Spicy Tahini Meatballs With Pita, Cucumber and Avocado Recipe (2024)

Easy 5 stars. Absolute banger. Bookmarked in the classics folder immediately. Ali Slagle, Melissa Clark, and Alison Roman; the holy trinity of NYT cooking.

Used impossible meat for the meatballs, added feta and capers to the cucumber avocado salad. Yum!

I made the recipe as written with one exception, and it was a hit. After getting a nice, toasty crispness on the pita bread, why would you add it to the salad just to make it wet and soggy? I chose to crumbled the pita toasts right when serving, maintaining a satisfying dry crunch to go along with the “wet crunch” of the cukes.

Would plant based meat work as a substitute?

I made these meatballs last night with 93/7 ground turkey and they were a hit! instead of pita chips, I roasted a separate sheet pan with chunks of sweet potato and cauliflower seasoned with cumin, salt, and pepper, made a pot of jasmine rice, and served the warmed “dressing” as a sauce. My three teenaged boys inhaled it and my picky-eater husband even finished his plate. ;)

Yum. BothMy avocados were bad so improvised added a few handfuls of spinach and some feta. Sooooo yum

Also used sriracha as the hot sauce

I used corn tortillas instead of pita for a gluten free version of this recipe and it worked well.

I added a bit of the tahini sauce to the avocado cucumber salad in addition to the lime, salt, and a few tbs olive oil, and used cilantro rather than mint since they didn't have it at the store. And as I indicated in a response to another reader's note, I added ground rice krispies, minced garlic, and minced onions to the meatballs. Mmmmm! I will be making this again!!!

This was fantastic, and I’m adding it to my regular rotation right now. The meatballs were good but could use a little more seasoning next time. But the meal would be also perfectly delicious without them. I served over spinach to make a heartier salad and also had some Trader Joe’s frozen falafel that I threw in the oven at the same time as the pita and meatballs. I bought some feta to add, but forgot it. This is a good base for experimentation.

I’ve made most of the meatballs in NYT cooking with Beyond or Impossible. They’ve all been great. There are some Kay Chun Korean meatballs that were great with Beyond. Plan to make this recipe that way as well.

maybe add some soaked wheat bulgur on a one cup to 1 lb ground meat ratio?

love this. easy, tasty, and fast. used chili crunch for hot sauce. tasted great!

Unbelievably good!!!! Super easy and fast! I love Ali slagle!! Added some baby tomatoes and spinach because we had them, used sriracha as the hot sauce base. Needed a few extra min to cook all the way through - more like 13/14 min for me.

Super easy, and really flavorful! Tip: if you think you’ll have leftovers, store the pita toast separately because they get soggy in the cucumber avocado mix overnight.

Very good, awesome easy meal. As others have suggested, I recommend keeping the pita out of the salad until serving. The crunch of the pita was my favorite part, so keeping it separate is especially important if you’re meal prepping

Delicious and surprising! Used what I had - 2.5 Korean Gochujang paste for the hot sauce and arugula/spinach mix in place of the mint - and loved it. Added a couple T bread crumbs to meatballs because the consistency was too loose.

If you need a welcome contrast to something as delicious and healthy as avocado cucumber mint and lime than you might be suffering from jaded consumerism. It does sound like a delicious addition thiugh

yes, keep pita separate from salad -- beware if cooking with convection - pita will be ready before meatballs and get very brown by 10 min at 415 - amt of tahini sauce is enough for an army once u thin it...2 of us almost ate the amt given for 4 people...yes, very good. Yes, the spicy sauce really needs to be overdone in order to read the spice at the end of the day. We were dipping the meatballs in it...used less lime juice-- very good.

Is this really 826 calories per serving - 4 meatballs?

Excellent weeknight dinner. We are spice hounds and used two tbsp spicy harissa a tsp or so of dare-level hot sauce which blended out to a pleasant heat. Made all the meatballs and sauce and half the salad to serve two for dinner leftovers for lunch. Will make again!

This was delicious. Made the chips out of a thin tortilla (since that’s what I had on hand). They were light and crunchy and so good. Added feta. Had chips on the side as to not get them soggy being mixed in. Needed to cook the meatballs longer than 12 mins to get to temp.

Made only meatballs and served with Spicy Smashed Cumber with lime, honey, yogurt sauce. Great! Pita now on my grocery list.

Outstanding and super easy, could eat this once a month. Tahini IN the meatball is brilliant.

Fantastic!

Even if have avocado skip. And look to make 14-16 meatballs

Didn’t have any pita, so used pita chips instead. Crumbled the toasted chips over the cucumber/ avocado salad. My 16 year old loved them!

Super simple and delish. Perfect warm weather lunch.