afoona
Arayes
Meat

Arayes

Arayes — pita stuffed with spiced ground beef, grilled until crisp outside and juicy inside. A classic Palestinian-Lebanese street dish.

⏱ 30 min🍽 4 servings 🌍 Lebanese👩‍🍳 Afoona🧩 2 parts

👨‍🍳 Method

For the Meatball mix

  1. 1
    Mix the ground meat with the onion, garlic, tomato, parsley, cumin, paprika, turmeric, cinnamon, salt and black pepper until evenly combined.

To assemble

  1. 2
    Halve each pita and open the pocket.
    Knife
  2. 3
    Fill each pita half with a thin, even layer of the meat mixture, all the way to the edges.
    💡A thin layer of meat cooks through in exactly the time the pita takes to get crisp. A thick layer stays raw in the middle while the pita is already charring.
  3. 4
    Brush the olive oil over the outside of the filled pitas.
    Pastry brush
  4. 5
    Heat a grill pan pan over high heat and grease lightly.
    ⚙ Greased Flat PanStoveGrill pan
    💡A very thin layer of fat, with the excess wiped off with paper towel: too much fat gives spots and fried edges.
  5. 6
    Grill the filled pitas 4–5 minutes per side, until the pita is crisp and the meat inside is cooked.
    Stove
  6. 7
    Serve quartered, with yogurt, tahini and pickles.
560calories
26 gprotein
51 gcarbs
27 gfat
● protein 19%● carbs 37%● fat 44%

Per serving (297 g), of 4 servings

For the Meatball mix · To assemble ·

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⚖ About the ingredients

🔧 Tools needed (4) · 🍳 One cooking vessel

  • Stove · 💡 Workaround, changes the dish: Portable hot plate (one weaker burner) · Camping gas stove (One burner, outdoors) · Electric pressure cooker (multicooker) (One pot, no real shallow frying)
  • Grill pan · Also works: Cast-iron pan (No grill marks) · Charcoal grill (Outdoors) · Broiler (Broiler)
  • Pastry brush · Also works: Spoon / teaspoon (regular) (Spread with the back of a spoon, less even) · Paper towels (Paper towel dipped in oil)
  • Knife · Also works: Food processor (Fast, less control over size) · Kitchen shears (For herbs/dough)

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