Delicious Persian Jewelled Rice and Spicy Lamb Meatballs – sounds like a wonderful meal, but a lot of hassle, right? Actually no! This impressive meal is a cinch to make and takes just 30 minutes – perfect for a midweek treat or a hassle-free dinner party – promise I won’t tell 😉
This year I’ve teamed up with the ‘LAMB. Tasty Easy Fun’ campaign to share my love of lamb and to bring you lots of delicious and easy lamb recipes.
I’ve had the idea to make Middle Eastern spiced lamb meatballs in mind for a while now – My whole family absolutely loved the Italian-style Lamb Meatballs from the ‘LAMB. Tasty Easy Fun’ website, that we reviewed back in January and, as you know, I’m a huge fan of Middle Eastern style food – especially lamb tagines! So the idea of creating Middle Eastern-style meatballs was high on my must try list.
Another dish that has been high on my must make dish for some time is a simplified version of Persian-style Jewelled Rice…it’s a beautiful, impressive and incredible tasting side dish, but also a rather complicated and time consuming one…normally. I wanted to see if I could create a version that looked the part and tasted just as incredible, but without the hassle and I am so pleased to have finally come up with an easy peasy version I am happy with.
Put the meatballs and the jewelled rice together and you have a really special meal, but amazingly, it’s actually very simple and only takes 30 minutes from start to finish. Yes, really! The secret is doing everything in the right order…
For a quick and hassle-free approach, make the meatballs first. Then, whilst the meatballs are grilling, make the rice. When the meatballs are done, get them out and leave them on the side until they are needed. Then make the meatball sauce and plop the meatballs in, making sure they are heated through. Done this way, everything should be ready within that 30 minutes and no trying to juggle too many things at once!
Don’t be put off by the list of ingredients, it’s mostly spices or things which are very quick to prepare, and quite a few ingredients are repeated (I have separated out the 3 elements, for clarity), so it’s not as complicated as it might first look!
Being so quick and simple, but looking and tasting really good, means this Persian Jewelled Rice and Spicy Lamb Meatballs would be totally possible for a midweek treat, but would work brilliantly for a weekend or dinner party meal too.
Actually, I’m quite tempted to make this next time my husband and I have a date night in…(we have two small children so date nights out are as rare as hens teeth) – this ticks all the boxes…delicious, impressive, but quick and easy…and it would be super fun to make together!
If you do want to make this for a dinner party, I would really recommend making the meatballs and meatball sauce ahead of time and prepping all the bits you will need for the rice just before your guests arrive (especially de-seeding the pomegranate! Or make your life eaven easier and just buy the seeds.). This way you can quickly make the rice at the last minute and warm through the meatballs and sauce. You could also serve some more mint, pomegranate seeds and orange peel on the table for everyone to help themselves to extra.
If you want to add a side dish to this lovely meal, I would suggest this simple Middle-Eastern Inspired Salad.
For me the perfect wine for this meal would be a Spanish Garnacha-based Rosé from somewhere like Rioja or Navarra. However if you prefer red, a Grenache/Garnacha based red from Southern France or Spain would work well too.
If you like my Spicy Persian-Style Lamb Meatballs…
…you might also like:
- Easy Homemade Meatballs with Tomato Sauce
- Turkey Tikka Masala Meatballs with Bombay New Potatoes
- Lamb Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
- Easy Homemade Swedish Meatballs (IKEA Copycat)
Persian Jewelled Rice and Spicy Lamb Meatballs
Ingredients
Spicy Lamb Meatballs
- 700 g lamb mince
- 2 garlic cloves crushed or grated
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons paprika ideally smoked
- Salt and pepper
Meatball Sauce
- 2 tablespoons olive or rapeseed oil
- 1 onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic crushed or grated
- 2 cm ginger grated
- 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
- 1 teaspoon cumin ground, or seeds
- 2 teaspoons paprika ideally smoked
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 200 ml coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons tomato puree
- Salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons fresh coriander chopped (plus extra for garnish)
Persian Jewelled Rice
- 2 tablespoons olive or rapeseed oil
- Pinch saffron
- 600 ml boiling water
- 1 onion sliced
- ½ cinnamon stick
- 8 cardamom pods gently bashed (use a pestle and mortar or a rolling pin)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 semi-dried apricots finely chopped
- 300 g basmati rice
- 2 tablespoons mint finely chopped
- 100 g pomegranate seeds (roughly 1/2 a pomegranate)
- Zest of 1 orange
Instructions
- Start by preparing the meatballs. Pre-heat your grill to medium high, then mix together all the meatball ingredients thoroughly with your hands and shape into 30 balls. Place the meatballs on a grill tray and cook for 4 minutes on each side (8 minutes in total). Remove from the grill and set aside until needed.
