What’s for dinner? | Succulent air-fryer beef and lentil koftas with tzatziki

One of my favourites. These are easy to make and so tasty. If you prefer, you can make meatballs instead of using kebab sticks.

Serves: 4
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 12 minutes
Air-fryer temperature: 200 ºC

Ingredients

• 1 slice bread, crusts removed
• 1 large egg
• ½ onion, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 30 ml tomato paste
• 5 ml dried oregano
• 2 ml ground cumin
• 400 g beef mince
• ½ x 410 g tin of lentils, well drained
• Olive oil, for brushing
• Pita breads and salad, to serve

Tzatziki

• 200 ml Greek yoghurt
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1/3 English cucumber, grated and drained

1 Break the bread into small pieces and put in a bowl. Add the egg, grated onion, garlic, tomato paste, oregano and cumin. Mash together with a fork.

2 Add the mince and lentils, and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Mix until well combined.

3 Shape the mince mixture around wooden kebab sticks to form an oval shape. (You may
need to cut the kebab sticks shorter to fit them in the air-fryer basket.) Brush each kofta
with olive oil.

4 Preheat the air fryer to 200 ºC. Cook the koftas for 7-8 minutes in the air-fryer basket, turning them over halfway through the cooking time.

5 Tzatziki Mix the yoghurt, garlic and cucumber together.

6 Warm the pita breads in the air fryer for 3-4 minutes. Serve the koftas with the warm pita breads and tzatziki and a salad on the side.

ALSO READ: Airfryer steak slices with baked potato and amasi sauce

This is an extract taken from 30-Minute South African Air-Fryer Cookbook by Louisa Holst, published by Human & Rousseau and retailing for R380.00.