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26th July 2017
Comfort | Family | Kids | lamb | Leon | Mains | Recipes

Harissa & herb Moroccan meatballs

Delicious Moroccan style meatballs

Years ago, when I was working in London I would sometimes pick up my lunch in Leon, and one of my absolute favourites was the Moroccan meatballs. They would serve these with brown rice with toasted seeds, and an amazing homemade coleslaw (and I HATE normal coleslaw, but this was lovely and crunchy and not covered in sloppy mayonnaise!). Unfortunately we don’t have Leon restaurants down in Devon, but I do have 2 of their cookbooks, which I have used SO much! This one is the absolute classic which I use all the time- one of my all time favourite meals Not too spicy chicken cous cous is in this, as well as loads more brilliant recipes: Leon: Ingredients & Recipes. 

I’ve based this recipe mainly on the Leon one, but I have cut down the manual labour by using a food processor, and have adjusted the ingredients slightly for my tastes. I made this for a group of friends and they all really enjoyed it- it’s a great one to serve up on a big platter for a group! The key is definitely in the fresh herbs, and allowing a long cooking time for the tomato sauce.

If you can get hold of the reduced-fat lamb mince (10%) then you can keep the syns low on Slimming World- they sell it in Waitrose, Sainsburys and sometimes in Aldi.

 

My Recipe

Serves: 4
Syns: 3 per portion
Healthy Extra: B (1/4 B for brown bread) and B for seeds if using

Ingredients

  • For the meatballs:
  • 500g reduced-fat lamb mince (10%)
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • handful fresh mint
  • handful fresh parsley
  • 2 slices wholemeal bread (torn up)
  • 1 egg
  • For the sauce:
  • 2 tins chopped tomatoes
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 1 green chilli, seeds removed
  • handful fresh parsley
  • handful fresh basil
  • 1 tbsp harissa paste
  • 2 tsp honey
  • salt and pepper
  • low calorie cooking spray

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180c.
  2. To make the sauce, in a food processor combine the tomatoes, garlic, chilli, harissa, basil, parsley and honey and whizz up until nice and smooth. Season well (plenty of salt).
  3. Transfer to a large pan, bring up to a simmer and leave to bubble gently
  4. To make the meatballs, pop the lamb, garlic, mint, parsley, torn-up bread, egg and salt and pepper into the food processor (no need to wash up from the tomato sauce- a bit of that in there is fine!) and whizz up until well blended
  5. Roll the lamb mix into walnut-sized balls, place on a baking tray covered in greaseproof paper, spray with low calorie spray and bake for 15 minutes.
  6. Add the cooked meatballs into the tomato sauce, and allow to simmer on low for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  7. Serve with more chopped fresh parsley, brown rice, and toasted seeds

Additional Info

Perfect with brown rice and a mix of toasted sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds. Also lovely served with roasted green beans.

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