Food & Wine
Greek-spiced lamb cakes with cucumber, tomato & radish salad
This Mediterranean-inspired lamb dish with cucumber, tomato and radish salad makes the perfect lunch or light dinner on a hot summer’s day. Oh, and if you needed any extra incentive, did we mention this meal contains less than 1,900kj (450 calories)?
Serves: 2
Ingredients:
For the Greek-spiced lamb cakes
- 250g lean ground lamb mince
- ¼ brown onion, finely diced
- 1½ teaspoons lamb spice mix (see below)
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- ¼ cup wholemeal breadcrumbs
- 1 tablespoon ground LSA (or use 10g further wholemeal breadcrumbs)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley leaves
- ½ egg, lightly whisked
- 1 teaspoon oil, to coat (or use spray oil)
For the lamb spice mix
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp paprika
- ¼ tsp smoked paprika
- ¼ tsp lemon pepper
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- ¼ tsp onion powder
For the vinaigrette
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon mustard (e.g. Dijon, wholegrain)
- Juice of ½ lemon
- Cucumber, tomato and radish salad
- ½ capsicum
- ½ Lebanese cucumber
- 1 tomato
- 1-2 radishes
- 1 tablespoon parsley leaves and stalks
- 2 tablespoons mint leaves
- ½ x 400g can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
To serve
- 75g unsweetened, low fat, plain yoghurt
- ½ lemon, cut into wedges (optional)
Method:
- Preheat oven to 220C. Line an oven tray with baking paper.
- Place all Greek-spiced lamb cake ingredients (except oil) into a medium bowl and mix until well combined. Using clean, damp hands, shape mixture into golf ball-sized balls then flatten slightly into cakes, about 1.5cm-thick.
- Place cakes onto prepared tray and lightly brush with oil (or spray). Bake (on upper oven rack) for about 8 minutes, until just cooked through. Switch oven to high grill and grill cakes for a further 4-5 minutes, until lightly brown on top.
- While cakes are cooking, whisk all vinaigrette ingredients together in a medium bowl.
- Remove core and seeds from capsicum and dice capsicum, cucumber, tomato and radishes 1cm. Roughly chop second measure of parsley and mint. Add all salad veggies to bowl with vinaigrette, along with drained cannellini beans. Toss to combine and season to taste with pepper and more salt, if desired.
- To serve, spoon cucumber, tomato and radish salad onto plates. Top with Greek-spiced lamb cakes and dollop over yoghurt. Serve with a lemon wedge to squeeze over (if using).
Written by Nadia Lim. Republished with permission of Stuff.co.nz. Image credit: My Food Bag.