LAMB KOFTA WITH YOGURT DRESSING & HERBY CUCUMBER SALAD

A wonderful light lunch or easy dinner. Ideally, you would use eight metal or wooden skewers here to form the meat around, but if you don’t have those, shape the koftas into sausages and fry them instead.

SERVES 4

★ 400g minced lamb

★ 1 tsp ground cumin

★ ½ tsp chilli flakes

★ 1 tsp dried oregano

★ 1 garlic clove, crushed

★ 1 tsp sea salt

★ 1 tbsp water

★ 4 pitta breads, to serve

For the salad

★ 1 cucumber, grated

★ ½ bunch of dill, chopped

★ leaves from ½ bunch of mint

For the sauce

★ 300g thick greek-style yogurt

★ 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

★ 1 tsp white wine vinegar

★ 1 tbsp fresh white breadcrumbs (optional)

1 Preheat the oven to 210C/ 190C fan/gas 6½. Put the lamb in a bowl with the spices, oregano, garlic and salt and mix really well with your hands.

Just as you think you have combined it enough, mix in the measured water (see Tricks of the trade).

2 Make 8 kofta sausage shapes around metal or wooden skewers (or see recipe introduction), place them on an oven tray and cook for 10 minutes.

3 Meanwhile, mix together the cucumber, dill and mint in a bowl. In a second bowl, mix the greek yogurt with the olive oil and the vinegar, seasoning to taste with salt. If your sauce seems a bit loose – which can happen if the yogurt is runny – you might want to add the breadcrumbs to thicken it up.

4 Toast the pitta breads then cut in half with scissors. Spoon the cucumber salad on to plates, spoon some of the yogurt dressing over it, then add the koftas. Serve the toasted pittas on the side, for people to stuff as they choose, along with a bowl of the remaining yogurt dressing. Tuck in!

Tricks of the trade Adding water to any meatball or burger mixture will help to keep it soft and juicy when cooked.