Paleo Kofta Kebobs with Roasted Red Pepper Dip

Hi kids, I know it's been a while. Been kind of busy attempting not to fail out of grad school, Open WODs and getting used to a new job. All of these things have been sucking the life out of me which has left very little time for me to blog. Not to mention I'm having tremendous difficulty in finding my dSLR charger, so the pictures a going to be a la iPhone for while. Over the next few recipes I'll update on what's new! Starting off with school, I'm officially dealing with last termitis. I have two final papers creeping up around the corner, and it's been very difficult to write these bad boys. Probably because I know I will be free of coursework so soon that I'm already celebrating before it's over. I've begun the pre-mature celebration with South Park's new video game (The Stick of Truth). In the words of my good friend Olga, apparently I always start a new video game 2 weeks out of all of my due dates.

This is true. I've never realized this before, but I suppose this is my way of dealing with the stress? (aka procrastination).

Anyway, let me bring you to why you came here. Recipe time!

Paleo Kofta Kebobs with Roasted Red Pepper Dip

For this recipe, you can sub in lamb or turkey meat for beef - completely up to you. 

- 1 lb lean ground beef

- 1 egg (can be omitted, but I found it a bit easier to form the shape of the kebobs)

- 2-3 stalks of green onion 

- 1 medium onion, finely chopped (omit if you use green onion)

- 3 garlic cloves, grated

- 2 tsp paprika

- 1 tsp cumin

- 1 tsp chill powder

- 1/2 tsp ginger

- 1/2 black pepper

- 1 Tblsp oil

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 400F. If you own a BBQ or a grill, I'm super jealous and I would highly recommend grilling if you can. Which probably also would involve the use of BBQ skewers if you are real fancy.

- Mix beef and all ingredients above. I recommend then to let the mixture chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Once they have chilled, form meat into oval shapes. 

- Heat the 1 tablespoon of oil on a large frying pan, to about medium-high heat. You are frying them on the pan to get them browned, so only cook them for 2 minutes on each side. 

- Transfer browned kebobs to large baking sheet with foil. If you want to be fancy, you could skewer them. But I didn't have any on hand at the time. Cook for 20-25 minutes until cooked on the inside. 

Roasted Red Pepper Dip - sans Walnuts

My husband has a tree nut allergy, which means no walnuts allowed. But if you don't have to worry about allergies, add about 1 cup of chopped walnuts.

Ingredients:

- 7.5 oz can of roasted red peppers (or make your own, about 2-3 peppers)

- 3 cloves of garlic

- 1 tsp of olive oil

- 1/2 of a lemon, squeezed (optional)

- 1/2 can of chickpeas (optional and not strict paleo) This was in lieu of walnuts.

Two ways, 1) get your trusty food processor and let it make magic, or 2) get your trusty immersion hand blender and let that make magic.