chicken & zucchini balls with cayenne yoghurt

Given one of my many great life ideas is to open a meatball shop called balls (don’t steal my idea please), it should be of no surprise that I am a huge sucker for a good meatball. As you know, I do love squeezing the sausage meat out of its skin, but probably, I love squishing mince together more. While mainly, meatballs are seen as an Italian thing, these middle eastern ones (inspired by Ottolenghi, obviously) are way quicker and bullet proof amazing. I’m feeling hummus, pita breads and olives and Bobs your uncle!

Chicken & Zucchini Balls with Cayenne Yoghurt
Serves 6 as a side

Ingredients
Chicken balls:
Olive oil
250g chicken mince
1 green zucchini, grated
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 brown onion, chopped
Handful of chopped spring onion
1 egg
Handful of chopped coriander and mint
2tsp ground cumin
1tsp sumac
1tsp cayenne
Salt and pepper
Plain flour for dusting

Cayenne yoghurt:
10tbs plain yoghurt
1tbs cayenne pepper
1 clove of crushed garlic
3tbs olive oil
1tsp salt

Method
Preheat your oven to 180 then heat a little olive oil in a pan add sweat the onion and garlic over a low heat. Once the onion is translucent and soft, leave aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together, including the cooled onion and garlic then form golf ball sized balls using your hands. Place on a large tray and sprinkle with the flour, rolling them around until completely covered.

Heat a few big glugs of oil in a large pan and fry the balls on a high heat until caramelised on all sides (you’re not cooking them all the way through here, just browning). Place the meatballs on a lined baking tray and bake for 30 minutes.

While the meatballs are in the oven mix the yoghurt ingredients together until smooth. Delish delish delish.