Lebanese Lamb with Spiced Flatbread and Yogurt Sauce
Full of flavour lamb, flatbread that's very light and the yogurt provides freshness.
Ingredients
Lebanese lamb:
- 1 red onion finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 500g lamb mince broken in pieces
- 30g tomato purée
- 2 pinches chilli flakes
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 0.5 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 chicken stock cube or pot for 500ml
- 10g g pomegranate molasses
- 130ml water
- 30g pine nuts
- 2 tsp dried mint
- 3 tbsp fresh parsley leaves roughly chopped
- 100g pomegranate seeds to garnish
- 100g feta cheese crumbled, to garnish (optional)
Spiced flatbread (see Notes):
- 1 sachet (7g) dried instant yeast
- 200ml water
- 85g olive oil plus extra for greasing
- 300g plain flour
- 1.25 tsp salt
- 4 tsp zaatar
Yogurt sauce:
- 100ml Greek yogurt
- juice of 0.5 a lime
- 0.5 tsp dried mint
- 0.25 tsp salt
- 0.25 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Spiced flatbread and yogurt sauce (see Notes):
- Place the water, yeast and 55g of the olive oil in a jug – note: the water needs to be lukewarm (around 37°C) – stir to mix then leave to stand for 2 minutes.
- Lightly oil a bowl and spatula and set aside. If using a stand (food) mixer, pour in the yeast mixture and then add the flour and 0.5 tsp salt, then knead for 1 minute 30 seconds. If kneading by hand, knead for 10 minutes.
- With the aid of the oiled spatula, transfer the dough to the prepared bowl, cover the bowl with lightly oiled cling film and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight.
- Line a baking tray with baking paper and grease it with 2 tbsp of olive oil. Transfer the dough to the prepared baking tray. With oiled hands, form the dough into a round shape. Cover the dough with lightly oiled cling film and leave it to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (approx. 30 minutes).
- Now make the yogurt sauce – mix all of the ingredients together in a small serving bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Without kneading the dough any further, spread it out with oiled fingertips into a rectangle (26cm x 30cm) and set aside.
- In a bowl, weigh in 30g of olive oil. Add the zaatar and remaining 0.75 tsp of salt to the olive oil and mix it together. Brush the flatbread with the zaatar and olive oil mixture and allow it to rise for further 15 minutes in a warm place.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm, cut in squares with the yogurt sauce.
Lebanese lamb:
- While the flatbread is in the oven baking, heat a medium saucepan over a medium heat and add the chopped garlic, onion, lamb mince, tomato purée, chilli flakes, allspice, cumin, coriander, cinnamon and salt, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Then, add the stock cube or pot, water, pomegranate molasses, pine nuts and dried mint, then cover with a lid and cook on a simmer for 12 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and stir through 2 tbsp of the chopped parsley.
- Transfer to a serving bowl and serve along with the remaining 1 tbsp of chopped parsley and the pomegranate seeds, and crumbled feta (optional) for garnishing. Enjoy with the spiced flatbread and yogurt sauce.
Notes
- NOTE: The flatbread dough needs to be refrigerated to prove for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight.
- We enjoy these Lebanese lamb with spiced flatbread and yogurt sauce recipes to share as an evening meal, however, they'll also work well for sharing as part of a meze, along with some houmous and pitta bread and other middle eastern dishes.
- The recipes are easily reduced if you’re cooking for less people.