Grilled lamb kebabs with haloumi and apricots

Shake up your grilling routines with these savory, herby, sweet, and fatty lamb, haloumi, and apricot kebabs that hit all the right notes— fast.

Take me to the recipe!

What is a kebab? Sometimes it’s cubes of meat and/or vegetables on a stick (think shish kebab). Other times, a kebab is a mountain of meat cooked on a rotating stick and then shaved off and served (think doner kebab, shawarma, or al pastor). And, confusingly, sometimes what is considered “kebab” is meat cooked and served nowhere near a stick.

For our purposes, we’re sticking close to a shish kebab.

But here’s what I don’t like about this method: Not all ingredients cook at the same rate. Why should I have to choose between undercooked meat/crispy vegetables and cooked meat/disintegrating vegetables? I say, we don’t have to.

My solution is to cook the meat on a skewer, cook the cheese and apricots directly on the grill, and then skewer them all for serving. Good, right? RIGHT! I mean, it’s not perfect. Some of the meat cooks faster because the cubes aren’t exactly the same size. And it’s important to leave a little bit of space between the cubes so that the heat gets all around. But you control the doneness far more when the kebab elements are cooked individually.

A note about halloumi: If you’ve never had this squeeky, salty cheese, please change that immediately. This cheese adds so much flavor and seasoning to any dish. But when it’s cold, it makes a squeaking noise when it’s chewed, which can throw off anyone with any sort of sensory sensitivity around food. Eating it hot off of the grill or pan makes it more gooey than squeeky, which is why the cheese cooks longer than the meat in this dish.

A note on the kid-appeal of these kebabs: It’s fun to eat things off of a skewer! This dish also has plenty of salty and sweet elements with the grilled cheese and fruit, which can also be appealing to kids. But mine wouldn’t touch this. I found it too delicious not to post, so this may be one for the grownups and not the kids. But who knows? Next month, they might gobble these up. Who can say?

Grilled lamb, haloumi, and apricot skewers

Total time ime: 30 minutes (all active- 15 minutes of prep and 15 of cooking)
Yield: 4-5 skewers

1 lb boneness leg of lamb (if you can only find bone-in, that’s fine! You’ll just need to buy more and cut away the bones. Save them for a stock or soup.)
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
2 large garlic cloves, minced
4-5 medium apricots, ripe, but not falling apart, quartered
8 oz haloumi cheese, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices

Heat your grill to low.

Place the lamb cubes in a large bowl. Top with the olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and garlic and mix up. Let sit while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Cut the haloumi into 6-8, 1/4-inch slices. Halve the apricots.

Make the sauce. (See directions below.)

Skewer 5-6 lamb cubes onto sticks. Try to keep like-sized pieces together and don’t crowd the pieces together.

Bring all of your ingredients out to the grill and cook with the following timing:

• Cook the haloumi for 2 minutes.

• Add the lamb skewers and cook everything for 3-4 minutes.

• Flip both the haloumi and the lamb.

• Add the apricots, cut side down and cook everything (fruit, cheese, and meat) for 3-4 minutes.

• Check the lamb. If it has reached an internal temperature of 145 and you don’t see any obvious rare spots, take the skewers off of the grill. If they need more time, keep them on the grill while you continue cooking the fruit and cheese.

• Flip the apricots. Continue cooking the fruit and cheese for 2-3 more minutes.

Your aim is for medium-rare meat; cheese that’s a little gooey and has dark brown grill marks, but that’s staying together in one piece; and apricots that are deep orange and soft-er, but not falling apart. If any of the elements seem to be cooking too fast, take them off!

Serve immediately.

Herby sauce
1/4 cup toasted cashews/walnuts/pistachios
1 cup loosely packed fresh basil 
10 fresh mint leaves (fairly large) 
2-3 Tbsp fresh oregano leaves 
5 Tbsp oil 
1 Tbsp lemon juice 
1/2 tsp salt 

Toast the cashews in a large skillet over a medium flame, OR in a 350 degree oven, for about 5 minutes until the nuts are lightly brown and smell aromatic.

Add the nuts and the rest of the ingredients to a food processor or blender and blend until well mixed.

Taste for seasoning and add more salt if needed.

