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Dinner recipe

Harissa Beef Meatball Couscous with Cucumber Yoghurt

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Mild harissa beef meatballs simmered in tomato sauce and served with apricot couscous, cucumber yoghurt, mint, and lemon.

Start planningStart cookingIngredients
65 min825 kcal4 base servingsDinnerCouscousFamily Friendly
ContainsGluten, Milk
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Recipe and nutrition estimates

Recipe times, servings, calories and nutrition notes are estimates for planning. They are not medical or dietary advice. Check food is cooked safely and adjust recipes for your household's needs.

Focus ingredients: beef mince, couscous, harissa paste, Greek yoghurt

Dietary fit: No diet tags added for this recipe yet

Serving tip: Cool leftovers in shallow portions and refrigerate within 1–2hours at 0–5°C; use within 48hours or an earlier ingredient use-by limit. Keep yoghurt separate and chilled. Reheat the cooked components once only until steaming hot throughout.

Harissa Beef Meatball Couscous with Cucumber Yoghurt plated and ready to serve.

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Ingredients

What you need

  • 600g beef mince
  • 300g couscous
  • 250g Greek yoghurt
  • 300g cucumber
  • 1 × 400 g tin chopped tomatoes
  • 150g red onion
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 80g dried apricots
  • 15g fresh mint
  • 1 lemon
  • 30ml mild harissa paste
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 15ml olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 475ml water

You'll also need

35 × 25cm roasting tray, 28cm 4l saute pan, 2l heatproof bowl and cover, mixing bowl, scales, measuring jug and clean probe thermometer, knife, board and fine grater

Method

Step by step

Up to 8 clear steps
  1. Harissa Beef Meatball Couscous with Cucumber Yoghurt cooking step 1: Prep the flavourings.
    Step 1

    Prepare ingredients

    For more than four servings, repeat batches of no more than four. Divide displayed ingredients and measured method totals between batches; keep pan sizes, cut dimensions and per-batch times fixed, and allow extra elapsed time. Heat oven to 200°C conventional/180°C fan. Finely chop onion, crush garlic, dice cucumber 5mm and chop apricots 5mm. Chop mint. Measure 2g lemon zest and 30ml juice. Keep yoghurt chilled until needed.

  2. Harissa Beef Meatball Couscous with Cucumber Yoghurt cooking step 2: Shape the meatballs.
    Step 2

    Shape meatballs

    Mix all beef, cumin, smoked paprika, half the garlic and three-quarters of the black pepper until just cohesive. Form evenly sized balls, roughly 30g each and 3.5–4cm across. Wash hands and equipment after raw meat handling.

  3. Harissa Beef Meatball Couscous with Cucumber Yoghurt cooking step 3: Brown the meatballs.
    Step 3

    Bake meatballs

    Space meatballs on a 35 × 25cm tray and coat with 5ml olive oil. Bake 22–25 minutes until browned. Check the centre of the largest with a clean thermometer:75°C for 30 seconds; continue cooking and recheck if needed.

    25 min
  4. Harissa Beef Meatball Couscous with Cucumber Yoghurt cooking step 4: Simmer with harissa.
    Step 4

    Cook tomato sauce

    While meatballs bake, heat 10ml olive oil in a 28cm 4l pan over medium heat. Cook all onion 8–10 minutes until softened, stirring. Add remaining garlic and all harissa for 1 minute. Add all tomatoes with their liquid and 100ml water; simmer gently 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cooked meatballs and their juices for 2 minutes until hot.

    33 min
  5. Harissa Beef Meatball Couscous with Cucumber Yoghurt cooking step 5: Steam the couscous.
    Step 5

    Hydrate couscous

    During the final sauce 5 minutes, put all couscous in a 2l heatproof bowl. Pour over 375ml freshly boiled water, cover and stand 5 minutes. Fluff, then fold in all ready-to-eat apricots, the measured zest, 15ml lemon juice and half the mint.

    5 min
  6. Harissa Beef Meatball Couscous with Cucumber Yoghurt cooking step 6: Make cucumber yoghurt.
    Step 6

    Mix cucumber yoghurt

    Mix all cucumber and yoghurt with the remaining 15ml lemon juice, mint and black pepper. This is a spoonable diced-cucumber side; keep chilled until serving.

  7. Harissa Beef Meatball Couscous with Cucumber Yoghurt cooking step 7: Serve the couscous.
    Step 7

    Serve

    Divide couscous between bowls, add equal numbers of meatballs and all sauce, and spoon cucumber yoghurt alongside.