Harissa Lamb Tartlets (Keto and Dairy Free)

A rich lamb and spinach mix in a harissa infused ragu-like sauce filling a tender mini tart shell–is it any wonder I’m obsessed?  These Harissa Lamb Tartlets make an amazing appetizer for any dinner party or perhaps your upcoming Friendsgiving party.  

It likely comes as no surprise at this point that I would become obsessed with a fun little finger food.  The story of how these came about is a long and winding road.  However, suffice it to say, the end result was so delicious that everyone would have been quite happy to keep munching on these for the whole evening.  

Unless someone tells you, you’d probably be surprised to find out that they are dairy free, gluten free, low carb, and coconut free.  If not all of those particular dietary restrictions are a concern for you or guests, just consider the extras a happy bonus.  🙂  

The components of this recipe were inspired by the following with some modifications:

• Tart Shells from All Day I Dream About Food’s Keto Cranberry Brie Bites 
• Lamb Filling from Harissa Lamb Skillet Lasagna from Food & Wine

There were some iterations and alternative experiments that may make their way into a future version of this recipe, but they’re not quite ready for prime time yet.  So for now, give these a try and let me know what you think!

What You Need to Make Harissa Lamb Tartlets

Equipment

• Large Mixing Bowl
• Measuring Cups
• Measuring Bowls
• Fine Mesh Sieve
• Whisk – Or Fork
• Rubber Scraper
• Small Microwavable Bowl – For melting the shortening
• Parchment Paper
• Rolling Pin
• 2.5-inch Cookie or Biscuit Cutter
• Offset Spatula – Optional for transferring dough cutouts to mini muffin pan
• 2 Mini Muffin Pans – Preferably Silicone
• Nonstick Cooking Spray
• Cutting Board
• Chef’s Knife
• Large Sauté Pan or Skillet
• Paper Towel Lined Plate
• Small Bowl – Optional for combing Ricotta and Parmesan (if making dairy topping)

Ingredients

• For the Tartlet Shells:
  • Almond Flour – I really do recommend sifting it.  It’ll only add about 90 seconds. 
  • Baking Powder
  • Kosher Salt
  • Garlic Powder
  • Eggs – I always use jumbo unless they’re out of stock.
  • Butter Flavored Shortening – If you don’t need to make this Dairy Free, you can substitute Unsalted Butter for the shortening.  
  • Xanthan Gum – You need this to help the dough stick together rather than crumbling since you don’t have any gluten to help you with that.  

• For the Harissa Lamb Filling:
  • Avocado Oil – This is just for cooking the lamb and veggies.  You can use Regular Olive Oil if you prefer. 
  • Ground Lamb
  • Kosher Salt
  • Ground Black Pepper
  • Red Onion
  • Minced Garlic – You can mince your own if you prefer, but I just buy the pre-minced kind in bulk.  
  • Harissa Sauce – I used Mild, but you could use Spicy if you prefer.
  • Fresh Spinach – I do a rough chop on my spinach to avoid stringiness.
  • Low Carb Marinara Sauce – I use Rao’s.
  • Chicken Broth or Stock – You can use the broth or stock of your choice.  If you have the time, I recommend my Homemade Chicken+ Broth. 
  • Chia Seeds – It doesn’t matter if you use the black or white chia seeds.  This filling mixture is too dark for you to see them either way.  

• For the Ricotta Topping (OPTIONAL):
  • Ricotta Cheese – This is only if you are making the dairy topper.  If so, use the Whole Milk Ricotta.
  • Grated Parmesan Cheese

• For the Dairy Free Alternative Topping (OPTIONAL):
• Non-Dairy Plant-Based Spread (i.e. Vegan Cream Cheese) – (For the Dairy Free Version) I used Philadelphia Plant-Based Original Non-Dairy Spread. 

Getting Started with Making Harissa Lamb Tartlets

Okay, this recipe for Harissa Lamb Tartlets can be broken down into a few discrete steps.  You can either do everything in one fell swoop or do what I do and break it up to better fit your Time Budget.  Here are our steps.  You can shift around the order a bit to best suit your needs.  

• Making the Harissa Lamb Filling
• Making the Tartlet Shells
• Prepping the Optional Toppings
• Assembling the Harissa Lamb Tartlets
• Warming and Serving

Making the Harissa Lamb Filling

I’m going to tell you now that you could just make this harissa lamb filling just up to the adding chia seeds point and you’d have a highly versatile, deliciously meaty sauce.  However, today we’re making tartlets, so on we go.  

Cooking the Lamb

We’ll start by heating 1 – 2 tablespoons of Avocado Oil (or high temp oil of your choice) in a large sauté pan over medium high heat.  There we’ll cook 1 pound of Ground Lamb with ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt and ½ teaspoon Ground Black Pepper (about 10 minutes).  Once done, we’ll remove the lamb from the heat to a paper towel lined plate.  Don’t clean out the pan yet.  

Prepping the Veggies and Measuring Ingredients

Then we’ll dice ½ of a large Red Onion and set it aside.  From there, we’ll move on to roughly chopping 6 cups of Fresh Spinach and setting them aside as well.  Before we start cooking, let’s also get the rest of our ingredients measured and close at hand.  

Making the Meat Sauce

In the same pan in which you cooked the lamb, sauté the diced onion over medium high heat until they’ve just started to soften.  Then we’ll add in the remaining ½ teaspoon of Kosher Salt and ¼ teaspoon of Ground Black Pepper as well as 3 teaspoons of minced Garlic.  From there, we’ll let it cook for another 30 – 60 seconds until the garlic is fragrant and then add 2 tablespoons of Harissa Sauce and 6 cups of chopped Fresh Spinach.  We will let the spinach cook until it just starts to wilt (about 2 minutes) and then pour in 22 ounces of Low Carb Marinara Sauce and 2 cups of Broth or Stock.  

Next, we add the lamb back into the pan and bring everything to a boil.  Then, we’ll reduce the heat to a simmer and allow it to reduce for about 20 minutes or until you have about 6 cups of meat sauce remaining.  

Adding the Chia Seeds

Finally, we remove the mixture from the heat and add in 1.5 cups of Chia Seeds (or ¼ cup of chia seeds for every 1 cup of meat sauce mixture).  Stir to combine and allow it to sit for at least 30 minutes.  If you can make this in advance and allow it to sit in the fridge overnight, that’s even better.  You want to give the chia seeds time to absorb liquid, expand, and soften.  

Making the Tartlet Shells

Making the Dough

We’ll start the Tartlet Shells by combining all of our dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  First you’ll sift in 2.25 cups of Almond Flour.  

Lori Side Note: Yes, I do recommend sifting.  Just set a fine mesh sieve over the large mixing bowl before you dump in the almond flour.   

Pro Tip 1: Add a cup at a time and then sift it through.  Otherwise, the weight of the almond flour can bog it down and make it take longer.  

Pro Tip 2: Don’t use a handheld sifter (like you would for all purpose flour) with almond flour.  The almond flour has more moisture and tends to clump in the sifter which I find annoying and a waste of time.  

Then you’ll add in 2 teaspoons Baking Powder, ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt, ½ teaspoon Garlic Powder, and ½ teaspoon Xanthan Gum.  Whisk to thoroughly combine.  

Once that’s done, you can go ahead and mix in the 2 Eggs and ¼ cup Butter Flavored Shortening (Melted).  You will want to stir until the mixture forms a dough.  For ease of working with it when you start rolling, I suggest breaking the dough ball in half.  

Forming the Mini Tartlet Shells

At this point, you’re ready to roll (literally) and can go ahead and preheat the oven to 325°F as well as thoroughly grease 2 mini muffin pans (silicone if possible) with nonstick cooking spray.  

To roll the dough, lay out 2 sheets of parchment paper, place one of the dough balls in between them, and gently flatten it a bit.  

Lori Side Note: I have issues rolling dough, so I make my parchment paper pieces a bit longer than necessary, place one of the ends over the edge of the counter and lean my body against it to hold it in place.  If I ever do this in video format, you can all be entertained.

You want to roll out the dough to ¼-inch thickness and then use a 2.5-inch cookie or biscuit cutter to cut out the rounds.  Using an offset spatula (if you happen to have one), you can then move each dough round on top of a mini muffin well.  You can reroll the dough as many times as needed to use it all up.  

To get the dough into the mini muffin wells, use your fingers to gently press it down into the mold.  If it breaks on you, that’s okay; you can just press it back together in the well.  Once you’ve filled all of the wells, you’ll want to use a fork to dock the bottoms and edges.  

Baking

We’re going to bake these tartlet shells the whole way through.  So you’ll put them in the oven and bake them at 325°F for 10 minutes and then check them for doneness.  You’ll know they’re done when the top edges are just starting to turn golden brown.  If they are not done, bake them for up to 5 minutes more.  

Storing the Tartlet Shells

It doesn’t really matter if you make these or the Harissa Lamb Filling first.  If you make these in advance, you can store them in an airtight container in the fridge.  I suggest placing a sheet of wax paper between each layer or tartlet shells in the container.  

Prepping the Optional Toppings

I actually like the tarts just fine without any topping.  However, I do like the color contrast of a topper from a pure presentation point of view.  So, in that vein, here are a couple of options should you desire a topper.  

Ricotta Dollops (Dairy Version)

For the dairy version of optional topper, we’ll combine 1 cup of Whole Milk Ricotta Cheese and ¼ cup Grated Parmesan.  Mix them so that they are fully combined.  Then, you’ll just spoon about 1 teaspoon of the cheese mix on top of each lamb filled tartlet.  That’s it.  

Non Dairy Version

In this case, we’re keeping it simple and just using the Plant-Based Original Non-Dairy Spread (i.e. vegan cream cheese substitute) as it is.  Place about 1 teaspoon of it on top of each lamb filled tartlet.  It’s okay if it’s a bit solid, because it will melt in the warming step.  

Assembling the Harissa Lamb Tartlets

Once you’ve gotten all of the components made, the assembly of these tartlets is pretty easy.  You’ll just fill each tartlet shell with about 1 tablespoon of the Harissa Lamb Filling.  Then, if you’re using one of the toppings, add about 1 teaspoon of topper to each tartlet.  

You can prepare these up to a day in advance and store them in an airtight container in the fridge until you’re ready to heat and serve them.  

Warming and Serving

If you’ve prepared these cute little Harissa Lamb Tartlets in advance, you’ll need to warm them up before serving them.  (I actually eat them cold too, but I’m weird like that.)  You have a couple of options for doing so.  

Option 1: Slow Warming

If you have the time and oven space (i.e. you don’t need it for something else), you can take the slow warming method.  In this version, you’ll heat your oven to 180°F or the “Warm” setting.  Then you’ll just place your tartlets on a sheet pan or in a casserole dish and pop them in the oven for about 30 minutes.  Take a look after 15 minutes and add a sheet of aluminum foil over the top if needed to prevent further browning.  

What I like about this method is that I can pay a bit less attention to them while doing other things.  What I don’t like about this method is that it takes longer, so if you’re down to the last few minutes before guests arrive, this is not the route for you.

Option 2: Fast Warming with Attention Required

If you’re in more of a hurry, set your oven to 350°F.  You’ll, as with the other version, place them on either a baking sheet or in a casserole dish and pop them in the oven.  In this case, go ahead and place a sheet of aluminum foil over them from the onset.  Then they will only go in for about 15 minutes.  Give them a quick look after 10 minutes to make sure they aren’t over-browning.  

Related Recipes

Wondering what else to serve with these Harissa Lamb Tartlets?  Check out my Friendsgiving Food Ideas for some suggestions.  

If you’re looking for other small-bite, finger food, appetizer ideas, you might be interested in one of these: 

• Keto Buffalo Chicken Puffs
• Keto Salmon Loaf Bites with Buttermilk Dill Whipped Cream
• Keto Almond Flour Corn Dog Bites
• Everything Shrimp Bites on Parmesan Crisps
• Manchego Prosciutto Blueberry Bites
• Prosciutto Pesto Canapés
• Soppressata and Manchego Pesto Canapés