Beef kofta

Name: Beef kofta
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 4 persons
Cuisine: World
Ingredients: 500 gram minced beef; 1/2 a red onion; 2 garlic cloves; small handful of fresh mint leaves; few sprigs of fresh parsley; 1/2 a teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1/2 a teaspoon ground cumin; 1/2 a teaspoon ground nutmeg; a small handful of pine nuts; pepper and salt to taste; olive oil for greasing

Spicy garlic flavors from this middle eastern beef kofta recipe. Serve with plain rice, a salad or potatoes. Recipe for 4 people, ready in 20 minutes.

Recipe beef kofta

Made by Véronique

Published at 2015-06-21, this recipe is for 4 persons and takes 20 minutes.

Founder of Ohmydish (since 2014), she prefers to spend all day in the kitchen. Once working in the hospitality industry as an independent chef, she loves helping you gain confidence in the kitchen. With her easy-to-follow recipes, handy tips, and cooking knowledge, you'll make the most delicious dishes yourself! The recipes are accessible to everyone, from beginners to advanced home cooks.

Updated at: 2025-09-27

Let's get started

Preparation time

10 minutes

Time cooking

10 minutes

Total time

20 minutes

Preparing the beef kofta - 10 minutes

Finely chop the red onion and garlic cloves, as fine as you can, or use a grater. Rinse the mint leaves and parsley and finely chop them. Roast the pine nuts in a dry small skillet for a minute.

Be careful they won't turn too dark. Coarsely chop the pine nuts and combine the pine nuts, minced beef, red onion, garlic, mint, parsley and the ground herbs. Season with pepper and salt.

Divide into 8 equal parts and use your hands to create the desired size. You can use skewers, or roll them into flat little balls or whichever you prefer. You can set them in the fridge for half an hour, this way they will keep their shape during grilling, but that's optional.

Grilling the beef kofta - 10 minutes

Heat the grill pan on high heat. Grease the kofta with a little bit of olive oil. Place them on the hot grill pan and cook them for about 4 minutes on both sides.

Serve with a green salad and plain cooked rice or you can serve it with a delicious couscous salad. In Greece, they usually serve kofte with tzatziki. See below for our Tzatziki recipe: