This is a fantastic dish for anyone who loves meatballs and spice. And who doesn’t love that? Harrisa paste is a typical north African mixture of chile’s and spices. These flavors go perfectly with lamb and tomato. The yogurt is the compliment that cools your mouth from the spice. A very easy recipe to pull off at home and could be a great alternative to the usual super bowl food. Here is the recipe, I hope you enjoy it!

Recipe Ingredients

Tunisian Meatballs

1 1/2 lb of ground lamb

2/3 cup of panko

1 egg

4 garlic cloves minced

1/2 onion minced

1/3 cup of spicy harissa paste

1 tbsp of dill

2 tbsp of dried harissa spice

1 tbsp of sumac

2 tbsp of ras el hanout

1 tbsp of curry spice

salt and pepper to taste

Tomato sauce

1 onion diced

32 oz of diced tomatoes

1/2 cup of water

3 garlic cloves

1/3 cup of harissa paste

1 tbsp of paprika

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup of greek yogurt

dill sprigs to garnish

Recipe Instructions

How to make lamb Meatballs,

Grind the lamb meat yourself making sure you have ice cold attachments for your meat grinder or have your local butcher grind it for you. Add all the other ingredients to stainless steel bowl with the meat and mix well. Take a small saute pan on high heat with a tsp of olive oil and cook 1/2 oz of the meatball mixture. Taste the meatball to see how it tastes. If everything tastes perfect then set aside for the pasta, if not adjust the meatball to what you think it needs to be perfect (more spice? more salt?, more herbs?). Once you have the taste just right, using a wet hand form the meatballs and place them in a large saute pan with 2 tbsp of olive oil. Cook for 4 minutes and then flip the meatballs over and add the onions from the sauce to the pan.

How to make harissa tomato sauce,

Meanwhile in a vitamix blender add garlic, diced tomatoes, water, harissa, paprika, and salt to it. Puree for 20 seconds. If it is a little bit chunky its okay. After another 4 minutes of cooking the other side of the meatballs pour in the tomato sauce over top the meatballs. Cover the pan and lightly simmer for 30 minutes. Taste the tomato sauce and adjust the seasoning if need be.

To Finish,

Simply add a few meatballs to a bowl with sauce. Top each meatball with yogurt. Garnish with dill, a drizzle of olive oil. Serve and enjoy!

Tunisian Lamb Meatballs