Easy Moroccan meatballs
This easy Moroccan meatballs recipe is ideal for children aged between nine and 13 to get stuck into, with adult supervision.
Want more inspiration to get your kids cooking? Check out these recipes for coconut chicken and petit pois curry, or tasty herby chicken thighs and salad.
Serves: 6
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 55 minutes
Price per portion: £1.94
Ingredients
For the Moroccan meatballs
- 1 ½ wholemeal flatbreads (small in size, roughly 20cm in diameter) or pitta
- 120ml milk
- 1kg minced lamb
- A small bunch of parsley, finely chopped
- A small handful of mint, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
For the sauce
- 30ml olive oil
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 2 x 800g tins of chopped tomatoes
- 1 ½ tablespoons harissa
- A handful of basil, leaves picked and chopped
- A handful of parsley, chopped
- Salt and pepper
Method
- Rip the flatbread into pieces and soak them in the milk for 10 minutes.
- Once soaked, put the bread into a mixing bowl, add the minced lamb and stir in the parsley, mint, oregano, garlic and some seasoning.
- Mix well, then roll the mixture into walnut-sized balls (about 20g each).
- Either using a griddle pan (the best option) or under a very hot grill, carefully brown the meatballs – this is a quick step as it's all about colouring them and not cooking them through… five minutes total cooking time, turning the meatballs three times on the griddle.
- To make the sauce, heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan and gently fry the crushed garlic.
- Tip in the chopped tomatoes and harissa and simmer for 25–30 minutes, until the sauce has reduced.
- Add in your freshly made meatballs and continue to simmer for a further 20 minutes with a lid on until the sauce looks about right.
- Lastly, stir in the herbs and have a final seasoning check - you're now ready to eat.
The Leon Cook 5 campaign
Cook 5 is a national campaign launched by co-founders of Leon restaurants, John Vincent and Henry Dimbleby, aimed at getting the UK’s children to learn to Cook 5 things before the age of 16. Participation is simple: children are invited to register on the Cook 5 website, where 15 guideline recipes are provided. All entrants are encouraged to learn to Cook 5 of these savoury dishes and upload photos of their own culinary creations to the site as they go along – mistakes and all!
Moroccan Meatballs is taken from Leon Ingredients and Recipes by Allegra McEvedy, published by Conran Octopus (photography by Georgia Glynn Smith)
