Saturday evening was spent sitting outside with Carlo on our patio  pouring over all the new food magazines that had arrived in the mail that day while drinking Bulleit Lemonades and smelling these Beef Skewers Marinated in Harissa and Yogurt on the grill. It was perhaps the perfect way to spend a lazy Saturday evening together.
These Beef Skewers Marinated in Harisa and Yogurt feed 4 people at $1.96 per serving, and the Cucumber Salad featured in the recipe costs an additional 60 cents per serving for a full meal at $2.56.
The recipe calls for you to marinate the beef for at least half an hour, but I recommend that you try to get the meat into the harissa and yogurt goodness as early as you can so the flavours can really soak into the beef. If you don’t have any harissa
The tri tip at the store was super fatty, so I ended up buying some sirloin for the skewers. Carlo had to cook the beef a bit more on the grill than the recipe called for to make sure that they were cooked all the way through, especially since he had threaded the beef strips onto the skewers and they were quite thick. Next time I make this, I would just cube the beef so it is easier to skewer and then a bit easier to eat in the pita.
This Cucumber Salad was a great addition to the skewers, especially when stuffed inside the pita with the beef and hummus. It was really easy to make: just cut up a cucumber, and throw in some olives, red onion, and mint. The recipe doesn’t call for any kind of acid in the salad, but I ended up squeezing in some lemon in there for extra zing.
The whole meal was great and all of the flavours worked really well together. Next time I make these skewers, I think I will make some of Minty Yogurt Sauce that goes with the Red Curry Chicken Kebabs so it can provide a nice coolness to the heat of harissa and play off nicely with mint in the Cucumber Salad.
