Kebabs, kabobs whatever you call them, they’re good. They are also a great (and inexpensive) way to introduce lamb into your diet. Of course, if you don’t want or like lamb this recipe works well with any ground meat. Beef, chicken, turkey or pork. You can even get crazy and try some other things! Bison kebabs anyone? No? Whatever.

So you need these things, as well as cumin (which I forgot to include in the picture because I’m not perfect and neither are you). Also, if you happen to have it, sumac is always a nice addition to any Middle Eastern dish.

Begin by putting the meat in a bowl and add all the seasoning to it.

Now would be a good time to talk about why the hell baking soda is involved in this situation. The purpose it serves is to help the lamb mixture meld together and stick to the skewer. Without the baking soda, the meat would be much harder to adhere to the skewer. Moooving on…

Grate the half an onion and 3 garlic cloves into the meat. You could finely chop them too, but it’s just not the same. Grating them makes them “one” with the meat. If you don’t grate them it’s like having a bunch of people at a party who don’t know each other and they’re all standing alone being awkward. When you grate them, it’s like a family where everyone is connected by a strong bond. Ahem. 

 Dice up some parsley and split into two equal portions. Add half to the meat mixture and save the other half for a side salad.

Now, this is the part of your kebab-making journey that gets a little messy/gross/fun, it all depends on how you look at it, life, and the world at large. Or maybe just how you feel about touching raw meat. It’s not my favorite thing to do but I don’t freak out about it. It’s all about balance people.

So here are some pics of the mixing and kneading process. This needs to be done for about 5 to 10 minutes. Until the meat is very homogenous and sticky and ewwy, but also yummy!

I’ll keep the pictures of the raw meet small.

This is what the kneaded meat looks like:

Nothing fancy. Now you wanna heat up some oil on a griddle and form the kebabs till the oil is smoking’ hot. Literally. I just used a drizzle of olive oil.

Once you’ve formed all your kebabs and the oil is hot. Go ahead and start cooking!

About 2 minutes on each side until browned and cooked through. They can always be finished and/or reheated in the oven btw.

Now for the salad. Dice up some cucumber, tomatoes. Slice up the other half of the red onion into half moons and add your leftover parsley.

If you have sumac add it. It gives a nice tart spice if you’re into that sort of thing.

OMG the sumac matches my mani! I’ve always wanted to work as those people who name nail polishes and make-up. This nail polish is Bordeaux by Essie, but it should soooo be called Sumac by N.C. I rhymed. Look for it ;).

Now add some lettuce (I used romaine) and toss the salad.

To serve you can make some basmati rice with saffron, and a yogurt sauce with garlic, mint and cucumbers. Tonight I just had some flat bread with the side salad. It was yum.

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