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This Lamb Kofta is full of warm spices, sautéed onions and garlic, Italian parsley and baked in the oven. These lamb kofta can be made in under 30 minutes. Eat these Middle Eastern meatballs with hummus, pita, rice and your favorite salad.
This is my dream meal. I could easily eat this for dinner at least three times a week. It’s everything I want from a well-balanced dish: there’s a lean–yet super flavorful–meat component, creamy, silky smooth hummus, rice and a refreshing salad. This type of meal truly never gets old to me! Let’s dig in.
I personally LOVE lamb. It makes a delicious Lamb Bolognese, if you’ve never tried it. I also love it in Grilled Lamb Chops and Braised Lamb Shanks. All delicious.
What Is Lamb Kofta
Kofta is a ground meat mixture from Middle Eastern and Central Asian cuisine. It’s found in many forms, using ground or minced beef, chicken, pork or lamb. And sometimes it’s a mix of a few meats together. Generally, there are spices, minced onions and garlic involved; other times, you’ll find kofta in gravy or a thick delicious sauce. It really does vary depending on the region, country and town!
Bake meatballs in the oven for easy clean-up!
I love making meatballs in the oven (see: my Spaghetti and Meatballs recipe). I find it to be fuss-free. Feel free to line the baking sheet with foil for easy clean up.
Often times you’ll find lamb kofta kebabs vs. meatballs. I like doing both depending on the time and situation!
Ingredients You’ll Need for Lamb Kofta
- Ground lamb – I love using grass-fed ground lamb for the best flavor. I personally love using New Zealand lamb from the brand Atkins Ranch. But any brand will work!
- Pine nuts – Toasted pine nuts give these meatballs a really airy and delicious texture. I love using pine nuts vs. panko bread crumbs in this particular recipe.
- Onion and garlic – I like to sauté the onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil to make it nice and softened. And then it’s blitzed in a food processor so it’s teeny tiny.
- Spices – Cumin, coriander and paprika are added to these meatballs. We like flavor!
For the rest of the ingredients, please refer to the recipe card below!
How to Make Lamb Kofta
- Toast the pine nuts. I love the pine nuts in this recipe. It adds a lovely amount of nuttiness. And then transfer them to a food processor.
- In the same pan we were using for the pine nuts, add a bit of olive oil. Add the roughly chopped onion and garlic. No need to mince it because we’re going to do that in the food processor. Cook both until softened, about 5 minutes.
- Pour the onions and garlic in the food processor.
- And then add the spices and salt. This creates a thoroughly blended spice mixture. This will help avoid little pockets of spices and salt in the meatballs. I didn’t do this the first time I tested them and one meatball was SUPER salty while another was barely seasoned. Amateur moves!
- Pulse until it’s a ground up onion and spice mixture.
- Pour the spice mixture in a bowl with the ground lamb. And then add in the fresh minced Italian parsley.
- Mix it up. You don’t want to be too rough with the mixture because you don’t want dense meatballs.
- Brush a baking sheet with about a teaspoon of olive oil or avocado oil. You don’t need a ton.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop out meatballs onto the baking sheet. I went back over the scoops and rolled them into more proper round-shaped meatballs.
- Transfer to the oven to bake for about 10 minutes. They’ll be toasty on top!
As you’ll notice, these lamb kofta aren’t made on a skewer. Well, that’s because my dog ate a skewer last year and had to go to the hospital and have surgery, so long story short, skewers are no longer allowed in our house. If you want, you can put these on skewers and grill them!
Recipe Tip
Be sure to add the spices and salt to the onion mixture. This will help avoid any pockets of salt and/or spices.
Don’t over mix the lamb mixture. This will create tough meatballs. However, you still want to mix them up because you want to be sure the onion mixture is evenly dispersed.
High oven heat. The high heat from the oven ensures super moist but delicious meatballs.
Recipe FAQs
I love these meatballs with pita, rice, beet hummus, a cucumber and tomato, grilled lemons and tzatziki sauce.
Sure! I find that the oven is easiest because it’s hands off but you can definitely cook them in batches over medium heat.
This is well-debated but they’re associated with a myriad of Middle Eastern countries such as Turkey and Lebanon. Many say the name derives from the Persian word “kufa” which means “to grind or to chop”.
Some people will add ground beef AND ground lamb, making a mix of the two. You can do that if you like. You can even add ground chicken.
