The kids always ask what we’re having for dinner. My most used answer is: I don’t know yet. Not to tease them or anything (which they believe I’m doing), I often really don’t know yet. Most of the times, I have a general idea, as I know what’s in the fridge and what needs to be used before a certain date. But I usually decide during the process of making dinner, what I’m going to do with the ingredients. Now I had ground lamb in the fridge and I was thinking about making some kind of pasta sauce. But last minute, I decided to make these spiced lamb turnovers instead. Which solved a second problem: having to use up a store-bought pie crust.

Spice it up

When using ground lamb, I always think of middle eastern flavours, warming spices. Kebobs could have been another way of using the ground lamb, but I had set my mind on these turnovers. You could use store bought spice mixes, but it’s very easy to make your own. Plus, in the store-bought mixes, there usually is a lot of salt and sugar, which is something you really don’t need.

Make your own blend

I simply put all my spices in form t of me and simply picked a few of which I thought they would be nice together. Luckily for you, I wrote down exactly how much of each spice I used. Having said that, you can add whatever spices you like in it. There are no set rules. Our youngest doesn’t like hot foods, otherwise I might have added chili powder or other hot spices to give it a kick. I simply put hot sauces on the table and everyone can make it as hot as they like.

Ingredients

500 g ground lamb

2 bell peppers

1 large onion

2 sheets puff pastry

1 tbsp butter or oil for frying

1 can tomato puree (140 g )

1 egg

1 tbsp milk

Spice mix:

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp onion powder

½ tsp ground cardamom

¼ tsp ground cloves

2 tsp paprika

¼ tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

Instructions

Finely dice the onion and the bell peppers.

Heat oil or butter in a frying pan or wok and sauté the onion until translucent.

Add the ground lamb and fry until browned.

Then add the spice mix and stir well.

Add the bell peppers and fry until they start to soften.

Now add the tomato puree, stir well and fry another two minutes.

Taste the mixture and add salt/pepper to taste.

Let the mixture cool down a bit. Preferably, the mixture is cooled completely before filling the pastry, but as usual, I started too late and did not have enough patience to let it cool. Which didn’t help the process of closing the pastries. Story of my life.

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Roll out the puff pastry and cut each sheet into 6 equal pieces.

Divide the lamb mixture among the 12 pieces of puff pastry.

Wet the sides, take one corner and flip it over the filling.

Close the sides pressing down with a fork to seal the edges. Or, if you’re as lazy as I was to get one, press the sides closed with your fingers. Not very neat, but it does the job just as well.

Carefully transfer to the prepared baking sheet.

Beat the egg with the milk and brush the pastries with the egg wash.

Bake ca. 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve hot. A fresh salad goes very well with these turnovers.

Enjoy!