Hawawshi
An Egyptian street food that has all the ingredients of a “burger”. This is a traditional dish with untraditional additions I love.
- Baking sheet
- Small bowl
- Bowl
- Knife
- Toaster
- Pastry brush
Spices
- 2 t Coriander
- 2 t Allspice
- 2 t Sweet Paprika
- 2 t Ground Pepper
- 2 t Ground Cardamon
- 1 t Ground Cinnamon
- 1 t Dried Red Pepper Flakes
- 1 t Ground Cumin
Veggies + Herbs
- 1 Yellow onion
- 2 Garlic cloves
- 1 Green bell pepper (deseeded)
- 1 Jalapeño (deseeded)
- 1/2 C Parsley (leaves and some stems )
- 11 Mint leaves ([My add, not authentic to dish])
Meat
- 1/2 # Ground Lamb
- 1/2 # Ground Chuck (Any ground beef okay to use)
- 3 T Tomato Paste
- 1/2 C Panko (gluten or gluten-free ok) ([My add, not authentic to dish])
- 1.5 t Kosher salt
- 1 C Crumbled Feta Cheese ([My add, not authentic to dish])
Serving
- 6 Pita bread (Slice in half)
- 1/3 C Olive oil (to brush on bread)
- 3 t Sprinkle Za’Atar spice on hot pita before serving ([My add, not authentic to dish])
Spices
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Mix all the spices in a small bowl: 2t each of coriander, allspice, sweet or nutral paprika (not smoked), ground black pepper, and ground cardamon; and 1t each of ground cinnamon, dried red pepper flakes, and cumin; mix well and set aside.
Veggies + Herbs
Via Food processer combine veggies and herbs and blend into a paste, drain any liquid. OR via knife finely dice the veggies and herbs.
1 yellow onion, 2 garlic, 1 deseeded grilled green bell pepper, 1 deseeded grilled jalapeño and ~1/2C chopped parsley leaves and some stems, and 10 diced mince leaves.
Meat
Then add 1/2# ground beef and 1/2# ground lamb with 1/2C Panko, 1.5t salt, feta cheese, and 3T tomato paste into a large bowl, and mix well by hand without compacting the meat or it will be hard chewing. The aim is to mix up the two meats.
Then add the veggies/herbs mix, and spices and combine
Bread
Cut ~6 pita breads in half, warm up on a hot cast iron skillet to help open them.
For my pita this did not open anything, So I cut them in half and popped them in the toaster which did help. I however, wound up having to slice many of them open, carefully so as not to cut myself and to make the pocket.
Then stuff ~1/3C meat into the halved pita bread (I used a dry measuring cup), and flattened the “ball” of meat while in the pita, so the meat spreads through the pita bread evenly.
I left ~1/2” from the pita top empty, so if people wanted to add some other things to the ”burger” there was space to do so (veggies, spices, sauces, salads, etc).
Place the filled bread on a parchment lined baking sheet, and brush olive oil (or avocado oil) on both sides and put the baking sheet into the hot oven for ~10 minutes.
Removed the sheet, flip the bread and put back in for another ~10 minutes. Important is that the bread is crusty and the meat is cooked (check with a thermometer for 160F*).
Serve
Serve by brushing just a bit of additional oil on the top side, and sprinkling ~1/2t of za’atar spice on the top. Place on a plate with a side dish and serve.
* Cooked lamb is 145F and beef is 160F, since the meat is mixed I defaulted to the higher number for the cooking temp listed above.
Serving Size: The first day I could only eat 1/2 of a filled pita, next day I could eat a whole pita (2 halves). So if you have a good side, half a serving would probably do but if all you are eating is the Hawawshi you might serve two.
Storage: You can freeze these sandwiches, just let them cool down to room temp, wrap in parchment paper, then place in a freezer bag and freeze. To warm back up, preheat oven to 350F and bake for ~15 minutes, flip and cook for another ~5 minutes.