Welcome back to Foodbuzz Tastemakers with Girl In The Little Red Kitchen!
I love the opportunity that Foobuzz provides us featured publishers with the Tastemakers program because it gives us the opportunity to try products that perhaps we’ve never tried before or ones that we wouldn’t normally buy for ourselves. Well this time around, that is just not the case.
Sabra Hummus is my go to hummus brand. Unless I’m making it myself or at a Middle Eastern or Israeli restaurant this is what I’m eating. It’s because of my husband too, he’s been eating the stuff since before I met him. I can’t blame him, Sabra is all natural, healthy (it contains the good for you fat people), gluten free, and Kosher! Anyone can enjoy Sabra products!
Although I confess, it took until a few years ago for to finally really appreciate hummus. There are very few foods that I won’t eat but beans/legumes (not peanuts obviously!) are one of them. So I stayed away from chickpeas and hummus always reminded me of the same texture. I don’t know if it is a changing palate as I get older or I just got over the fact that hummus does not equal whole chickpeas but I started eating it.
As delicious as hummus is, one tub does not make dinner. So I took the opportunity to whip up a Middle Eastern feast to go along with the Roasted Pine Nut Hummus that I picked up.
A few weeks ago, we were dining at a wonderful restaurant in our neighborhood and one of the dishes that we had was their version of Lamb Souvlaki. It was flat bread, topped with tzatziki, lamb patties and grilled vegetables. The dish was fantastic and I’ve been wanting to recreate a version of it myself. Since we had so many other side dishes, I omitted the flat bread and tzatziki and turned the grilled vegetables into caramelized onions.
With our feast, I also served a simple roasted baby beet salad with bulgarian feta, some pickles from a local pickle guy, and labne cheese. If you aren’t familiar with labne, it is a yogurt cheese, slightly tangy but incredibly creamy. Turns out, it was an excellent replacement for the tzatziki and we dipped our lamb patties into the labne. I also heated up some whole wheat pitas with a little olive oil and za’atar seasoning.
Recipe:
1lb ground lamb
1 large egg
1/4 cup panko or plain breadcrumbs
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons za’atar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
zest from 1 lemon
juice from half a lemon
1 large onion, thickly sliced
parsley for garnish
In a heavy bottomed skillet on medium heat add some olive oil and the sliced onions. Let sweat for a few minutes and season with a bit of salt. Once softened add a teaspoon of white sugar to help the caramelization process and add sweetness to the onions. Stir frequently and lower the heat if the onions start to brown too much. Remove from the skillet and cover after 15-20 minutes when the onions are soft and caramelized but not too dark.
Carefully wipe the skillet out with paper towels after the onions are removed.
In a medium size bowl mix together the lamb, egg, breadcrumbs, garlic, za’atar, salt, pepper, lemon zest and juice. Do not over mix the meat otherwise it will be tough.
Wet your hands slightly and form the lamb mixture into 8 patties.
Heat the cleaned out skillet on medium-high and add olive oil. When the pan is hot add 4 of the patties and cook until brown on one side and flip, cook until browned on reverse side. Remove and cover with foil. Cook the remaining 4 patties.
Serve on a platter with onions, and chopped parsley.
