Ground Beef Kebabs Recipe- Greek Style- Egg Free, Gluten/Grain Free, Soy Free, GAPS Legal

My kids haven't been the easiest to feed lately. Every single thing I make for them, they seem to complain about. Even foods that they previously were in love with, they now complain about. It drives me bonkers. I tried making them foods that I thought would entice them, like spaghetti and meatballs (plain meatballs, not with lentils mixed in), ground beef fried rice, and spaghetti and meat sauce, and they refused it all, saying "the meat is too hard". (It wasn't.) 

But I haven't been in the mood for legumes lately, feeling the need for animal proteins, and there's only so much egg I want to make for my family, especially since I suspect that Ike is sensitive to eggs, as I am, and I got a good source of cheap ground beef, so I really wanted to find a way to make ground beef that my kids would enjoy.

Someone suggested I try making ground beef kebabs on a stick- you know kids, and how food being on a stick makes it so much yummier and appealing...

I found some recipes online, and played around with them until I got this recipe, which ended up being perfect. Unlike beef kebabs that are sold in the store near here and are filled with lots of soy, these are "straight meat", which increases the price, yes, but also the health. These are egg free, and are Greek style, which is my favorite kind of kebabs. Their texture is pretty wonderful because of the ingredients in it- moist and soft enough. (Though it might possibly be a bit too moist. They are soft, not solid like a rock, so if you care about these being very firm, I'd add an extra tablespoon of ground flax seeds to the mix.)

I cooked these in my skillet/griddle, with low sides, which allowed me to cook it with the sticks. You can also cook these on a grill, or in the oven, or you can cook them without the sticks in a frying pan on the stove.

A classic Middle Eastern meal to make with this would be serving this together with couscous and a tomato and cucumber salad, but since I wanted this to be gluten free, I served it with quinoa that I cooked with some turmeric, to make it couscous like. 

The meal was an absolute hit with every single family member, and I will definitely be making this again.

Ground Beef Kebabs Recipe- Greek Style- Egg Free, Gluten/Grain Free, Soy Free, GAPS Legal

Ingredients:
2 cups ground beef (a little over 1 lb)

1 large onion

1 tablespoon dried mint

1 teaspoon cumin

1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 heaping tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

2-3 tablespoons ground flax seeds (or more to make them more firm)
1/4 teaspoon hot paprika or cayenne pepper

Instructions:
1. Grate the onions with regular sized grater.

2. Mix all the ingredients together.

3. If you have time, let the mixture sit in the fridge for a few hours, which will allow it to firm up and hold together better on the skewers. If you don't have time, you can skip this step, it'll just be a little harder to work with.

4. Form the meat mixture into logs on the skewers, or leave out the skewers if you want.

5. Heat your grill/griddle/whatever you'll be using to cook it, and oil it well, otherwise it'll stick.

6. Cook thoroughly on all sides. I found they were taking a while to cook, so I ended up covering the griddle with some aluminum foil for a few minutes, to allow them to cook better.

7. When fully cooked, remove from heat and serve.

Enjoy!

P.S. I am pretty sure you can make these kebabs and freeze them before cooking, and put them directly on the grill frozen, but I haven't done it with this recipe, just with purchased frozen kebabs, but I don't see why it shouldn't work.

Have you ever eaten ground beef kebabs before? Did you make them from scratch, make them from a mix, or buy them ready made? Does this look like a recipe you'd enjoy? What is your kids' favorite recipe made with ground beef?