A delicious recipe for Grilled Lamb Kebabs using ground lamb, with a tangy herb salad and dilled yogurt Sauce- a delicious, keto-friendly recipe featuring Middle Eastern flavors. Video. Love grilling? See our 50 Grilling Recipes for Summer!
Calling all lamb lovers out there…..stop everything and make this right now! Middle Eastern- Inspired Lamb Kebabs with a tangy Herb Salad and a dilled yogurt sauce….oh my goodness, so delicious! Inspired by a dinner we had at Botanica Restaurant in Los Angeles, I had to come home and try to replicate it right away of course!
Infused with Middle Eastern spices, these ground lamb kebobs are bursting with flavor! What I love about this meal is the balance –the tangy herb salad is so light and refreshing alongside the lamb- cutting down the richness of the meat. A great pairing.
Grilled Lamb Kebabs | 60-sec video
How to make Lamb Kebabs (instructions)
Step 1: Soak wood skewers (use two per kebob).
Step 2: Mix the lamb mixture. Place the ground lamb in a large bowl. Add the fresh herbs, spices, salt, onion and garlic. Fresh mint and Middle Eastern spices like cumin, coriander and sumac– give these ground lamb kebabs an extra punch of flavor. We’ve talked about sumac here on the blog quite a bit and if you haven’t tried it yet, now is the time. It has this delicious tanginess that really pairs well with lamb. Mix the lamb well using your hands.
Step 3: Make the skewers. Form the lamb into long tubes (traditional) or small meatballs.
Step 4: Grill. Brush the lamb kebabs with olive oil before grilling so they don’t stick. They cook surprisingly quickly, just a few minutes on each side, maybe 8-10 minutes total.
Step 5: Make the herb salad.
The tangy herb salad, contains baby spring greens, parsley, dill and mint and a handful of sprouts. Pea shoots are nice too. Slice up some radish and cucumber for a little crunch.
Step 6: Make the yogurt sauce. The dilly yogurt sauce goes on the bottom of the plate, under the kebabs. Feel free to make this ahead!
Time to assemble! Layer the kebabs, then pile on the delicious herb salad.
How pretty is that!?
Serving Suggestions
Serve with an extra side of grilled veggies if you like- our grilled tomatoes, grilled artichokes, grilled potatoes or grilled asparagus would all be lovely!
Storage:
Grilled lamb kabobs will keep up to 4 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container, or can be frozen for up to 3 months.
Chef’s Tips
- If preparing for a large gathering, feel free to form the kebabs a day ahead, seal them tight, and refrigerate them. The meat will take on more flavor from the spices and you won’t have to fiddle with forming the skewers at the last minute.
- Feel free to form little 1-inch to 1 ½-inch meatballs instead of the tubes- placing 3 meatballs on a skewer for a dinner serving.
- Using 2 skewers instead of one skewer really helps secure them on the grill! Always soak wood skewers.
More delicious lamb recipes:
- Grilled Lamb Kofta Lettuce Wraps
- Middle Eastern Lamb Stew made in an Instant Pot
- Grilled Lamb Lollipops with Salsa Verde
- Greek Lamb Tacos
- Turkish Lamb Wraps
- Slow-Roasted Lamb Shawarma
Give these Lamb kebobs a whirl- I know you will love them!
xoxo
PrintGrilled Lamb Kebobs
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: main
- Method: grilled
- Cuisine: middle eastern
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Grilled Lamb Kebobs with a tangy Herb Salad and Dilled Yogurt Sauce- a delicious, healthy, paleo-friendly recipe featuring ground lamb spiced with Middle Eastern seasonings.
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground lamb ( makes 6 skewers)
- 1/2 an onion, finely diced
- 3 garlic cloves, finely minced
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 2 teaspoons coriander
- 2 teaspoons sumac ( if you can’t find sumac, sub 1 tablespoon finely chopped lemon zest)
- 1 teaspoon Aleppo Chili flakes ( or regular chili flakes)
- 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons chopped mint (or parsley, or dill)
- 12 x 12-inch wood skewers, soaked in water for 1 hour, or overnight
- 1 cup plain thick greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped dill ( or mint)
- 2 garlic cloves finely minced
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2–3 handfuls baby spring greens
- 1 cup fresh torn herbs- any mix of Italian parsley, mint, dill, cilantro
- 1/2 –1 cup sprouts – radish, sunflower, or baby pea shoots ( optional)
- 1 turkish cucumber, thinly sliced
- 2 radishes thinly sliced- watermelon radishes are pretty
- 1 green onion thinly sliced
Dressing
Instructions
Soak the skewers and start the grill.
With a wet hand, mix the lamb ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Mix the yogurt sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.
Prep the salad ingredients and place them into a medium bowl. Stir the salad dressing ingredients into a small bowl.
