Pita with Oriental meatballs and eggplant salsa

Ingredients

  • 4 Mestemacher wheat pita pockets
  • 1 small butterhead lettuce
  • Parsley for garnishing

For the meatballs

  • 300 grams of minced beef
  • 1 small onion
  • 2 tbsp. Harissa
  • 50 grams of slivered almond
  • 1 egg
  • some bread crumbs for coating
  • Salt and pepper according to taste

For the salsa

  • 1 small onion
  • 1 eggplant
  • 1 small zucchini
  • 500 grams of strained tomatoes
  • 100 ml orange juice
  • 1 tbsp. of grated ginger
  • 1 chilli pepper
  • Salt and pepper according to taste

Preparation

  1. For the salsa, dice the eggplant and place it in salted water for ten minutes. Then rinse and let water drip off.
  2. Fry the eggplant, diced onion and diced zucchini in a pan. Add the ginger and the finely-chopped chilli pepper. Add the tomatoes and pour in the orange juice. Bring to a boil once.
  3. Simmer for as long as necessary until the salsa has the right thickness. Season with salt and pepper and place aside to cool.
  4. For the meatballs, mix all ingredients together except the spices and the breadcrumbs. Then add as many breadcrumbs as you need for the meatballs to get a loose texture. Season with salt and pepper.
  5. Form small meatballs by hand and fry in the pan or on the barbecue. Turn the meatballs regularly.
  6.  Prepare the pita breads according to the packaging instructions. Put three meatballs and a handful of lettuce in the pitas and then fill with salsa. Garnish with parsley.

Photo credits: Susanne Brauer