Grilled Merguez on Lettuce with Cilantro, Mint and Pickled Onions
Merguez is traditionally made with lamb, but a combination of lamb and hot Italian sausage gives a nice combination of flavor, delicious served in lettuce leaves with pickled onions, cilantro, and mint on top.
Makes 20
Ingredients
- 1 shoulder lamb chop (about 12 ounces)
- 1 pound hot Italian sausage
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
For Serving
- 1 bunch of Romaine lettuce leaves, separated
- 1 cup pickled onions
- 2 cups cilantro leaves
- Sprigs of mint
Method
- Remove the bone from the lamb, cut the meat into 1-inch pieces, and then chop by pulsing in a food processor. Remove the casing from the sausage and add, along with the cumin, chili powder and salt, then pulse again to process until well mixed.
- Use an ice cream scoop to divide the mixture into 20 balls. Wet your hands, then roll each ball into a 3-inch log. At this point you may freeze the pieces to be used later. If cooking right away, heat a grill or grill pan until very hot and cook, turning as needed, until done, about 6 minutes.
- To serve, place each piece of merguez on a Romaine lettuce leaf and garnish with pickled onions, cilantro, and mint. Enjoy.
Notes
Merguez is traditionally made with lamb meat. But I’ve been to North Africa, and other places where they do it totally with beef or a mixture. Certainly, they would never put pork in it, as anyone who is a practitioner of Islam would not, but I find that the hot Italian sausage combined with the lamb gives a nice combination of flavor. It’s delicious served in lettuce leaves with the garnishes on top.
