Baked Kibbeh

What Goes With It

• Thick yoghurt or labneh
• Fattoush or tabbouleh
• Pickled turnips and olives

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Tabbouleh, Fattoush Salad, Flatbread.

Making Baked Kibbeh, Step by Step

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1. Cover the bulgur with cold water and soak 20 minutes, then drain and squeeze it very dry in a cloth.

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2. For the filling, fry the pine nuts in the olive oil until golden and lift out. Fry the onions 10 minutes, add the lamb and brown 8 minutes, then the spices, salt and pomegranate molasses. Cook 3 minutes, fold in the pine nuts and cool.

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3. For the shell, blitz the onion to a paste in a food processor, then add the lean lamb, spices, salt and pepper and blitz to a smooth paste.

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4. Add the squeezed bulgur and blitz again, trickling in the iced water, until the mixture is completely smooth and holds together like clay.

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5. Heat the oven to 190°C / 375°F and oil a 30 x 22 cm tin.

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6. Wet your hands and press half the shell mixture into the tin in an even layer about 1 cm thick.

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7. Spread the cooled filling over it, right to the edges.

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8. Press the remaining shell mixture out between wet palms into flat pieces and lay them over the filling, smoothing the joins with wet fingers until seamless.

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9. Score the top into diamonds with a wet knife, cutting only halfway through, press a thumb into the centre, and pour the melted butter (or olive oil) over.

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10. Bake 40 to 45 minutes until deep golden and firm. Rest 10 minutes before cutting along the score lines.

    Mark done Start 40 min timer

Related guides: Prep, cook and total time · Pan and tin size.

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A Few Notes

Keep your hands wet throughout. The shell mixture sticks to everything dry.

Very lean lamb for the shell, fattier for the filling. Fat in the shell makes it split as it bakes.

Fine bulgur, not coarse. Coarse bulgur will not bind into a paste.

Keeping What's Left

Refrigerate up to 3 days and freeze 3 months, baked or unbaked. Reheat at 180°C / 350°F for 15 minutes.

Baked Kibbeh: Your Questions Answered

Nutrition per Serving

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

Dairy-free when made with olive oil rather than butter.

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