Turkey kofta

I am attempting to lose weight at the moment, this is very hard for me as I love food and I am not prepared to give up cooking, entertaining and eating out.  Therefore I have been going to the gym a little more, not something I really enjoy and trying cut down on calories.  So far 10lbs down, but 10lbs more to go. I have been eating less beef and more lean pork and chicken and trying new ways of cooking that use less olive oil and butter. This is a dish that I came up with last week that fits all the criteria and tastes good too.

Lamb kofta is something I love and make quite regularly, but ground lamb and beef for that matter are really not in the cards right now, so I tried making kofta with ground turkey.

1lb of lean ground turkey
1/2 onion chopped
1 garlic clove grated or finely chopped
2 sprigs of mint finely chopped
1 sprig of flat leaf parsley finely chopped
1 sprig of basil finely chopped
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of coriander
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste.

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

To make sure you have enough seasoning, I put a teaspoon of the mixture on a plate in the microwave for a few seconds and taste.



Another day I formed this mixture into a hamburger size and ate it like a hamburger with hummus instead of mayonnaise ketchup etc. but this day I formed in to kefta size patties.

I barbecued these patties and as there is little or no fat there is no flaring up and they only take a few minutes on either side.  They do need to be cooked through but not dried out.

I served these with some whole wheat pita bread and yogurt which I had added some grated cucumber, salt and garlic.

I had warmed the pita bread on the barbecue briefly and there was some Greek style salad to roll up in the bread as well.

I nice light fresh weight watcher friendly meal which we shared with my brother in law and youngest son who had just returned with tales of walking the west coast trail.