Sesame-Spiced Turkey Meatballs & Smashed Chickpea Salad

Amarante

Sun, Dec 06 2015, 9:08 am

This was very good and relatively easy. Salad can be made ahead of time. I just served as a main with meatballs on top but you could stuff in pita or as a wrap.

I would suggest doubling salad as its really tasty.

Sesame-Spiced Turkey Meatballs & Smashed Chickpea Salad

recipe from: Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perlman

Ingredients:

For the meatballs:

1 lb (455 grams) ground turkey
2/3 cup (40 grams) fresh bread crumbs
1/4 cup (60 ml) water
1 teaspoon table salt
1 large egg
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
Pinch of cayenne pepper
2 Tablespoons (15 grams) sesame seeds, toasted
olive oil to coat pan

For the Chickpea Salad:

1 3/4 cups (440 grams) cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Handful of pitted, halved, and very thinly sliced green olives
1/2 teaspoon ground sumac, plus more for garnish
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika (we do like our spice!)
Chopped fresh cilantro (Deb uses parsley, but we love cilantro, so?)
2 Tablespoon (30 ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 small garlic clove, minced
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon table salt
Olive oil
Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 ? F. Combine all of the meatball ingredients in a medium bowl with a fork, breaking up the clumps of meat until ingredients are well combined. Form the turkey mixture into golf-ball sized meatballs. Arrange them on a parchment paper lined baking tray.

Heat oil in a large ovenproof saut? pan. Brown the meatballs in batches, taking care not to crowd the pan. Transfer the meatballs to a paper-towel lined tray and continue cooking until all of the meatballs have been browned.

Discard the oil and wipe all but a thin layer from the pan. Return all of the meatballs to the pan and transfer to the preheated oven. Bake until a thermometer reads and internal temperature of 160 to 165?, or about 10 to 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare chickpea salad. Mix all of the ingredients with the exception of the olive oil in a medium-sized bowl. Very lightly smash the chickpea mixture with the back of a fork or a potato masher. Continue to smash the chickpeas until you reach a consistency somewhere between hummus and a coarse chop. Dress the chickpeas with a drizzle of olive oil and stir to combine. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve meatballs on top of the chickpea salad.