Moroccan Tomato Meatballs with Almond Dukkah

Beef meatballs are seasoned with Moroccan spices, stuffed with feta cheese, raisins and fresh herbs and then simmered in our Moroccan Tomato Onion Sauce.  Serve with crusty bread, rice or couscous and use the leftovers to make meatball subs or a pasta bake.

Moroccan Tomato Meatballs with Almond Dukkah

Ingredients:

Meatball Ingredients:

1.5 lb Ground Beef
1 Tbsp Ras El Hanout
1/4 Cup Wozz! Chermoula Dressing/Marinade (don't have it? *See alternative Ingredients Below)
1/4 Cup Feta - crumbled  (you can also substitute goats cheese)
2 Tbsp Raisins - chopped
1Tbsp Light Oil - olive/vegetable/canola
Salt and Pepper

*Alternative Chermoula Ingredients 
1 Lemon - juice & zest
2Tbsp Cilantro - chopped
1 tsp Cumin - ground
1/2 Onion small - finely chopped or grated

Sauce Ingredients
1 cup Beef Stock
14.5 oz Diced Tomatoes - Small Can
Wozz! Moroccan Tomato Onion Relish and Simmer Sauce

Almond Dukkah Ingredients

1/4 cup Almonds - Raw
1 Tbsp Pistachio - Shelled
2 Tbsp Sesame Seeds
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 tsp Fennel Seeds
1 tsp Coriander seed - Ground
1/2 tsp Salt

Olive Oil - Extra Virgin good quality

Parsley - chopped

Method:

Make Your Meatballs:

Combine all ingredients and fold together until well combined.  If you don't have Wozz! North African Chermoula on hand, add the alternative ingredients listed above (lemon, cilantro, cumin, onion).

Roll into balls. I kept these ones smaller than a golf ball in size and got close to 24 meatballs.  Feel free to make them larger.

In a hot skillet, add the light oil and coat the skillet. Add meatballs and brown on all sides. Note: You can skip this step. Alternatively make the sauce first and poach the meatballs in the sauce instead.  Less work, just as delicious.

Soak up any excess fat from the meatballs with a paper towel. Keeping the pan hot, deglaze the hot skillet with the Beef stock/broth.  Add the canned diced tomato.  Reduce by half.

Once reduced, add Wozz! Moroccan Tomato Onion Simmer Sauce. Bring meatballs and sauce back up to a simmer.  Garnish with dukkah and fresh chopped parsley and serve with crusty baguette slices, flatbread, rice or couscous.

How To Make Dukkah:

To make the dukkah is super simple, but we do want to toast all the ingredients. You can do each ingredient separately or gradually add ingredients one at a time from largest to smallest. The process from start to finish only takes 5 minutes.

In a small dry hot skillet add the almonds. Keep the almonds moving in the pan until some browning occurs and they are aromatic. 2 minutes (If using whole almonds, crush them a little using the side of a chef's knife first.)

Add Pistachios and continue toasting for 1 more minute.

Add the whole spice seeds and sesame seeds and toast for another minute moving the pan continuously. The sesame and spice seeds will start to pop a little like popcorn. When you see a little even color in the sesame seeds remove the pan from the heat.

Add the ground coriander and salt, swirl the ingredients one last time, and tip them onto a plate or bowl to stop the cooking process. Allow to cool.

In a small food processor (I use a smoothie maker) pulse the dukkah mixture a few times. Keeping some chunky bits is the goal.  Transfer to a suitable-sized bowl, large enough to dunk a piece of bread into. Serve atop the meatballs and alongside with a small bowl of olive oil.

You can serve as an appetizer with bread and olive oil. Dunk the bread in olive oil followed by the dukkah. Any leftover dukkah can be used to garnish and season salads, as a gluten-free bread crumb alternative, or simply left on the kitchen bench and use a pinch to garnish all your weekly meals.