Honey & Co’s quick and easy air fryer lamb koftas with tahini sauce – recipe

We were not in the market for a new kitchen gadget – we never are – the spiralizer, the Vitamix, the Nutribullet hardly registered with us; we don’t even own a microwave. When it comes to cooking, we’ve always felt we’re good with the kit we already have, and we love our uncluttered kitchen. We were pondering this as we looked at the shiny black plastic air fryer perched on our countertop. We stared at it with distrust and a bit of fear as it blinked its blue light at us.

“An air fryer,” our science-y friend explained, “is basically a very small oven with a very strong fan” – this was a concept we instantly got, and instantly felt we needed for midweek dinners. Our oven is big enough to fit a toddler inside it, takes 20 minutes to heat up and is very noisy. Fine if you’re catering a wedding or running a B&B, overkill if you want to make dinner for two. What we need is a small oven with a very strong fan.

We got one, and now call it “the ugly AF” or just “the AF”. It came with a manual, but we found it quite intuitive to use – surprising for a couple who struggle to figure out most hotel showers (why are hotel showers so complicated?). The journey so far has been surprisingly fun and quite delicious: there have been epic fails, heroic rescues and utter triumphs. Here’s one of the latter.

Lamb koftas with peppers, cabbage and tahini sauce

Koftas and all manner of meatballs seem perfectly suited to the air fryer. It colours the outside and cooks the inside at the same time, keeping them juicy and full of flavour. These particular ones, along with the sweet roast peppers and tahini sauce, would sit really well in a parcel of soft flatbread, slightly squashed to encourage all the juices to soak into the bread.

Prep 10 min
Chill 20 min
Cook 20 min
Serves 2

For the koftas
250g minced lamb
1 small onion (about 80g), peeled and finely diced
1 garlic clove, peeled
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp baharat spice mix
2 tbsp breadcrumbs
1 small bunch parsley, leaves picked and chopped (20g)
Flatbreads, to serve

For the salad
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
¼ white cabbage, thickly sliced
100g wild rocket
Flatbreads, to serve

For the tahini-yoghurt sauce
60g tahini
60g yoghurt
Juice of ½ lemon
A pinch of chilli flakes
A pinch of salt

Mix all the kofta ingredients into a smooth, even paste, then divide the mixture into eight small mounds weighing roughly 40-50g each. Shape these into balls, take out the crisper tray of the air fryer and arrange the balls on top, leaving a little space between each one. Put the tray in the fridge to chill for about 20 minutes (you could also prepare these a few hours in advance, if you prefer).

Set the air fryer to 200C, heat it for three minutes, then put the kofta-laden crisper tray back in the chamber and cook for 10 minutes.

While the koftas are cooking, remove and discard the stalks, pith and seeds from the peppers, then cut the flesh into strips. Mix all the tahini sauce ingredients with 60ml cold water and set aside.

Put the pepper strips and cabbage slices in the crisper tray alongside the koftas and fry for a further 10 minutes.

Lift out the koftas with tongs, then put the vegetables in a bowl. Dress the veg with the cooking juices that will have collected at the bottom of the air fryer chamber, then add the rocket and toss to coat. Serve the koftas with the tahini sauce, salad and flatbreads alongside.

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