An Egyptian street food that has all the ingredients of a “burger”. This is a traditional dish with untraditional additions I love.
Course: Lunch
Cuisine: Egyptian
Keyword: burger
Servings: 6
Calories: 492kcal
Author: Patty
Equipment
Baking sheet Parchment paper lined
1 Small bowl Contain and mix spices
Bowl For mixing meat, veggies, herbs and spices
Knife To halve the pita bread
Toaster To open the pita bread pockets
1 Pastry brush To brush oil on pita prior to cooking
Ingredients
Spices
2tCoriander
2tAllspice
2tSweet Paprika
2tGround Pepper
2tGround Cardamon
1tGround Cinnamon
1tDried Red Pepper Flakes
1tGround Cumin
Veggies + Herbs
1Yellow onion
2Garlic cloves
1Green bell pepperdeseeded
1Jalapeño deseeded
1/2CParsleyleaves and some stems
11Mint leaves[My add, not authentic to dish]
Meat
1/2#Ground Lamb
1/2#Ground ChuckAny ground beef okay to use
3TTomato Paste
1/2CPanko (gluten or gluten-free ok)[My add, not authentic to dish]
1.5tKosher salt
1CCrumbled Feta Cheese[My add, not authentic to dish]
Serving
6Pita breadSlice in half
1/3COlive oilto brush on bread
3tSprinkle Za’Atar spice on hot pita before serving[My add, not authentic to dish]
Instructions
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.
Notes
* 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.