- While the meatballs are grilling, make the rice. Start by placing the saffron in a jug and pouring over the boiling water. Next, gently fry the onions in the oil for 3 minutes until softened. Add the cinnamon stick and cardamom pods together with the apricots, and cook over a low heat for 2 more minutes. Add the rice and the saffron-infused water and cook for 8 minutes on a low heat with the lid on. After 8 minutes turn the heat off, but leave the lid on until you serve the rice.
- While the rice is cooking, make the meatball sauce. Gently fry the onions in the oil for 3 minutes until softened. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli and other spices and cook on a low heat for 2 more minutes. Add the coconut milk and tomato puree, plus a little salt and pepper, and heat until bubbling. Gently drop in the meatballs and heat until bubbling again, spooning the sauce over the meatballs to coat them. When bubbling, stir in the chopped coriander and remove from the heat.
- Place the rice in a serving bowl and top with the mint, pomegranate seeds and orange zest, serve with the meatballs and any other side dishes you fancy, such as my Middle-Eastern Inspired Salad.
Notes
This is a collaborative post with the ‘LAMB. Tasty Easy Fun’ campaign. ‘LAMB. Tasty Easy Fun’ is an EU funded campaign which aims to increase the use of lamb in everyday cooking. Lamb is often considered difficult to cook, expensive, or something to be saved for Sunday roasts. The aim of the campaign is to demonstrate just how tasty, easy and fun lamb is to cook with every day of the week!
Want more delicious lamb recipes? Find more here…
Want more delicious and hassle-free midweek meals? Find more here…
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Hi, I do love a meatball dish. The fact that this takes 30 minutes makes it perfect for during the week #freefromfridays
You know me – I love an easy peasy midweek meal, and especially if you can rustle it up in under 30 minutes!! 😀 Eb x
Oh wow, it looks delicious, Eb! I don’t eat lamb, but I would do something similar with beef or pork meatballs. Yum! Thanks for joining in with #FreeFromFridays.
Sad to hear you don’t eat lamb, but yes this would work well with beef of pork too. Eb x
Looks like a great dish Eb. I particularly like the rice and I ALWAYS buy pre-seeded pomegranate seeds these days. I helped cater for a friend’s wedding once and had to get the seeds out of enough pomegranates to feed 80 people. Never again.
Oh my goodness??? Pomegranates for 80 people – I’m surprised you even want to look at a pomegranate again…I would buy the pre-seeded except the whole ones just look so pretty in the photographs! But I’ve seen a few tips on FB recently about how to de-seed them so it’s not as tricky as it used to be!! 😀 Eb x
My mother and my husband both make this and it is excellent. Always much appreciated by guests.
It’s a great meal – so tasty and so easy peasy!! 😀 Eb x
There is so much flavour in this recipe, in all of its components, they must be so delicious together. I always like fruit in savoury dishes and I love the apricots in this recipe.
They really do work well together – the flavours compliment each other so well! And yes, me too – I love dried fruits in pilafs and tagines especially. Eb x
ok so please do not hate me, but we don’t like lamb in my house! I have tried making meatballs and shepherds pie, but neither dish was successful! BUT I appreciate how delicious looking your meal is, and as always so quick and easy to make. x
Haha – I definitely don’t hate you, Jenny!! A shame you don’t get on with lamb in your house, but thanks for your kind comments about my recipes 🙂 Eb x
This sounds so good and don’t pomegranate seeds just make things look beautiful! #freefromfridays
Thanks Emma – oh yes, pomegranate seeds are a food blogger’s best friend – I through them on everything I can!! 😀 Eb x
What a beautiful looking meal! I love lamb meatballs and the rice looks deliciously tempting with the pomegranate seeds x #CookBlogShare
Thanks Kirsty – I love it when food looks good as well as tasting good, and this is certainly one of those meals!! It would make the perfect easy peasy dinner party 😀 Eb x
My husband would be very happy with this on a date night – sounds delicious #cookblogshare
Haha, thanks Louise 😀 – so would mine! Eb x
It sounds delicious Eb and a little similar to the meatballs I’ve just made too – I’ll have to have a go at the jewelled rice next time as I’m always a bit lazy with rice. Thanks so much for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice as well x
Thanks Corina – the jewelled rice is so worth making – it’s really very quick and easy to do, but the flavours are amazing! Eb x
Persian Jewelled Rice was excellent and very simple to make. I served it with your Chicken Shawarma and loved it.
Yay! Thanks so much for this lovely comment, Janice. Delighted to hear you liked it so much. Eb 🙂