Grilled Middle Eastern Lamb Burgers – low carb version of kofta

For a change of pace, try these grilled Middle Eastern lamb burgers. They make for a delicious low carb dinner as they are full of flavor and go well with a fresh garden salad. Each burger has only 1.8g net carbs per burger.

If you like low carb Middle Eastern food try my Middle Eastern ribs or my cauliflower rice pilaf!

When I was growing up my grandma used to make a dish called kofta which was like a burger shaped like a hotdog and put on a skewer to be grilled.  I was in the mood for kofta and thought I’d share it on my blog. However  they are not that attractive looking to be honest, so I decided to shape them into patties and call them grilled Middle Eastern Lamb burgers. They are very flavorful and you can eat them without a bun therefore making them an easy low carb dinner!

Oh how I miss my grandma’s cooking. She was Lebanese and a fantastic cook. She taught my meat & potatoes mother all her tricks so then she too could make excellent Middle Eastern food. Alas she passed away and my mother died young and didn’t learn all of their tips but I have made a few dishes and here they are if you are interested.

What kind of meat to use in kofta?

You can use ground beef or lamb. I usually use beef because it’s easier to find but recently I found this ground lamb at Aldi and immediately thought of making kofta. However if you don’t have any go ahead and use beef. 

What’s in these grilled middle eastern lamb burgers?

Other than the lamb, I used a lot of parsley, minced onion, salt, pepper and cinnamon. Some people also put in a bit of cumin but my grandmother did not so I stuck with just the cinnamon. I love the flavor of cinnamon with meat. It’s the key to Middle Eastern meat dishes in my opinion. 

I added the parsley and onion to a food processor and pulsed until they were finely minced. Then I mixed it with the lamb and spices and made into 4 patties. 

After heating up the grill,  I cooked them for about 5 minutes per side. They were very flavorful and I didn’t even serve it with any type of sauce. My grandmother used to make labneh which is much like Greek yogurt and served it with that. But my husband doesn’t not care for yogurt so I served them plain. 

I just served this with my fattoush salad using fresh vegetables from the garden and it brought back so many memories for me. My grandmother also always put mint in her salad. While her salads were simple (just iceberg lettuce, radishes, cucumbers and tomatoes dressed in an oil and vinegar dressing) the mint made a big difference. So give that a try along with these lamb burgers and you won’t be disappointed! Here is the nutritional information for 1 burger.

230 cals  / 14.1g fat / 2.6g carbs / 0.8g fiber / 23.4g protein = 1.8g net carbs

Add this recipe to your mix!