🥒 Sheikh el mahshi with yogurt

Name: Sheikh el mahshi with yogurt
Total time: 75 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Levant · Middle East
Ingredients: 1 kg small zucchini, cored; 400 g minced lamb; 1 onion, finely chopped; 40 g pine nuts; 1 tsp seven-spice mix, salt and pepper; 2 tbsp oil; 600 g plain yogurt; 3 garlic cloves crushed with 1 tsp dried mint

Origin: Levant · Middle East

525kcal

per serving · 350 g

150kcal

per 100 g

28 gProtein8 g / 100 g

35 gFat10 g / 100 g

24 gCarbs7 g / 100 g

Sheikh el mahshi, roughly “the chief of stuffed dishes”, is small zucchini hollowed out and filled with spiced minced lamb, onion and toasted pine nuts. In this version the zucchini is baked and finished in a warm garlicky yogurt sauce, which makes it tender, creamy and rich. It is served hot with plain rice.

Diets

✓

No porkfor halal, the meat must be halal-slaughtered

✓

Gluten-freeno wheat, barley or rye in a typical recipe

✓

Low-carb7 g carbs per 100 g

Not vegetarianbecause of: ground lamb

Not veganbecause of: ground lamb, yogurt

Contains dairybecause of: yogurt

Allergens

Contains (in a typical recipe):

⚠ Milk ⚠ Tree nuts

What it is made of

zucchiniground lambpine nutsyogurtgarliconion

Recipe

4 servings75 min

Ingredients

1 kg small zucchini, cored
400 g minced lamb
1 onion, finely chopped
40 g pine nuts
1 tsp seven-spice mix, salt and pepper
2 tbsp oil
600 g plain yogurt
3 garlic cloves crushed with 1 tsp dried mint

Method

Toast the pine nuts in a little oil, then fry the onion and lamb with the spices until browned. Stir the pine nuts in.
Fill the zucchini with the meat mixture.
Brush the zucchini with oil and bake at 200 °C for 30–35 minutes until tender.
Warm the yogurt slowly, stirring constantly in one direction so it does not split, then add the garlic and mint.
Pour the yogurt over the zucchini, simmer gently for 10 minutes and serve hot.

How to make it lighter

Use lean minced lamb and drain off the fat after browning.
Pine nuts are energy-dense — 20 g instead of 40 g still gives plenty of flavour.
Low-fat yogurt works well in the sauce.

History

Stuffed vegetables are an old tradition across the Levant, and sheikh el mahshi is considered the grandest version because the filling is all meat and pine nuts, without rice. It is a festive family dish in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan, cooked either in yogurt or in tomato sauce.

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Similar dishes

Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →