until browned all over and cooked to your liking (6-7 minutes for medium). Spoon pine nut sauce over meatballs in pan so it warms up a little, then sprinkle with sumac, top with mint and extra pine nuts and serve with lemon.
SHAREPIN
  • undefined: Max Adey