Minced Meat Health Benefits & Popular Recipes

Minced meat is the most popular and everyone's favourite ingerdeient when it comes to ground beef.

The reasons why minced meat ia that popular is how easy it is to cook, the number of healthy meals it takes part in, and how you can find in everyone's favourite dish! This is why it is a very popular go-to ingredient. 

Minced meat is also known as Ground meat and it is meat that is chopped up using a meat grinder or by a knife. You can see minced me in a number of different dishes, it can be cooked by itself or it can be included with other ingredients as well. In some dishes such as kebab or shish tawook, it is vooked using a skewer. It can also be shaped in roder to make patties that you can grill or fry and make hamburgers. Sometimes it is also made into meatloaves and bake it. Minced beef is an easy and a very rich source of protien when we speak of healthy foods. This kind of meat is used in the Middle East as there is so many uses for it while being one of the easist kind of meat to cook. For this reason, we came up with a few Middle-Eastern recipes for you to try out.

Kabab & Kofta

A very famous traditional dish in the Middle-Eastern culture is Kabab & Kofta, widely used in Egypt. Its ingredients include minced or ground meat of either beef or lamb that is seasoned with alot of spices and also onions, garlic and parsley. The kabab is grilled on the stove with the use of a cast iron grill pan. The dish is then served in bread, wrap, over rice or in a salad. You have many options! Kabab and Kofta has spread out as popular dish in South-Asian countries as well.

Ingredients

The ingredients used in Kabab & Kofta can be found anywhere. Even the spices can be found at any local store and easily found in our Nahda store. There are certain main spices that are neccessary to use to make the best Kabab & Kofta dish. The main spices are black pepper, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, and coriander. There are also variations to those spices. As for the meat, it is better to use lean ground meat instead of regular ground or minced meat.

1. 1.5 lb extra lean minced meat
2. 1 onion
3. 2 cups packed parsley
4. 4 cloves of garlic
5. 1 teaspoon cumin
6. ½ teaspoon paprika
7. ½ teaspoon black pepper
8. 1.5 teaspoon salt
9. 2 teaspoons onion powder
10. 4 tablespoons olive oil 
11. 1 tablespoon flour

Instructions

1. Add olive oil to a grill pan and heat it up 
2. Shape the kofta into a 3 or 4 inch long pieces
3. Grill the pieces for about 2-3 minutes on each of its sides

Cooking Kabab & Kofta

STEP 1: ASSEMBLE THE VEGETABLES.

Start cutting and dicing the onions, garlic and parsley. 

STEP 2: SHAPING AND GRILLING THE KOFTA.

The kofta can then be shapped with your hands into flat circles like a burger or they can be shaped into logs using skewers. It is then grilled after shapping on the oiled grill being a little heated for a few minutes on every side.

Serving the Kabab & Kofta

Kabab & Kofta is an appetizing dish that is served in many different ways, it is also usually stored up in the freezer for this reason. The most common ways to serve, however is as rods over rice or salad. This is the most common way in Egypt.

Another way to serve Kabab and Kofta is to wrap them or stuff them in bread in order to make a Shawerma. In order to give it that special Middle Eastern touch, it can be layered with salad or vegetables.

Arayes

One food made with minced meat is the Middle-Eastern, mostly popular in Lebanon, is Arayes. This is a street food made of flatbread or pita stuffed with meat, commonly ground meat or kofta. The dish in Egypt is made in Egypt as well named Hawawshi. It is usually served with fries and a dipping such as Tahini.

The same ingredients used in Kofta are the same ingredients used in Arayes. However, in order to add an extra middle-eastern flavor for the dish, you may add some pomegranate molasses.

Ingredients

Minced meat: All you need for this dish is one pound of minced beef, preferably lean meat. 

Onions & Garlic:The onions are used to give moisture to the mixture of minces meat and the garlic is to helg give it a flavor.

Oil: According to your own taste, use any kind of oil you find suitable.

Tomato Paste: In the meat mixture, it will give a special delicious taste.

Seasonings: For the seasoning, you will need a great deal of spices for this dish. The spices include salt, Boharat, cumin, paprika and cinnamon.

1. 1 pound minced meat
2. 1 tbsp parsley, chopped
3. 1 tsp paprika
4. 1 tsp ground cumin
5. 1 tsp salt
6. 1 tsp Boharat
7. 1/2 tsp black pepper
8. 1/2 tsp paprika 
9. 1/2 tsp cinnamon
10. 2-3 pita breads
11. vegetable oil or your choice of oil

INSTRUCTIONS

STEP 1: Knead the minced beef or lamb in a deep bowl until completly blended together.

STEP 2: Blend the onions and parsley in a food processor until they make a thick paste.

STEP 3: Cut the pita breads to equal pieces and put a few tablespoons of the blended meat inside each piece and press on the mixture forming a thin layer.

Grill these pieces in a cast iron grill pan or bake them in the air fryer. You can also put them on a wire rack over a baking sheet and bake in the oven until their color turns golden.

STEP 4: Finally serve the Arayes a dipping of your choice, most commonly used dipping sauce is Tahini.