Kofta Kebab Recipe
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This kofta kebab recipe combines ground beef and lamb with fresh herbs and warm Middle Eastern spices. Shaped onto skewers and grilled until perfectly charred, kofta (or kefta) will feed a crowd!
My Childhood Recipe for Juicy Kofta Kebabs
The Middle East boasts a few signature foods: falafel, shawarma, and of course, kabobs of all sorts, including kofta!
My earliest memory of kofta kebab goes back to my elementary school days, when my family would visit Abdu Kofta, a family-owned restaurant near the boardwalk in my hometown of Port Said, Egypt. It was iconic and known for its delicious, spice-forward kofta kebabs, cooked over an open fire until perfectly charred. This recipe celebrates the flavors of my childhood and is a tribute to Abdu Kofta.
In my version, I use a mixture of ground beef and lamb, blended with onions, garlic, parsley, and a few of my favorite Middle Eastern spices, including allspice, cardamom, sumac, and nutmeg. I’m telling you, it’s a real flavor party! In fact, I use a similar spice blend to make meatballs with hummus, or marinated salmon depending on my mood.
A food processor makes quick work of the process, and the kebabs take less than 10 minutes on the grill. Kofta kebabs are a 30-minute weeknight dinner, and a fantastic addition to any Mediterranean spread.
What is Kofta or Kefta?
Kofta refers to a broad family of dishes common throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and other parts of the Mediterranean. Most people are familiar with the version made from ground meat, formed onto a skewer and grilled, like this recipe.
However, kofta comes in many forms, including patties or meatballs. It can be vegetarian, made with lamb, beef, chicken, seafood. or fish. The word kofta (also spelled kefta) comes from the Persian word kūfta, and it means ground or pounded.
Kofta Kebab Ingredients
- Ground beef and lamb: I use 1 pound of ground beef and 1/2 pound of ground lamb for a rich, savory flavor and juicy texture. You can use all beef or all lamb if you prefer.
- Yellow onion and garlic: These aromatics add moisture and savory depth. The food processor chops them finely so they blend evenly into the meat.
- Fresh parsley: One whole bunch, or about 2 packed cups of leaves, adds freshness and color.
- Bread: Soak one toasted slice of bread in water until tender, then squeeze it completely dry. It helps bind the mixture and keeps the kofta tender.
- Warm spices: Allspice, cardamom, sumac, nutmeg, paprika, and cayenne give this kofta its bold, aromatic flavor. Sumac adds tang, while cayenne provides a gentle kick.
- For serving: Warm pita, tahini sauce, tomato and onion wedges, and fresh parsley turn the kofta into a complete Mediterranean spread.
How to Make Grilled Kofta Kebabs
- Prepare the grill and skewers. Soak 10 wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes to 1 hour to help prevent burning. Meanwhile, lightly oil the grates of a gas grill and preheat to medium-high heat. If serving with pita, tahini sauce, or Mediterranean sides, prepare those before you begin grilling.
- Process the aromatics. Add 1 quartered yellow onion, 2 garlic cloves, and 1 bunch of fresh parsley (tough stems removed) to a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
- Finish making the kofta mixture. To the bowl of the food processor, add the ground beef, ground lamb, the soaked and thoroughly squeezed dry bread, 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice, and 1/2 teaspoon each cayenne, cardamom, sumac, nutmeg, and paprika. Season with salt and black pepper. Process until the mixture is well combined and forms a cohesive paste, stopping to scrape down the sides as necessary.
- Shape the kofta. Divide the meat mixture into equal portions. Using damp hands, firmly mold each portion around a soaked skewer, pressing gently to form an even log about 1 inch thick. Repeat with the remaining meat mixture.
- Grill the kofta. Arrange the skewers on the hot grill and cook, turning every few minutes, until lightly charred on all sides and cooked through, about 8 to 10 minutes. The internal temperature should register 160°F.
- Serve. Transfer the kofta kebabs to a serving platter and enjoy immediately with warm pita, tahini sauce, and your favorite Mediterranean salads and sides.
Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting
After making this recipe for decades, I’ve learned a thing or two. Here are a few suggestions to make sure this recipe works for you every time.
- Use a grill pan. If you don’t have an outdoor grill, feel free to make kofta kebabs on an indoor grill pan. Just make sure you oil the pan well.
- Chill the mixture. If you’re having a difficult time forming the kofta to the skewer, chill the mixture in the fridge for 15 to 20 minutes to make it easier to shape.
- Damp hands. Wet your hands before shaping, so the ground meat sticks to the skewer and not you! This same trick works for shaping meatballs too.
