The other day I was in the mood to make some fish tacos at home, but the local market I went to only had these small onion flatbreads. So, I decided to scrap the idea for the night. The  flatbreads actually turned out deliciously for my “new” tacos—or really chalupas maybe—and I ended up having a few of them leftover. So I thought of what I could do with a flatbread and was feeling in a very Mediterranean mood. I felt this was a very appropriate recipe since I’ve dedicated the last couple of weeks of blog posts to my recent vacation in the Middle East, and decided to do a fusion of Greek and Israeli cuisines.

These (not so mini!) lamb flatbreads were an experiment, but I knew the flavor combinations would mesh well together. The spicy lamb mixture, the creamy and tangy feta sauce, the briny pickled red onions and the soft, chewy onion flatbreads make a killer combination for dinner, appetizers or even to entertain!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. of ground lamb
• 8 oz block of Feta cheese–I’m going to echo the Barefoot Contessa by saying that you should make sure to use a quality feta in your dish—preferably Greek or Bulgarian
• 1/2 cup of lemon juice
• 1 cup of Greek yogurt, plain
• 1 teaspoon of mint, dried
• 6 large garlic cloves (or 8-9 small cloves)
• 2 teaspoons of black pepper
• (optional) Balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon Cumin
• 1 teaspoon Oregano
• 7-8 dried red chilies
• 1/2 can of pitted Black olives
• 1 teaspoon Olive oil
• 1 large red onion
• 1 tablespoon and 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 tablespoon Sugar
• 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes

Feta sauce:

1. In the food processor, add the 3/4 of the feta cheese, lemon juice, yogurt, mint, 1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, and 1 teaspoon of black pepper
   

   
2. Whir it up until the feta is completely broken up, but the sauce still has some consistency to it—I like my sauce to still have some body to it, but blend to your own preference
3. Taste for seasoning!—I don’t add any salt since the feta is already so salty, but everyone has a different palette.

Pickled red onions:

1. Peel and slice the red onion thinly and place into a sieve or pasta strainer with small holes
2. In a jar or bowl—whatever canister you’d like to use to make your onions, I use a mason jar for my leftover—pour the sugar, tablespoon of salt and crushed red pepper
3. Cover with water and fill the jar, but leave enough room for the onions as well. Stir to dissolve
4. Add the vinegar—plain white vinegar is alright as well. Even rice wine vinegar could make these delicious for a banh mi sandwich
5. Boil a few cups of water in a kettle or on the stove, and when the water comes to a boil, pour over the onions
6. Place the par-blanched onions into the sugar-salt bowl. There should be enough water/vinegar mixture to cover all of the onions
7. Leave for at least one hour, but I left mine most of the day

Lamb mixture:

1. In your food processor—no worries if it has residual sauce, it’s all going on the same dish—finely chop the olives, chilis, and remaining garlic
   

   
2. Mix together the lamb, salt, cumin, oregano, chile-olive-garlic mixture, olive oil, and the rest of the pepper in a bowl—use your hands to really get the meat to absorb the marinade
3. Don’t mix the mixture too much or you might make the meat tough when it eventually cooks
4. Let the meat sit and absorb the spices and marinade ingredients for at least 30-45 minutes and up to overnight

To assemble the flatbreads:

1. Lay flatbreads flat on a baking sheet—a pita or even naan bread would be a good substitute. Just make sure you use a bread that has a large flat surface and has some heft to it
2. Spoon some feta sauce on the bread and spread around the surface with a spoon to almost the edge—I put a good amount of sauce, but don’t use it all!
3. Using your hands, spread the equal amounts of the lamb mixture onto each flatbread and form into semi thick layer—at first I was going to cook the lamb first, but actually ended up forgetting to. By the time I remembered, it has already started cooking and the fat from the lamb ends up absorbed by the bread and flavored the whole dish amazingly
4. Sprinkle some feta over the top of the lamb, and slide these babies into the oven
5. Bake in the oven at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes—some ovens vary so if your oven tends to get super high, maybe stay on 350 instead
6. Remove from oven and let rest for a couple of minutes 
7. Scatter some picked red onions all over the flatbreads after it comes out of the oven
8. Crumble some fresh feta over the top, as well as a few dollops of feta sauce
9. This last step is purely optional, but I thought it gives it a wonderful fruity afternoon and a bit of panache. Pour a little bit of thick balsamic vinegar over the top to garnish. I used a deliciously thick grapefruit, white balsamic that I had in the pantry
10. Slice with a pizza cutter and enjoy! Απολαύστε το γεύμα σας!