White bean and pasta soup

This soup is a metaphor for how I’m feeling about this holiday season. (As always, to skip this meditation on holiday blues and just get to the damned soup already, scroll to the next photo!)

As you can see, the dry pasta is vibrant pink and white adorableness. But when cooked, it loses some color and is a rather bleh peach and cream. It still tastes good, but doesn’t live up to the promise of the shiny and bright dry version. I feel that way about the holidays: The idea is one thing, but the experience is another.

I have the holiday blues. They came early this year, which is probably because Thanksgiving was so early and now we’re officially in the holiday season even though Halloween was 10 seconds ago and it’s all going too fast and increasing my seasonal ennui.

But if I’m honest, I always have the sneaking suspicion that everyone else is more engaged in life and more present in their lives and more, I don’t know, successful at life than I am. I’m sure I’m not alone.

Unsurprisingly, I have to take social media with a HUGE grain of salt and constantly remind myself that these idealized versions of life aren’t the whole picture. So, I guess this is my friendly reminder to all of YOU that ‘tis the season of matching jammies and perfect cookies, which are fun and pretty and inspiring, but also staged and only a sliver of someone’s day.

Anyway, make this soup! Seriously though, one way I try to combat the holiday blues is to be mindful about what I’m eating. This soup is more nutritious if you use a whole grain or grain-free pasta (or skip it entirely). However, M’s soup consumption increases dramatically if there’s a fun shape in there.

And if you can, make the broth yourself. It’s light years better than the stuff in paper cartons from the store. And you can make a lot at a time and freeze it for later. And the chicken can be frozen for later meals too!

White bean and pasta soup

1 Tbsp olive oil
½ medium onion, chopped
1 large or 2 small cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp fresh or 1 tsp dried rosemary, minced
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
6 cups herbed chicken stock (recipe below)
1½ cups dried pasta, cooked in separate water
Parmesan cheese

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.

Heat the olive oil over a medium low flame. Add the onions and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and rosemary and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add the white beans and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Let cool slightly.

While the soup simmers, cook the pasta separately. When the pasta is done, add it to the slightly cooled soup.

Top with cheese before serving.  

Yield: 7-8 cups soup, about 4 big bowls  

Herbed chicken stock

1 chicken, cut into pieces (2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 wings, 2 drumsticks), skin and bones included
1 large onion
4 garlic cloves, smashed
1 large carrot
1 stalks celery
2 sticks rosemary
8-10 sticks thyme
10-12 sage leaves
1 bay leaf
10-14 cups water, enough to cover the ingredients
1 Tbsp salt

Add all of the ingredients to a large stockpot and stir to distribute the salt. Cover with water.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, partially covered, for 1½ hours. If a lot of the water evaporates, add more to maintain the original level of water.

Let cool. Strain the broth with a fine mesh sieve. Remove the bones and skin of the chicken, but save the meat in a separate container for other meals.   

Yield: About 12 cups of stock; one entire chicken, dark and light meat

Lemon basil ricotta cake

Bright, zingy lemon and herby, green basil make a perfect pair in this lightly sweet cake that’s easy, quick, and refreshing. #meandthemoose #lemoncake #basil #lemonbasil #cakerecipe #weeknightcake

You may find the idea of turning on the oven insulting given that the weather is so unbelievably hot and humid. But hear me out: This cake requires one bowl and less than 30 minutes in the oven. AND is chock-a-block with sweet, tangy, summery flavor. A weeknight cake if there ever was one.

Take me to the cake!

Bright, zingy lemon and herby, green basil make a perfect pair in this lightly sweet cake that’s easy, quick, and refreshing. #meandthemoose #lemoncake #basil #lemonbasil #cakerecipe #weeknightcake

Bright, zingy lemon and herby, green basil make a perfect pair in this lightly sweet cake that’s easy, quick, and refreshing. #meandthemoose #lemoncake #basil #lemonbasil #cakerecipe #weeknightcake

One of my favorite things about finally having a yard is growing our own herbs. And we can't keep up with how fast the basil grows. It's a good thing I L.O.V.E. pesto. And we've definitely been throwing a handful of basil into just about everything, including our cakes.