- To make gluten-free kofta, just leave the bread out. I have made this recipe both with the bread and without for my gluten-free friends, and the kebabs are still juicy without the bread thanks to the other ingredients.
- Make Ahead Kofta Kebabs up to 2 days in advance: Make the kofta recipe mixture, and shape it to the skewers. Layer the skewers between sheets of parchment paper so they don’t stick together, then cover and place in the refrigerator. Grill directly from the fridge.
What to Serve with Kofta (Kefta)?
These kofta kebabs are a crowd-pleaser, and you can easily turn them into a big Mediterranean feast by adding a few sides and salads. Here are a few of my favorite additions:
- Salads: Fattoush, Tabouli, Tomato Cucumber Mediterranean Salad, or this Fresh Tomato Salad.
- Sauces and Dips: Ezme (Spicy Turkish Salsa), Tahini Sauce, Creamy Hummus, or Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
- Sides: Mediterranean Grilled Vegetables, Spicy Skillet Potatoes (Batata Harra), Lebanese Rice; Roasted Eggplant, Persian Rice With Potato Tahdig
How to Store and Reheat Kofta
This recipe makes 10 skewers, and we don’t usually have much leftover, but they make excellent lunches the next day.
- Remove the skewers and zap in the microwave just until warmed through.
- Place the skewers in a skillet set over medium heat. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water. Cover and cook until warmed through, about 6 minutes.
Try These Kofta Recipes Next!
Kofta Kebab Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 medium yellow onion quartered
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 bunch parsley, stems removed (about 2 packed cups parsley leaves)
- 1 pound ground beef, 85/15
- 1/2 pound ground lamb
- 1 slice bread, toasted until browned and soaked in water until fully tender
- kosher salt
- ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground green cardamom
- 1/2 teaspoon ground sumac
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- Pita to serve
For the Fixings:
- Tahini Sauce
- Tomato wedges
- Onion wedges
- More parsley
Instructions
- Prepare the skewers and the grill. Soak 10 wooden skewers in water for about 30 minutes to 1 hour. If using metal skewers, skip the soaking step. Lightly oil the grates of a gas grill and preheat it to medium-high for about 20 minutes. Line a tray with parchment paper.
- Prepare the fixings. Prepare pita bread, tomato, onion, and tahini sauce, and any other sides so they are ready when the kebabs come off the grill.
- Make the kofta mixture. To the bowl of a food processor, add the onions, garlic, and parsley. Pulse until finely chopped. Add the beef, lamb, bread (be sure to squeeze out the water completely), and the spices. Run the processor until all is well combined forming a pasty meat mixture.
- Shape the kofta. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and divide it into 10 equal portions. Press each portion securely around a skewer, shaping it into an even log about 1-inch thick. Place each skewer on a parchment-lined tray.
- Grill. Place the kofta kebabs on the lightly oiled grill. Grill on medium-high heat for 4 minutes on one side, then turn over and grill for another 3-4 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 160°F.
- Enjoy. Serve the kofta kebabs immediately with pita bread, tahini, and the fixings you prepared.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Hey Suzy ,
Your food always delicious and I’m making them
Question please .. Garlic sauce , I have some ingredients and need to make good garlic sauce for shawarma
(Semolina, potato powder, parsley leaves, salt & pepper, garlic paste, vinegar, olive oil)
Could you advice how can we make garlic sauce from those ingredients?
And the quantity of each item , please
Thanks in advance 🙂
Have a lovely day
Sorry .. I forgot ( the Mayonnaise) for sure 🙂
Hi Suzy.
AMAZING RECIPE!
I was wondering what your thoughts would be on how to adjust the quantities of the ingredients if one wanted to make this recipe in bulk? To be more clear, I want to prepare between about 50lbs (yes, FIFTY) of ground beef kebabs in a few weeks for a holiday (Eid) picnic for my local community. I was hoping to use your recipe (since it aligns with the tastes of many of those who will be attending) but I am not sure on how to precisely increase the quantities of spices, herbs, onions, etc. used to prepare such a large quantity (since the original recipe only calls for 1.5 pounds).
Any advice??
Regardless, masterful recipe and taste.
Hi Ahmad! Happy Eid in advance. I don’t cook in bulk that often, but I can tell you this kofta recipe is forgiving. Let me take a stab at helping. I wonder if you can maybe mix the kofta in smaller batches. start with 10 lb of ground beef and 5 lb of ground lamb, then multiply the rest of the ingredients by 10. Mix your first batch, and repeat mixing a few more batches of meat until you you reach your 50 lbs of mixed kofta. Add your batches and give the meat and mix/knead by hand to combine. Hope this helps.
