Why you’ll love it
These lamb kofta wraps are loaded with flavourful spices but seriously quick and easy to make. These juicy, tender koftas are inspired by Greek and Middle Eastern flavours and are absolutely delicious.
Perfect for grilling and a great, light weeknight dinner, these lamb koftas are paired up with crisp and tangy pickled red cabbage, ribbons of cooling cucumber and a creamy yogurt sauce.
Lamb koftas are a bit like spiced-up meatballs turned into sausages or football shapes. They’re bursting with flavour, and are grilled to get those lovely grill char marks.
You’ll love these Greek lamb kebabs too.
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Ingredients you’ll need
Jump to the recipe for full ingredients and instructions.
- Lamb and beef: I use a combination of lamb mince (ground lamb) and beef mince (ground beef) in my koftas. You can use all lamb, all beef or even other meats like chicken or pork. I recommend using a fattier mince for this (20% fat is good) as it helps the koftas stay moist. Leaner meats will dry out more, cooking this way. Always use an 80/20 for meatballs, koftas, burgers etc and save that leaner mince for when the meat is being cooked in a sauce like bolognese, shepherds pie or savoury mince.
- Fresh herbs: A good kick of herby freshness comes from fresh parsley and fresh mint leaves.
- Garlic: A couple of garlic cloves (or add them to your liking) gives a robust flavour.
- Spices: A combination of spices – salt, paprika, cumin, coriander and chili flakes (red pepper flakes) add wonderful flavour to the koftas.
- Nuts: A good kofta has a little crunch from nuts. I love using almonds but pistachios are great too, or try pine nuts or cashews.
To serve your lamb kofta wraps, you’ll need some;
- Lebanese flat bread or pita bread to wrap them in
- some salad – I keep it simple with cucumber and some pickled red cabbage. There’s also a little garnish of fresh dill leaves.
- A sauce: For my kofta wraps, everything sits on a base of my yogurt dip made with plain or greek yogurt
- Optional topping: I top it all off with some crumbled feta.
The result is all at once salty, meaty, fresh and tangy and it’s just amazing!
How to make lamb koftas
Making lamb koftas and the sides is just so incredibly easy. The meat mixture comes together just like a very simple meatball then they can be grilling while you pull together your sides. And, since the base – the flatbread – isn’t something that needs cooking, dinner can be ready in 20 minutes!
Jump to the recipe for full ingredients and instructions.
- Make the kofta meat: Simply combine all the ingredients in a big mixing bowl, making sure it’s really well combined so that everything is dispersed evenly throughout – you don’t want one kofta with all the spices while another has all the herbs.
- Roll the koftas: Divide the mixture into 6 or 8 – it will depend on the skewers you’re using – and roll them into thick sausages (around 1 inch thick). You can also just roll them into meatballs and flatten them a bit. Thread a skewer through the middle and they’re ready to cook.
- Cook the koftas: A griddle pan is great for this as you can cook them on your stove top but get those gorgeous char lines. About 3-4 minutes each side, then carefully cut one open to make sure it’s cooked through.
Be careful not to overcook the lamb skewers or they may dry out.
Storage
Store any leftover koftas in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. They can be reheated very easily in the microwave or back in a pan again.
FAQs
Kofta is most often made with lamb or beef or a combination of both and a number of spices and fresh herbs.
Koftas are served kebab style and great wrapped in flatbread with various salad ingredients like onion, lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes. Since they aren’t cooked in a sauce, a side sauce or two is an absolute must and things like tzatziki, yogurt or hummus are great options. A drizzle of tahini would not be out of place either. Due to the richness in the meat, something acidic is good too. Tomatoes or a salsa would work, but I love pickled cabbage as shown here. A squeeze of lemon is always delicious with koftas or you could try this herby mojo verde – delicious!
Koftas are similar to meatballs, being mince and a few other ingredients mixed together in a bowl then shaped and cooked. Aside from the obvious difference in shape, the mixture for koftas has a number of unique spices like ground cumin, ground coriander and paprika (among others).
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Ingredients
KOFTA MIXTURE
- 500 g minced lamb or beef or a combo
- ½ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ cup flaked almonds
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes (red pepper flakes)
- ½ tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
TO COOK AND SERVE
- yogurt sauce (or tzatziki)
- 4 lebanese bread or pita bread, to wrap
- cucumber ribbons or slices
- pickled red cabbage
- 80 g feta cheese, crumbled
- 6 medium bamboo skewers
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Equipment
- Bamboo skewers
Instructions
- Soak the bamboo skewers in water about 30 minutes before begining.
- Combine the kofta mixture ingredients in a large bowl. Mix it all together.
- Divide the mixture into 6 portions and roll each into a fat sausage shape. Thread each onto a skewer, keeping that thick sausage shape.
- Brush each of the koftas all over with oil.
- Heat a grill pan or bbq pan over medium high heat, then place the koftas into the pan.
- Cook for 3-4 minutes until you see grill marks, then flip and cook the other side for 3-4 minutes or until just cooked through. Careful not to over cook them or they’ll becom dry.
- Load up the flatbread wraps with yogurt dip, cucumber and pickled cabbage (or salads of your choice), then slide the koftas off the skewers onto the wraps. Top with pickled cabbage and serve.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- Tablespoons: I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (equal to 4 teaspoons). Check yours before measuring.
- Lamb: While traditionally made with lamb, I often make these with half lamb and half beef mince. Feel free to mix it up.
- Salads: Things like lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and sliced red onion all go great with koftas.
- Nutrition details are approximate only – scroll below the recipe to find the full nutritional information.
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