Kafta bil Saniyeh — Print Recipe

Spiced lamb kafta baked in a tray with sliced potatoes, tomatoes, and a tahini sauce until everything melds into a rich, comforting casserole. This home-style dish is Lebanese Sunday family cooking at its finest.

Ingredients

500g ground lamb
1 large onion, finely grated
1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 large potatoes, sliced
3 tomatoes, sliced
100g tahini
100ml lemon juice
100ml water
2 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions

1 Knead the ground lamb with grated onion, parsley, allspice, cinnamon, salt, and pepper until the mixture is smooth and well-combined, then shape it into flat oval patties.
2 Slice the potatoes into rounds about half a centimeter thick and arrange them in a single overlapping layer across the bottom of a large oiled baking tray.
3 Place the kafta patties on top of the potato layer and arrange the sliced tomatoes over and around the meat, drizzling everything with olive oil.
4 Whisk together the tahini, lemon juice, and water until smooth and pourable, then pour this sauce evenly over the entire tray, covering all the ingredients.
5 Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for forty-five minutes until the potatoes are tender, the kafta is cooked through, and the tahini sauce has turned golden on top.

Did You Know?

Every Lebanese family has their own kafta recipe passed down through generations, and the proportion of parsley to onion in the meat mixture is often a closely guarded family secret.