Suzy! Success! I made this recipe and it was a HUGE, SMASHING SUCCESS!
The only thing that I might do differently next time is to reduce the allspice by about a third (because some people said that it was a little spicy but I thought that it was PERFECT).
When I made it in bulk, I actually just made t in 5lbs batches and tripled the ingredients.
I can honestly say that this was one of the best, simplest recipes that I ever employed.
Thank you so much for making my event a success and I will return to your blog again and again. Once more, thank you.
Hi Suzy
This recipe is very good and tasty
I would like to have recipe of ( authentic charcoal Lebanese chicken ) 🙂 please
Thank you ??
Thank you, Bassem! I am so glad you enjoyed it. Here is a chicken kabob recipe you might like: https://www.themediterraneandish.com/mediterranean-grilled-chicken-kabobs-tahini-sauce/
Hi Suzy,
I’d like to make these for a group of people but need to do so a week in advance. Do you think I could make the meat mixture, put on soaked skewers and then freeze?
Also, you mentioned in an earlier reply about marinating them but I didn’t see any where in the instructions about a marinade. Thank you in advance!
Hi Cynthia, thanks for your great question. You can certainly prepare the kofta meat mixture in advance. Place it in a vacuumed freezer bag or freezer-safe container and freeze. If you need to skewer the meat in advance, thaw the meat out the night before and skewer it. Place the kofta skewers on a non-reactive tray, cover tightly and refrigerate. If you’ll need to layer the kofta skewers on the tray, simply use parchment paper in between. No marinating. Enjoy!
wow!
thank you for your recipe. Changed it up a little . Added roasted red peppers, sage , rosemary and fresh lemon juice.
Awesome, Kristen! Glad you made the recipe your own. I’ll bet it was so tasty!
Hello Suzy,
B4 making this amazing sounding recipe I wanted to make sure it is one and a half teaspoon (1 1/2 t.) of allspice. It just seems like alot for one and half pound of meat. Thank you, Lanny
Hi, Lanny. Thank you for the good question. Yes, you read correctly…1 1/2 teaspoon allspice. This recipe is not shy on flavor 🙂 But if you feel like that be too much for your personal taste, you can certainly adjust it down to 1 teaspoon for example. Hope this helps.
Can you use just lamb instead of both beef and lamb?
YES! Just lamb is absolutely fine.
i think.:)
Hi. Can you bake these in the oven ?
Hello Fatema, yes I do baked kofta as well, which I will share the recipe for soon. But if you want to bake this kofta, all you have to do is make the kofta into smaller logs or patties and arrange them on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Bake in 450 degrees F heated oven for 20 minutes or until the center of the kofta patties is completely cooked. Enjoy!
Can you use beef instead of lamb in this recipe. It looks amazing and I’m trying to recreate my father in law’s recipe where he used beef.
Hi Emily. Great question! Yes, you can certainly use just ground beef. Enjoy!
I’m going to try the Kafta Kebabs today. Do you think I could use metal skewers rather than wooden ones ?
Can’t wait to try some different ethnic foods.
Bob.
Absolutely, Bob! Metal skewers are even better in cooking Kebabs…they’ll cook slightly quicker. Enjoy!!
This is the second recipe I have made so far from your blob, ( today we ate this delicious Kofta Kebab). The first one was yesterday, Mediterranean grilled chicken kebabs. I am thinking what to make tomorrow from here again. Thank you Suzy!
Lariza, so glad to hear this! Thank you so much for stopping by and for sharing! Hope you make more yummy recipes!
Do u think I could refrigerate the kabobs on the skewers to do some
Prep ahead of time? Just for about an hour or so?
Hi Jen…so sorry, I didn’t see your comment earlier. Yes, I think you can skewer the kabobs a couple hours ahead and keep refrigerated. I would say, just make sure you had already marinated them for a time so they can be well-flavored before you skewer them. Enjoy!
Delicious and fairly simple to make!
Dawn, so glad you enjoyed this Kofta recipe! Thank you again for sharing
This is the fourth recipe I’ve made from your blog since I discovered it a week ago. All of the recipes have been great! This one was too. The tahini sauce complements the meat perfectly- don’t skip that part! We moved away from Toledo, Ohio several years ago and we miss our favorite restaurant, The Beirut. These recipes are filling that void in the most delicious way. Thanks!
Keri, I am so glad to hear from you! Thank you for taking the time to try the recipes…and for your kind feedback! Hope you find many more to try!
incredible! yum!
Thank you, friend!
Can’t wait to try your rendition of Tamimi’s Kofta Kabab. Thanks, Suzy!
Thanks, Jasmine! I’ll be eager to hear how you like it!