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Killer Kofta Bites are a play on one of the all-time greatest spiced meats of the world, kofta kebab. Kofta is typically loaded onto a skewer, grilled, and eaten with tahini sauce or toum, bread and trimmings. My kofta bites are loaded with fresh herbs and spices (find them in my shop here!) and baked. Easy. Killer.
What is Kofta?
Could not be simpler: start with ground meat. Traditionally kofta is made with lamb or beef, or even chicken or pork. Then, season, highly! Seasonings can be adjusted to your tastes and spice drawer, but great kofta flavor is made with onion, finely chopped fresh mint and parsley, dried mint and sumac or 7 Spice.
Can I use any meat?
For kofta bites, where we’re making little popper meatballs, a lower fat ratio is best. I use ground beef most often, with a 90-10 lean fat ratio (that means just 10% fat).
Fried, Grilled, or baked.
Kofta is grilled on skewers, but taking the kofta meat concept and shaping it in burgers or meatballs gives us a lot more options to eat kofta more often.
The meatballs are of course wonderful pan-fried in a saute pan with some olive oil. But baked kofta bites are so delicious baked that this is my preferred cooking method. Be sure not to over-bake them, which means staying close by and taking their internal temp up to 135 degrees.
Grilled meatballs would also be flavorful, but the meatballs would need to rest on a grill pan so they don’t fall through the grates. Use indirect heat to avoid torching the exterior before the interior is done.
Sauce it up!
Killer kofta is killer all on its own because of the flavor bomb created by the seasonings. But who doesn’t love to dip? Use tahini sauce, garlic toum sauce, or cool yogurt laban/labneh mixed with dried mint and/or fresh herbs.
When you have a crowd, make a ton of kofta bites and serve them with an array of several sauces. Fun!
Make ahead.
Kofta bites can be shaped, frozen on a sheet pan, then combined in freezer bags. Bake them from frozen, allowing an extra 10 minutes or so.
Killer Kofta Bites
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean (90-10) ground beef or lamb
- 2 tablespoons minced or grated yellow onion
- 10 fresh spearmint leaves, finely chopped
- Handful Parsley leaves (flat or curly), finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon sumac
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon crushed dried mint
- 1 recipe tahini sauce (click here!)
Instructions
- Line a sheet pan with foil or parchment paper. Heat the oven to 350°F.
- In a medium bowl, gently mix the ground meat with all of the seasonings.
- Shape the meatballs using a heaping tablespoon of the meat mixture. Be ginger about shaping; too much handling makes these less tender. Place the meatballs on the prepared sheet pan about an inch apart.
- Bake for about 10 minutes, or until a thermometer registers 135°F.
- Serve the kofta meatballs immediately with tahini sauce.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Do you ever make the kofta bites early and freeze.
If so, how do you reheat without drying out.
Jan that’s a great question. Freeze them uncooked–and to do that they need to be frozen in a single layer on a sheet pan, not touching each other, and then they can be piled in a bag and frozen like that. Thaw again in a single layer on a pan, and bake from there. You’re right, these need TLC to avoid drying them out!
Oh oh my goodness, Maureen Abood, I made your Kafka meat balls. We all fell into a food coma. I have never tasted anything so delicious. Thank you for instructing me and the world on Arabic food and other regional foods.
I am from Dearborn MI and have the great fortune to be part of the Arabic food explosion. Especially, grocery stores, bakeries, specialty stores. Dessert shops.
Thank you so much!!!
This is so great Elaine! We love them too. Thank you!
Maureen thank you so much for sharing your delicious recipes. I’m Lebanese on my mother side and I love the crunchy bread that’s in Fattoush but the spice of sumac I can taste it all day it just doesn’t settle with my stomach. And I’m reading your recipes and I was wondering if there’s anything that will substitute that spice. I cook the Lebanese food that I was raised on and learned from my Sitto and my mom. It’s so strange because we are a Abraham and Zakia Haddad family, next to my grandmother lived by a family Amos and Agnes Farhat next door they had 2 children Rosemond and Joe Farhat. Watched your video with your cousin about making bread. My Sitto made flat bread we called it Talama. Like a big pizza I seem to remember sesame seeds were in it. No one in the family has her recipe. I have some for meals she and mom made. Not for any of the bread dough. Are they all in your cookbook. Where can I get your book and how much is it. Thank you and God bless you Maureen.
Carol thank you for all of this! Wonderful. You can get my signed cookbook in my shop here. You can leave the sumac out and you can increase the lemon juice. Also za’atar is delicious here, or more dried mint.