What to Serve with Lamb Kofta
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Lamb Kofta Recipe
Ingredients
Lamb Kofta:
- 1/3 cup pine nuts
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ yellow onion, (peeled and roughly chopped)
- 4 cloves garlic, (peeled and smashed)
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 pound ground lamb
- 2 tablespoons finely minced Italian parsley, (from a small handful of parsley)
- 1 teaspoon olive oil, (for baking sheet)
For Serving:
- Cucumber and tomato salad , (for serving)
- Hummus, (for serving)
- Pita, (for serving)
- Grilled lemons, (for serving)
Instructions
To Make Lamb Kofta:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- In a medium skillet, set over medium heat, add the pine nuts. Toast for about 2 to 3 minutes, until lightly golden brown. Transfer to a food processor and allow to cool. Alternatively, you could chop everything up if you don't have a food processor.
- To the same medium skillet, pour in a teaspoon or two of olive oil. Add the onion and smashed garlic. Cook until softened, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer to the food processor, along with the salt, cumin, paprika and coriander. Pulse until everything is minced into small bits.
- Pour into a medium bowl. Add the lamb and finely minced Italian parsley. Mix together gently until everything is combined. Brush a half baking sheet with a teaspoon of olive oil. Using a medium cookie scoop, add mounds of the lamb kofta to the baking sheet, placing them about 2-inches apart.
- Transfer to the oven to bake for 10 minutes, until lightly golden brown on the tops and cooked throughout. Feel free to halve a lamb meatball in order to ensure doneness.
- Serve with rice, hummus, cucumber and tomato salad and pita.
To Store:
- Keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. You can reheat them in a microwave on high for 1 minute. OR you can add them to a skillet set over medium-low heat with a lid covered and cook until warmed throughout, about 5 to 7 minutes.
Notes
- Be sure to add the spices and salt to the onion mixture. This will help avoid any pockets of salt and/or spices.
- Don’t over mix the lamb mixture. This will create tough meatballs. However, you still want to mix them up because you want to be sure the onion mixture is evenly dispersed.
- The high heat from the oven ensures super moist but delicious meatballs.
- Lamb beef kofta – There are variations to this recipe and sometimes people combine ground beef and ground lamb. You can definitely do that with this recipe!
- Lamb kofta accompaniments – I like to serve this with rice, grilled lemons, hummus, a little tomato and cucumber salad and pita.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These were served to us as an appy and OMG, so perfectly seasoned and balanced. Delish! I can’t wait to try making them myself, so glad they shared your recipe.
Thanks for sharing. We had perfect dinner with your recipe. We double the recipe and used 1 1/2 tea spoon of salt. It was perfect.
Saved my Thanksgiving! Something went wrong with the turkey (don’t ask!) and I suddenly at 9:00 p.m. the night before Thanksgiving had no main dish. The only things I had in the freezer for meat were ground lamb and Italian sausage. Since a lot of our side dishes utilize Middle Eastern and Mediterranean spices anyway, I figured lamb was the way to go. I did this recipe with basically no preparation because I happened to have all of the ingredients on hand. It came out perfectly! Absolutely no changes necessary and I’ve already written this recipe down because it’s going to become a standard one in our household.
Hi PJ! Hahaha oh no! That sounds awful. I’m so glad this worked out tho. It has SO much flavor. Truly my favorite Kofta. Happy Thanksgiving!
This a very tasty recipe. I have made this twice now. First time I followed the recipe to a tee! 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt is way too much. I adjusted it to 1/2 teaspoon. Much better.
What kind of salt are you using? I find that Morton’s is more salty than Diamond Kosher salt, which is what I use. I’m glad you adjusted it!
So good – Great for people doing Whole 30! I didn’t have pine nuts or parsley on hand, but I made these anyway and they’re still delicious. I also don’t own a food processor, but I munched the onion and garlic by hand with a knife.
Made these tonight and the whole family loved them! My husband and son made theirs into a pocket. I just noticed the comment about the rice below, I’ll make that to go with it next time. Thank you for another delicious recipe!
Came out amazing!! Flavor in every bite! And super easy to make. This is my new go-to lamb kofta recipe
Hi Karin! I love to hear it. So glad you loved it 🙂
This recipe was great but it was so salty we couldn’t eat most of the meatballs.
Next time, I will eye ball the salt.