What's the number one thing you grill this summer?
For us, it's surprisingly not burgers, it's kafta.
(soft music)
Hey, guys, I'm Yumna, aka Feel Good Foodie, and I'm here
to answer all your important questions about kafta.
Like, first of all, what's kafta
and why do we grill it so much?
The good news is, all you really need
to make this recipe is some ground beef, onions, parsley
and a few spices.
This is the Lebanese style kafta that I grew up having
and there's so many different variations of this recipe
with different spices and ways to make it.
It's essentially a Mediterranean meatball recipe
that comes out juicy and flavorful
and perfect to enjoy all summer.
So let's get started because I'm getting hungry.
We're gonna start by chopping some parsley
and I like to do this in the food processor,
so we're gonna start with 1/2 a cup of parsley.
You wanna make sure that the parsley is dry,
so that when you process it it doesn't wilt down,
so make sure to dry it a day before if possible.
All right, that's all we need.
So we're gonna take the parsley that we just processed
and throw it back onto the plate.
Don't worry if there's some of it left over.
Next, we're gonna take a small onion
and we're just gonna trim off the ends
and then you just wanna cut 'em in about half
so just quartering the onion and throwing that
in the food processor.
We'll process that for just about 30 seconds
to break down the onions.
And, don't worry, if you don't have a food processor,
you can just chop the onion by hand
and chop the parsley by hand as well
and then mix everything together.
I do like doing it in the food processor
because it makes it a little bit easier.
So I'm gonna transfer the parsley back
into the food processor and you can use flat leaf parsley
or curly leaf parsley, which is more traditional.
And to that, we're gonna add one pound of ground beef.
I like to use a lean ground beef that has 10 to 15% of fat
because we're not adding any eggs to this recipe.
Essentially, it's like a meatball recipe
and all the fat from it comes from the beef.
So we're gonna go ahead and transfer that
to the food processor and now it's time to add the spices.
So a lot of Middle Eastern stores
will carry a kafta spice.
There's even a chicken kafta spice and a beef kafta spice,
so there's lots of different ones to choose from.
If you can't find one like that,
it's so easy to throw it together with some common spices.
We'll start with two teaspoons of seven spice,
half a teaspoon of cumin, half a teaspoon of cinnamon,
half a teaspoon of coriander.
You can also use caraway.
And you can add like an 1/8 of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper
if you want or you can just leave it out.
Finally, just some salt and pepper.
I like to do half a teaspoon of salt
and 1/4 of a teaspoon of black pepper.
Now we're gonna pulse the beef with the parsley, onions,
and spices just until combined.
You don't wanna over mix it because
that can create really tough, chewy meat after it's cooked.
Now let's transfer the mixture
from the food processor to a bowl.
Now we're gonna take the mixture and form into meatballs.
But what's different about kafta versus meatballs
is the shape of it is an oblong shape versus a round shape.
So just take some of the mixture with your hands
and you can first form it into a ball like this
and then roll it around to form it into an oblong shape.
And if you're grilling these outside,
you can add them to a wooden skewer.
We're just gonna use an indoor grill today,
so it makes things a little bit easier,
and there's no need for that skewer.
And this is what you're looking for.
So we're gonna continue and this mixture
should make about eight kaftas.
All right, we've got a plate full of the kafta,
now it's time to cook them.
And I'm just gonna place them right on the grill pan.
While the kafta's cooking, we're gonna go ahead
and make Lebanese rice that goes perfectly with this.
This is vermicelli and we're gonna go ahead
and cook until nice and browned.
After you fry the vermicelli, it's time to add the rice.
I'm using long grain Basmati rice that I've rinsed
and drained and we wanna add half a teaspoon of salt.
Now just toast the rice with the vermicelli
and add four cups of water for two cups of rice.
This is a rice that I make three to four times
a month for my family.
We all love it so much and it goes so well
with so many Lebanese recipes, especially kafta.
We're gonna cook the rice for 15 minutes
and then while that's cooking let's check up on the kafta
and it's looking really good.
All right, it's time to plate it.
So you can have this as is by itself, with a salad,
in a pita, and my favorite way to serve it,
is actually with Lebanese rice.
So this is the rice that we just cooked
and I'm just going to take this and put it
into a big serving platter.
All right, and here's the kafta that we just cooked.
So I'm just gonna go ahead and plate this on top of the rice
and this is the way I would serve it for a dinner party
or if I'm having some people over so that everybody takes
a little bit of the rice, a little bit of the kafta,
and everyone's a happy camper.
And we're just gonna garnish it
with a little bit of parsley.
All right, and here's the final product
of the Lebanese style kafta.
This is such a great, easy recipe for the summertime.
You can also make it all year long if you use
an indoor grill pan or you can even bake it in the oven.
It comes out juicy, flavorful,
and everybody always loves it.
All right, time to dig in.
Look how juicy that kafta looks on the inside
and the rice is nice and buttery and simple
and it just goes so well together.
(soft music)
That came out so good.
Just the way my mom would make it.
And there's so much to love about this recipe
so I hope you guys try it and love it as well.
If you try it, DM me, tweet me, Facebook me,
or send me a comment on the website
and let me know how you like it.
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See you guys next time.