Zucchini Kefta

by Rekha Kakkar
In Cuisine · Mediterranean
— 21 Jan, 2011

I love to cook Mediterranean food as like Indian food it is intense in flavour and spices like cumin, coriander, fennel, paprika are used which are so familiar.Though a like to have variety in my food, but something which you can connect with is easy to adapt.

One such dish is kefta which is a originally a meatball baked or deep fried and served along with variety of sauces such as Tomato, Tahini, and Yogurt.
These are called (kefta or Kufta) in the Middle east, (kufteh ) in Iran , (köfte) in Turkey,(kyufta) in Armenia and travelled all the way to India in the name our own kofta. I adapted this Moroccan recipe to this vegetarian version of my own to serve along with tagine sauce.

Ingredients
Zucchini Balls with Mint

Zucchini grated 1 cup
Cilantro 4 tbsp
Potato flakes ½ cup or mashed potato 1/3 cup
Salt 1 tsp
Oil for deep frying

For Tagine Sauce

4 medium sized tomatoes
1 medium onion, very finely chopped (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground red chili pepper
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)
2 tbsp olive oil

Directions
Grate tomatoes in a skillet and place it over medium heat. Add rest of the ingredients for the sauce as well and cover it.Traditionally it is made in tagine which is a thick bottomed vessel so it takes lot of time to cook. I don’t have tagine at home.. but can it deter me to try it out in my modest skillet.. well as you can see .. NO!

Once the sauce starts simmering in about 5-7 minutes reduce the heat to the lowest temperature and let the sauce to cook while you prepare kefta.

Grate zucchini and press it by placing grated zucchinis in a clean kitchen towel to remove water (do this above a pan to collect zucchini water which you can use in sauce if you are making kefta).

Take a mixing bowl and mix potato flakes, grated zucchini, mint leaves, and bread crumbs (I make my own from leftover whole wheat bread).Season it with salt and chili powder.

Make small balls out of this mixture and keep them aside.

Heat enough oil in a deep frying pan for frying these keftas. sometimes i bake them and other times a make them deep frying, hey all you health conscious ones ; dont raise your eyebrows please coz i am one amongst you …. but sometimes we also need to indulge.. here i am hearing a chorus .. yes moderation is the key!! just take care to indulge in moderation.

Whenever you are frying take care that oil should be real hot(unless your recipe demands it), your cutlets, pakora or koftas will absorb very less oil . After frying take out these kefta on an absorbent kitchen tissue paper to remove excess oil.

Now these are ready to assemble. Take out ladel ful of sauce on a serving plate and place two kefta balls over it . Serve it along with Moroccan Pilaf or Pita bread.

Linking this to Ananda,s A Pinch of Love ~ Zucchini Time

— Rekha Kakkar

Rekha Kakkar is a food photographer and stylist based in New Delhi India . She loves to explore all kinds of lifestyle photography , passionate about nutrition and healthy food and loves to share stories around it, often with some glimpses from her day to day life.