kefta and zucchini kebabs

Make sauce: Stir together yogurt, mint, garlic, and salt in a small bowl and chill until you’re ready to serve the skewers. Prepare zucchini: Whisk together lemon juice, sugar, salt, pepper, and oil in a large bowl and stir in zucchini slices. Marinate at room temperature while making meatballs.Make meatballs: Cover bread with water in a bowl and soak 10 minutes. Pulse onion and herbs in a food processor until finely chopped. Add pine nuts, and finely chop as well. Squeeze handfuls of bread to remove as much excess water as possible and add it to the food processor. Pulse until it is well chopped. Add this mixture to the lamb or turkey in a large bowl, along with salt and spices. Mix with your hands or a fork until well-blended. Form meat mixture into 36 balls (1 scant tablespoon each).Assemble and grill kebabs: Prepare grill for cooking over medium-hot charcoal (moderate heat for gas). Thread 6 meatballs 1/4 inch apart onto each of 6 skewers. Thread zucchini lengthwise onto remaining 6 skewers, so cut sides are on the grill, leaving 1/4 inch between slices. Grill zucchini and meatballs on oiled grill rack, turning over once, until golden and just cooked through, about 4 to 6 minutes on a charcoal grill and 10 minutes on a gas grill. Cut a meatball in half to visually check for doneness. Serve warm, with yogurt sauce.If you don’t have a grill: Kebabs can be broiled on 2 large shallow baking pans 5 inches from heat, turning over once, until golden and just cooked through, 4 to 6 minutes. Cut a meatball in half to visually check for doneness.A few updates: This recipe got some fresh photos and tune-ups in 2020. See the source link above for the previous, original version. There was always too much marinade for the zucchini, so it’s now halved. The food processor does more of the work for the meatballs. And I’ve trimmed down the long grilling instructions a bit, as I suspect you weren’t coming here to learn how to use a grill for the first time.