This dinner was a delicious surprise – many of my favourite ingredients all on one plate, so I’m not sure what I expected anything less! Tabbouleh is a salad I have enjoyed for many years. It seemed very exotic when Mum made it for us in country Biloela, we would often have it with our Sunday BBQ lunch when other families would have been having an iceberg lettuce salad instead. Tabbouleh is really a parsley salad, with a little bit of burghul, tomato, onion and lemon to bring it all together. You can serve it with any grilled meat or wrap a few spoons in a lettuce leaf. It tastes better once it has had time to sit for a while so you can make it ahead of time or eat it the next day.
The lamb marinade is easy to prepare and you can use any cut of lamb – I used a small rolled lamb roast this time but lamb chops or back strap would work well too. The final part of this meal was the skordalia. I have never heard of it before and the ingredients don’t sound like they will work but they really do. The soft flavours from the roasted garlic combined with the nutty texture the almond meal gives to the potatoes is really, really good. I couldn’t stop myself from eating it straight from the saucepan and it tasted delicious warm or cold.
Tabbouleh
Ingredients
- 1 bunch flat leave parsley
- 1 handful mint leaves
- 1-2 lemons
- 2 tbs fine burghul
- 3-4 tomatoes, diced
- 4 spring onions (or a little bit of red onion)
Method
- Juice the lemons and pour over the burghul in your serving bowl and allow to sit for about 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, finely slice the parsley, chop the tomatoes and onion.
- Mix all together with a splash of olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.
Lamb marinated in za’atar and sumac
Ingredients
- 3 tbs za’atar
- 1 tbs sumac
- 1-2 tbs olive oil
- 4 lamb back straps (or whatever you are cooking/eating)
Method
- Mix the marinade ingredients together and massage into the lamb. Allow to marinade for as long as you can – as with any marinade, the longer the better!
- Cook the lamb using your preferred method, for your preferred time.
Skordalia
Ingredients
- 3 bulbs of garlic
- 800g potatoes
- 3 tbs almond meal
- 1 tbs boiling water
- 5 tbs olive oil
- juice from 1 lemon
Method
- Wrap the garlic bulbs separately in foil and roast in a 180C oven for 20-30 minutes until soft.
- Steam or boil potato until soft. Mash with a potato masher or use a ricer (my preferred method!)
- Squeeze the garlic from its skins into the mashed potatoes, and add almond meal, water and lemon and stir together.
- Add the olive oil in a slow stream and continue stirring, then season with salt and pepper to taste.
