Grilled Lamb Pitas (Arayes)

Name: Grilled Lamb Pitas (Arayes)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Middle Eastern

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roubashahin.com.au

Mains

Scrumptious, savoury grilled lamb pitas filled with minced lamb, spices, tomato, and onion are perfect for a quick weeknight meal.

PREP TIME

10 minutes

COOK TIME

15 minutes

strain

20 minutes

SERVES

About this recipe

Grilled lamb pitas are the street food of the Middle East. Scrumptious yet simple, these savoury flatbread filled with minced lamb, spices, tomato, and onion are perfect for a quick weeknight meal that everyone will love. It’s as simple as combine-spread-cook.

It doesn’t matter how you decide to cook these lamb pitas — you can either toast them or bake them in the oven. Just remember they need to be crispy, juicy, and hot. We almost always barbecue them and enjoy them with yogurt and cucumber salad and olives, of course.

As much as I love my fresh herbs, this recipe doesn’t call for any. My mother-in-law insists fresh herbs would overpower the flavour, and I agree.

Ingredients

Main Ingredients

6-8 flatbread (pocket size)
softened butter for spreading

Filling

500 grams lamb mince
1 onion finely chopped
2 tomatoes finely diced
1 tablespoon sumac
1 tablespoon bharat/7 spice
4 tablespoon lemon juice
½ cup olive oil
salt to season

Notes from Rouba

You can find Bharat or 7-spice blend at Middle Eastern grocery stores and various supermarkets. Otherwise, you can substitute with Allspice.
You could easily toast the lamb pitas in a press down toaster or cook them on the barbecue.

Method

Step 1.

Preheat the fan-forced oven to 180°.

Combine all the filling ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Strain in a sieve for 20 minutes allowing the excess liquid to drain through and for the flavours to infuse.

Step 2.

Open the pita in half and spread lightly with butter on both sides. Fill with about 5-6 Tbs of the mince mixture, making sure to flatten it out so that the filling is evenly spread in and around the pita. Do not overfill as the mixture could remain raw in the centre.

Step 3.

Brush both sides of the pita with butter or olive oil and arrange on a tray lined with a baking sheet (be generous with the oil/butter when brushing). Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 10-15 minutes or until golden crispy on both sides and the inside is cooked through.

Alternatively, you can cook these delicious pitas in a griddle pan. Here I’m using my griddle stove.