Pita Plate with Hummus and Spiced Beef
Serves: 2
Time: 35 minutes
Build your own dinners are very popular in our house so we eat this one pretty regularly. It’s a great one for real casual entertaining or good for kids as they can pick and choose the bits they like. My little boy always gets involved in a build your own dinner so that’s a win for us but be warned as this dinner can get pretty messy. As with a great many mince meals this one could be done with your choice of mince, I tend to stick to beef or lamb though because I like the richness with these spices. The meat is the only hot component of this dish that is hot so make sure you have everything else ready before you begin cooking so that the mince will be hot when you are ready to eat.
Leftovers
Leftovers from dinner could be turned into a yummy sambo if you didn’t toast the bread. Or a fab salad piled together.
Feeding Four?
In the feeding four shopping list I have given you extra pita bread.
What you'll need
500g beef mince
1 tub Pilpel hummus
1/2 tub of Persian feta
1 packet wholemeal pita pockets
3 cloves of garlic
1/4 bunch of mint
1/2 red onion
1 packet of cherry tomatoes
1 cup of quinoa
1 cucumber
1/2 a bunch of flat leaf parsley
1/2 lemon
From the Pantry
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
olive oil
sea salt flakes
cracked pepper
Prep and Cook
Preheat Oven to 1eighty
Cook Quinoa
Rinse your quinoa in a sieve under cold running water.
Combine in a pot with 2 cups of water and a pinch of salt and bring up to the boil.
Continue to boil until almost all the water has been absorbed, then remove from the heat, cover with a tight fitting lid, and leave to steam.
Once cool use a fork to fluff the quinoa up.
Make Salad
Slice cherry tomatoes into quarters.
Cut the cucumber into small dice.
Wash the flat leaf parsley and roughly chop, removing any large stalky bits.
Combine all together with the cooked quinoa. Drizzle with olive oil, the juice of half a lemon and season well with salt and pepper.
Peel and finely slice the red onion into semi circles but don’t add to the salad.
Toast Lebanese Bread
Peel and finely chop the garlic and mix with two tablespoons of olive.
Brush the breads on one side only and sprinkle generously with sea salt.
Lay a couple at a time flat on an oven tray and toast in the oven for 8 minutes until golden and crispy.
Remove from the oven and reload your tray to repeat until finished.
Cook Beef
Heat a large heavy based frypan with 1 tablespoon of oil
Crumble the mince into the pan and season well with salt and pepper.
Cook stirring constantly till all the meat has turned a lovely golden brown colour.
Add the paprika, ground cumin, ground coriander and mix well till combined, add 1/4 cup of water and bring up to the boil stirring continuously. Turn down to a low heat and continue to stir occasionally.
Plate it Pretty
I like to serve this on one big platter.
Generously spread hummus across one side of the platter.
Toss all your salad ingredients together and pile along the other side of your platter. Think of the plate as trying to create a ying yang shape and start with a lot at the top and finish with a smaller amount at the bottom (I hope that makes sense).
The mince you are going to scatter in the centre across both edges of the salad and the hummus.
One large pile of Persian feta at the top and then scatter around the pita.
Finish with some fresh ripped mint and scatter over the red onion.
Best eaten with a dessert spoons and hands.
Enjoy!
Lunch tomorrow
Turn the leftovers into a salad, pile each component into a tupperware bowl and then mix really well together with a fork just prior to eating.