Form the kebabs. Using wet hands, divide the meat into 6 portions, of similar size, roughly ½ cup. Form each into a long oval shape, then skewer with two skewers, and then continue shaping and stretching until meat is roughly 5 inches long, and 1 ½ inches in diameter, like the shape of a Turkish cucumber. You can gently roll the meat on the skewers like you would a rolling pin, to get it nice and even, but they don’t need to be perfect. Just make sure the skewers are centered down the middle so the lamb stays on. ( All of this could be made ahead and refrigerated overnight or until ready to grill. )
Brush, spray or roll in olive oil to prevent sticking, and grill over med-high heat, turning every few minutes after getting a good sear on all sides. To turn, use tongs on the lamb itself, rather than being tempted to pick up by the skewers- it will help the lamb stay on. Once the lamb is seared on all sides, turn the grill off, cover it, letting the lamb rest inside for a few minutes while you get the plates ready.
Toss the salad, and place a smear of yogurt dill sauce on one half of the plate. Top the sauce with 2-3 skewers. Mound the salad on the other half and serve immediately.
Notes
If preparing for a larger gathering, feel free to form the kebabs a day ahead, and refrigerate. The meat will take on more flavor from the spices and you won’t have to fiddle with the forming the skewers at the last minute.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 ½ kabobs
- Calories: 468
- Sugar: 4.8 g
- Sodium: 994.1 mg
- Fat: 36.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 14.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 11.2 g
- Fiber: 2.2 g
- Protein: 24.9 g
- Cholesterol: 95.4 mg
I can’t really figure out what the point of the skewers is. They’re not to help with cooking, since you advise to use tongs. If it’s to help in serving, you could just stick a skewer in them after cooking and avoid having to presoak them. Just seems like an odd, unnecessary step.
I think they help them stay together better, but feel to try without. 🙂
Made it first time.. I added mint on the meat ingredients and fennel and throw the rest in the food process and then put the meat in my mixer and voila! Am out of words… super yummy. I used a combination of ground beef and pork so it’s not dry 20% fat in the meat then grilled! Love the recipe!!!!!!
Perfect Lorna, glad you enjoyed!
Delicious!! Omg. So good. I would recommend putting the onion, spices, and lemon for the lamb in a food processor, then mixing with the lamb. We used a little less salt. Like 1 tsp.
Thank you for sharing this recipe
Glad you enjoyed these!
Made this for guests and it was a winner. I even enjoyed the preparation and the process of rolling the bamboo skewers and forming the lollipop’s. I did not try it with the yoghurt and salad, instead I served it with summer vegetables and a big green salad. Next time I make it and there will be a next time, I will make it with the yogurt. I love all your recipes, thank you!
Thanks so much TJ, great to hear!
I was looking for easy kofta recipe. Most are many ingredients.but this is lesser but very delicious! My hubby like that ver much
Great to hear!
This was awesome. So nice to follow recipe as written, and have it turn out so well. That’s the hallmark of a well written recipe.
thanks Jen!
Made this double batches , my family love them, easy instruction to follow, taste delicious Thank you
Great to hear!
Wow! Thank you so much! This is the best lamb kabo I ever had!
Thank you for this flavorful lamb kabob! I added pine nuts too. For the first time in 27 years my husband said “Wow! these are really great!” And he is a picky eater, so it passed the ultimate test. This will be on our table often!
Great to hear!
Delicious with the mint. I added pine nuts to the kebabs for an added flavor and crunch. We chose to eat as a pita sandwich with additional condiments like hummus, tabouleh, etc.
This is one of our favorite recipes. So delicious and jam packed with flavor!
I am not fan of lamb so I used pork instead. Taste was great but a little dry. However, the tzatziki helped. I added some lettuce in the Israeli salad to avoid comparison with the Mexican pico de gallo.
Just made this tonight. DELICIOUS! Great recipe! My family loved it. Will definitely be making these skewers again.
I made these yesterday and each component turned out so well! I used carrots and radishes for the pickles and they went well with everything else. Will definitely make this again. Thank you for the recipe,
Yay! Glad you liked it! 🙌
This is an EXCEPTIONAL lamb recipe! My husband and I felt like we had just been served a professional meal at a fabulous restaurant… well, our home kitchen is being transformed into a fabulous place with your recipes!
Aww thanks! I love this one too!
I made this with ground turkey and it was amazing. All the spices make it really flavorful and I loved the yogurt sauce. Another awesome recipe. Thank you so much!
I made these last night and they were very tasty and addictive! Only thing I changed was I grated the onion instead of dicing so it would blend with the meat better and I added a teaspoon of paprika. I used local Quebec lamb which was more expensive by a lot but I think added so much more flavor and fat. Will definitely make again!
For the sauce I replaced the dill with a squeeze of lemon (I don’t like the taste of dill but that’s personal)
Thanks for this recipe!
Great to hear and thanks for sharing Katherine!
My husband and I made these tonight… GREAT FLAVOR! They are now in our spring\summer dinner rotation! Thank you!!
Im so glad you enjoyed them…. we love them too! Super flavorful!