By Ester Shaffer from Red Clay Farms

I tried a Turkish theme the other night! Red lentil patties wrapped in sweet chard, with Turkish bread, and pickled okra – yum! It had been a while since I had Turkish bread. We were just missing the hummus and eggplants, but you can add that if you try this recipe!

Let’s start with the meatballs – I used this recipe from Vidarbergum.

Ingredients:
175g red lentils
400ml water
80g fine bulgur (try a bag of our stone-ground wheat grain)
3 Tbsp olive oil, I use a mild extra virgin
1 large onion, finely chopped
50g tomato paste
25g Turkish hot red pepper paste
½ tsp ground cumin
½ small red onion, very finely chopped
3 medium spring onions (green onions/scallions), very finely chopped
25g flat-leaf parsley (Italian parsley), leaves only, finely chopped
salt and pepper

To serve:
1 lemon, cut into wedges
crispy green salad leaves

How to make it:
1. Add the lentils and water to a pot. Bring to a boil. Put a lid on it, turn the heat down to low/medium and leave to simmer until the lentils are completely falling apart, 20-25 minutes. Take off the heat, add the bulgur and mix well. Put the lid back on and leave to cool.

2. Meanwhile, heat a sauté pan over medium heat. Fry the onion in the olive oil until soft, but not coloured, 8-10 minutes. Stir regularly to ensure it doesn’t catch. Add the tomato paste, red pepper paste and cumin. Fry for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly. Leave to cool.

3. Once everything has cooled, mix all the ingredients (save the lemon and salad leaves) well and season to taste with salt and pepper. Using your hands is easiest. The mixture should be very smooth. If it’s looking a little dry, adjust with some more extra virgin olive oil.

4. Shape the mixture into lentil meatballs. I like to press my fingers against the palm of the same hand to get a nice, wavy pattern – but any shape will do. Dip your hand in a little water or oil every now and again to avoid it sticking to your skin.

5. Serve with lemon wedges and crispy green salad leaves.

We served this with no-kneed Turkish bread.

I used this recipe from Lazy Cat Kitchen.

Ingredients:
250g bread flour
7g instant dried yeast
¾ cup warm water
2 tsp caster/fine sugar
1 tsp fine salt
1 tbsp olive oil, for glazing
handful of white and black sesame seeds

How to make it:
1. Mix the flour, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl.

2. Create a small well in the middle of the flour and add the yeast. Pour the water into the well and mix everything together with your hands. At this stage the dough should be very wet and fairly hard to manage.

3. Cover the mixing bowl with cling film and leave to prove for about one hour (or until it has doubled in size).

4. Flour a work surface and tip the proven dough out onto the work surface making sure to add lots of flour to avoid sticking. Shape the dough into a flat circle (about 2-3 cm high).

5. Place the dough on an olive oil-greased baking tray. Cover the dough with a tea towel and leave to prove for another 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 480° F in the last 20 minutes of this time.

6. Dent the top of the dough by first drawing a rough inner circle (with your fingertips) of about 3 cm from the edge of the bread. Then fill in the centre of the inner circle with criss-crossed diagonal lines about 2-3 cm apart (see 2nd picture in this recipe to get the idea).

7. Using a pastry brush, coat the top of the bread with olive oil. Sprinkle with black and white sesame seeds and press the seeds in as far as you can to make sure that they stay in the bread.

8. Bake the bread for 8 minutes at 480° F and then turn the oven down to 390° F and bake for another 5 minutes (or until golden brown).

NOTES:
1. Everyone loved the meal, but I would say the meatballs needed more salt.

2. For the Turkish bread I put minced garlic on the top before baking and that came out really crunchy and yummy. Next time I’m going to put some minced garlic in the dough and some parsley and garlic powder.. make it more of a garlic bread base.

3. I also used Red Clay Farms garlic, onions, chard, and I actually used onion greens instead of green onion because that’s out of season – we had thrown out some onions and they sprouted green shoots and I just used those!

Stop by our booth on Wednesdays to grab ingredients you need to make your own! I look forward to hearing about what you create!