Recipe: Lamb kofta with Persian spinach salad

Serves 4-6

600g minced lamb
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
½ tsp chilli flakes
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup mint leaves, plus extra to serve
Olive oil, for brushing
Roast baby beetroot and pita bread, to serve

Persian spinach salad
2 tbs ghee*
1 small onion, halved, very thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 bunch spinach, trimmed, washed, coarsely shredded
2 cups Greek-style yoghurt
Large pinch of turmeric

1. For Persian spinach salad, heat 1 tbs ghee in a frying pan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and 1 tsp salt and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until soft. Add spinach and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until spinach has wilted and water has evaporated. Cool, then combine with yoghurt in a bowl. Heat remaining ghee and turmeric in the same pan over medium heat for 1 minute or until ghee is golden. Drizzle ghee mixture over spinach salad. 
2. For kofta, place minced lamb, onion, garlic, chilli, cinnamon, mint leaves and 1½ tsp salt in a food processor and process until smooth. Divide mixture into 8 equal portions and form into 15cm-long sausage shapes on metal or bamboo skewers, then brush well with oil. Preheat a char-grill or barbecue over medium heat and cook kofta, turning on 4 sides, for 12-15 minutes or until cooked through. Place kofta on plates and sprinkle with extra mint leaves. Serve with Persian spinach salad, roast baby beetroot and pita bread.

* Popular in Indian and South-East Asian cooking, ghee is butter that has been clarified by removing the milk solids. It retains the lovely taste of butter, but can be heated to a higher temperature without burning. You can clarify butter yourself by melting 250g butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Skim off and discard any foam, then ladle off the clear butter, leaving the white milk solids in the base of the pan. The clarified butter can be stored in the fridge like regular butter. Alternatively, clarified butter (ghee) is now readily available in supermarkets and is sold alongside butter in plastic tubs.

 

Recipes: Sophia Young. Styling: Amber Keller. Photography: Scott Hawkins & Andrew Lehmann, Food preparation: Lisa Featherby.