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Moroccan meatballs with eggs

Sara Buenfeld's one-pan Moroccan meatballs: Halal lamb mince with cinnamon, browned, then cooked in a tomato, courgette, chickpea and ras el hanout sauce with eggs baked in the hollows.

Moroccan · Main · Easy · 4 portions · 70 min

Each method follows published technique for the dish, and every Halal substitution is checked against the ingredient pages we cite. Photographs come from our ingredient library rather than the finished dish.

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Why Halal checks matter here

The meatballs are a 250 g pack of lamb mince, which is Halal only from a Halal-slaughtered animal.

Halal-critical ingredients

• Lamb mince: Lamb is Halal only from a Halal-slaughtered animal, and mince without a Halal mark doesn't say how the animal was slaughtered. Buy the mince from a Halal butcher or in a certified pack. See Lamb.

Ingredients

Meatballs

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 50 g fresh breadcrumbs
• 250 g pack Halal lean lamb mince
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 5 eggs (1 for the meatballs, 4 for the sauce)

Sauce

• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 courgette, thickly sliced
• 2 × 400 g cans chopped tomatoes
• 2 tsp honey
• ½–1 tsp ras el hanout spice mix
• 20 g bunch coriander, mostly chopped
• 400 g can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• to serve crusty bread

Method

1. Make the meatballs. Fry the onion in 1 tbsp oil until soft, then let it cool. Mix with the breadcrumbs, lamb, cinnamon, 1 egg, ½ tsp salt and plenty of pepper, then shape into about 24 meatballs with wet hands.
2. Brown them. Fry the meatballs in the remaining oil in a shallow pan for about 8 minutes, moving them around until evenly browned. Lift out and set aside.
3. Make the sauce. Fry the garlic in the oil left in the pan until softened. Add the courgette and fry for 1 to 2 minutes, then tip in the tomatoes, honey, ras el hanout, three-quarters of the coriander, some seasoning and a couple of tbsp water. Stir and cook until pulpy.
4. Add the eggs and serve. Stir in the chickpeas and add the meatballs. Make 4 hollows in the sauce and break in the remaining eggs. Cover and cook over a low heat for 4 to 8 minutes until the eggs are set. Scatter with the rest of the coriander and serve from the pan with crusty bread.

Allergens

gluten (breadcrumbs, bread), eggs

How this recipe was researched

Method adapted from BBC Good Food's 'Moroccan meatballs with eggs' by Sara Buenfeld, which the source calls a Moroccan feast in one pan (serves 4: a finely chopped onion fried soft in 1 tbsp of 3 tbsp olive oil and cooled; mixed with 50 g fresh breadcrumbs, a 250 g pack of lean lamb mince, ½ tsp ground cinnamon, 1 of 5 eggs, ½ tsp salt and plenty of pepper, shaped into about 24 meatballs with wet hands and fried in the rest of the oil in a shallow pan about 8 minutes until browned, then lifted out; 2 sliced garlic cloves fried soft in the same oil, a thickly sliced courgette 1 to 2 minutes, then 2 × 400 g cans chopped tomatoes, 2 tsp honey, ½ to 1 tsp ras el hanout, three-quarters of a 20 g bunch of chopped coriander, seasoning and a couple of tbsp water, cooked until pulpy; a rinsed 400 g can of chickpeas and the meatballs stirred in, 4 hollows made and the other 4 eggs broken in, covered and cooked 4 to 8 minutes on low until set; scattered with coriander and served from the pan with crusty bread). We specified Halal lamb mince; nothing else needed changing. Timings follow the published technique rather than a kitchen test.

Photograph from our ingredient library: eggs in tomato sauce, not the finished dish from this recipe.