Turkey & Zucchini Kebobs with Pita

One of my all time favorite cookbooks is Jerusalem, A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi. The cookbook is everything you want in a cookbook. It's enchanting, and tells a story - it brings you into Jerusalem and makes you feel all kinds of warm inside (and homesick for life in the city of ancient stone and holiness). I use a lot of the recipes in this book often. Many of the recipes make great weeknight meals, and several of them are great for shabbos night and day as well. This particular recipe uses the Turkey & zucchini burgers with green onion & cumin recipe (SO GOOD) which are awesome on a shabbos day, AND can be easily adapted as a kosher for pesach recipe as well. I have adapted their sour cream & sumac sauce that goes with it to be a parev sauce, and -- used some inspiration from one of my favorite salads in the book to add some extra flavors as well. All of this served alongside some warm fresh pitas made a delicious dinner (note: make these for shabbos lunch and you can whip up this dinner in a matter of seconds on a Monday re-purposing the leftovers!)

So, enjoy!

Burgers:

1 lb minced turkey (I use the dark meat- its way more moist) 1 large zucchini, coarsely grated (about 2 cups in total) 3 green onions, thinly sliced 1 medium free-range egg 2 tbsp chopped mint 2 tbsp chopped coriander 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp salt ½ tsp course ground black pepper ½ tsp cayenne about 6 Tbsp oil for searing

Additional ingredients

Baby arugula

fresh pita

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 F

In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients except for the oil

Mix with your hands and shape into mini burgers

Pour enough sunflower oil into a large frying pan to form a thin layer to coat the bottom

Heat over medium heat until hot, and then sear the burgers in batches on all sides until golden

Carefully transfer the meatballs to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 7 minutes or until cooked through Sour Cream & Sumac Sauce:

3/4 C non dairy sour cream (I use Tofutti brand) 1 tsp grated lemon zest 1 tbsp lemon juice 3 small garlic cloves, minced 1½ tbsp olive oil (I use my garlic infused olive oil, of course!) 1 tbsp sumac ½ tsp salt ¼ tsp black pepper

2 Tbsp water (or more, to thin to your liking)

Directions

Mix all ingredients and set aside

Quick Pickled Onions:

1 red onion, thinly sliced

4 Tbsp white wine vinegar

pinch of salt

Directions

Put the vinegar and onion in a small bowl

Add a pinch of salt, and mix well with your hands

Allow to sit for 20 minutes minimum (onions will stay crisp up to a few hours)

Drain any residual vinegar and discard

Assembly

Pile fresh Arugala, and place mini burgers ontop

Drizzle Sour Cream sauce and pickled onions ontop

Serve with fresh warm pita