Speaking of basil, this recipe calls for a PACKED 1/4 cup, which is a fair amount of basil:

Bright, zingy lemon and herby, green basil make a perfect pair in this lightly sweet cake that’s easy, quick, and refreshing. #meandthemoose #lemoncake #basil #lemonbasil #cakerecipe #weeknightcake

See?

I didn't “healthify” this recipe at all, but I did use the smallest amount of sugar possible in the batter to have a sweet cake without it being cloyingly so. Not for nothing, there's another 3/4 cup of confectioner's sugar in the glaze (and more if you add the optional cream cheese frosting), so this baby doesn't want for sweetness.

It took some tinkering to figure out the right amounts of basil and lemon to impart a strong flavor without turning the cake bitter (too much basil) or sour (too much lemon). In the end, the basil is a background herby note that plays really well with the bright lemon flavor.

Bright, zingy lemon and herby, green basil make a perfect pair in this lightly sweet cake that’s easy, quick, and refreshing. #meandthemoose #lemoncake #basil #lemonbasil #cakerecipe #weeknightcake

And ricotta! I adapted this recipe from the famous French yogurt cake and the textures are very similar. I think the ricotta makes the cake ever-so-slightly more dense and a little more savory. However, I’ve used yogurt in a pinch when I was out of ricotta and it works perfectly as well.

A quick note: I’ve cooked this cake in all kinds of vessels. The recipe gives directions for a 9” round cake pan, but I’ve also cooked it as a loaf cake, in an 8x8 brownie pan, and in a vintage 10x8 pan (pictured). The shortest cooking time was 20 minutes and the longest was about 30 minutes (for the thicker loaf). Start checking at about 20 minutes, regardless of which vessel you choose.

Bright, zingy lemon and herby, green basil make a perfect pair in this lightly sweet cake that’s easy, quick, and refreshing. #meandthemoose #lemoncake #basil #lemonbasil #cakerecipe #weeknightcake

Lemon basil ricotta cake

Time: About 45-55 with prep, mixing, baking, and glazing; more to cool and frost, if desired
Yield: About 8-10 servings

2 eggs
1 cup ricotta (I've had equal success with part-skim and whole; you can also use greek yogurt)
1/2 cup sugar
¼ cup olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Tbsp lemon zest (zest of two extra-large lemons)
¼ cup basil (packed!), minced
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt

For the glaze:
¾ cup confectioner’s sugar
¼ cup of lemon juice (juice of 1 very large lemon)

For the cream cheese frosting (optional):
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
8 oz (1 block) cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (plus more if you like a sweeter frosting)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp lemon zest (from 1 large lemon)
large pinch of salt

In a large bowl with a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter and cream cheese on medium low speed until well mixed, about 3 minutes.

Add the powdered sugar a few Tbsp at a time and mix on low speed until just combined. Taste for sweetness and add more powdered sugar if desired.

Add the vanilla, lemon zest, and pinch of salt and turn the mixer (hand or stand) up to high and mix for about 5 minutes until the texture of the frosting has become slightly less dense.

*I’m very loosey goosey about my cream cheese frosting because I firmly believe that it’s the hardest frosting to mess up. It tastes amazing and the texture is creamy and smooth even if it hasn’t been mixed exactly the right amount. I also like my frosting less sweet, so you may want to add more sugar in the end.

Make the cake
Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly oil a 9-inch cake pan (see notes about other sized pans above)** and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, ricotta, sugar, olive oil, vanilla, lemon zest, and basil and mix well.

Add the dry ingredients and mix just until the wet and dry components are combined and no clumps of flour remain. The batter will be very thick.

Pour (or plop, as this is a thick batter) the mixture into your prepared pan and bake for 20-30 (again, see notes above for variation in cooking times)** minutes or until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. (We have a very hot oven, so yours may need more time, but check often to avoid overcooking.)

Let cool for about 5 minutes.

While the cake is cooling, make the glaze. Add the confectioner’s sugar to a medium bowl and slowly pour in the lemon juice, whisking constantly, until you’ve reached your desired consistency (a thin glaze soaks into the cake better, so use your judgment) .

Once the cake is slightly cooled, pour your glaze over the entire top, making sure that the liquid goes into the holes. I sometimes use a brush to coax the glaze into the holes, but this isn't strictly necessary.

Let cool completely in its baking dish.

Frost with the cream cheese frosting, if desired.