Sesame-Spiced Turkey Meatball and Smashed Chickpea Salad
- 1 pound (455 grams) ground turkey
- â…” cup (40 grams) fresh breadcrumbs (from 1 to 2 slices sandwich bread)
- ¼ cup (60 ml) water
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 1 large egg
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon Aleppo pepper
- Pinch of cayenne pepper, or ¼ teaspoon Aleppo red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons (15 grams) sesame seeds, toasted
- Olive oil, to coat pan
Instructions:
Sumac is a dark-red ground powder that tastes almost like a sour paprika and is used a lot in Middle Eastern cooking. Here, it’s dreamy, and adds an extra dimension to the tart lemon-garlic dressing.
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Combine all of the meatball ingredients in a medium bowl with a fork, breaking up the clumps of meat until the ingredients are evenly distributed. Form turkey mixture into 1½-inch, or golf-ball-sized, meatballs, and arrange them on a tray. I find wet hands make it easier to form the meatballs and keep them from getting sticky.
- Heat a generous slick of oil in a large ovenproof sauté pan. Brown the meatballs in batches, being careful not to crowd the pan or nudge them before they are nicely browned. These meatballs are soft, so use a gentle hand. Transfer the meatballs to a paper-towel-lined tray, and continue cooking in more batches until they are all 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 preheated oven. Bake until a thermometer reads an internal temperature of 160 to 165 degrees, or about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Serve with smashed chickpeas.