İzmir köfte (Roasted Turkish meatballs with vegetables)

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Step 2

Using your hands, mix the meatball ingredients until completely combined. Shape into 8-10 equally sized meatballs (any more and the meatballs will be too small and will get dry). I use a tablespoon, the palm of my hand and a little water for this. Flatten the meatballs slightly.

Step 3

Mix the potato, carrot and pepper in a suitable oven dish, making sure the potato slices don’t stick together. Put the meatballs on top. Mix tomato, water, olive oil and some salt and pepper. For a stronger tomato flavour, you may add a teaspoon or two of tomato paste and a pinch of sugar. If you have a stick blender, use it to mix the sauce to a homogenous mass – if not, mixing by hand and keeping the chunks is also fine. Pour the tomato sauce over the vegetables and meatballs, making sure everywhere is covered in the sauce.

Step 4

Roast in the middle of the oven until the potatoes are soft, around 40-45 minutes to an hour or more, depending on the thickness of your potato slices and the type of potato used. If your potatoes are still very hard after 40 minutes you may remove the meatballs while the potatoes finish cooking, returning them to the oven to reheat for five minutes when the potatoes are ready. Serve hot.