Based on my last name, everyone thinks I am Greek. I am definitely Greek with a name like George Zikos, however, I am half Armenian also! Every year, in June, I go to the Armenian picnic/bazaar at St. Gregory’s Armenian Orthodox church in Indian Orchard, MA. It’s nice to see my Armenian family and meet distant cousins, but since I’m so obsessed with food, you can guess why I’m really there. This is a much smaller church and community than a lot of the huge Greek picnics held in New England, and for this reason, they focus on making all the food fresh and traditional without having to worry about feeding massive crowds. As soon as you step out of your car, you can smell the charcoal and meat aromas wafting through the air. It’s always funny to see the men grilling, arguing about which meat needs to be flipped and/or taken off the grill. They grill on a large rectangular grill with charcoal, which I think gives the best flavor when grilling. These lamb burgers are one of my favorites.
There are two main options, shish kebab, and losh kebab. The shish kebab is delicious, but the losh kebab is much harder to find outside of these picnics. The losh kebab is a large burger made with fifty percent lamb, fifty percent beef. It is mixed with amazing herbs, spices, and chopped white onion. It’s an absolute flavor bomb. There is lots of fresh parsley and onion chopped up and mixed into the beef and lamb burgers. I also notice a slight tomatoey flavor which is from the tomato paste. For spices, the main note I taste is cumin, which is so delicious in grilled meat recipes. The losh kebab is cooked to your liking. I personally like mine a little pink in the middle because it stays juicy that way. If you like it cooked well done that obviously works great too.
Losh kebab can be served in a couple of different ways. At the Armenian picnic that I go to, it is served with buttery Armenian rice pilaf, salad with olive oil and vinegar, pita bread, and a mixture of chopped onions and fresh parsley.
These beef and lamb burgers are a beautiful and filling plate to serve your guests. Armenian pilaf is loved by everyone, not just Armenians, because of its buttery and comforting nature. Everyone always asks for my mom Lucine’s recipe and I hope to share it with you in the near future. Besides the losh kebab plate, you can get it in a sandwich also. I take a piece of fresh pita bread and open it. Then I cut the losh kebab in half and spoon in a lot of onion/fresh parsley mixture, the more the better! I don’t usually put any sauce in this sandwich because I want the losh kebab to rule, but yogurt would be an amazing condiment. A fresh squeeze of lemon can’t hurt either! I hope you enjoy this recipe and please comment on how your losh kebabs came out, and if there’s anything you would change.
Interested in more recipes by George Zikos? Check out this recipe for Sheet Pan Chicken Thighs with Peppers and Onion!
Armenian Losh Kebab (Lamb and Beef Burgers)
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground lamb
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup chopped parsley
- 1/2 white onion, chopped
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1/4 cup tomato sauce or 1 Tablespoon tomato paste
- 1/4 lemon juice
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 white onion, chopped
- 1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine the ground beef, lamb, egg, 1/2 onion, 3/4 cup parsley, egg, cumin, tomato sauce/paste, lemon, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Form into burger patties and set aside.
- Heat the grill to medium high heat.
- Grill the losh kebab burgers, flipping only once. You can grill these medium rare, or well, depending on your preference. Set aside to rest.
- Chop the other onion and parsley. Combine well in a bowl.
- Place a burger in a pita wrap, top with onion/parsley mixture, wrap it up, and enjoy!
Nutrition
About the Author: George Zikos
I am Armenian, also, though you cannot tell by my married name! I live in Worcester, niece and granddaughter to clans Der Krikorian, Simonian, Mechigian and Merzigian.
We make losh kebab year round. I first tried your recipe as a new housewife in 1981. It is because your recipe is my grandmother’s recipe! You know that delicious smell by everything you wrote above but especially by the cumin. But it is the picnic, that hallmark event of every Armenian parish in the United States, where everyone is offered losh. You must have crowds, music, the sweat of summer and anticipation, and the beloved joyful screams and laughter of another generation of Armenians, when you can really experience it in your life.
But we Armenians create that over and over again. As Saroyan wrote, when two Armenians get together we create another Armenia.
Love and well done from Church of Our Savior, Worcester, Massachusetts.
Amazingly delicious! I’m so happy I found this recipe. I made it exactly as the recipe, but I used fresh ground beef and lamb from a local farm and that took it to another level! Wow!!!!
Best Losh I’ve made. sometimes I add yogurt sauce. For the yogurt sauce I mix 1 cup of Plain Greek yogurt, the juice of 1 lemon, a couple of cloves of garlic and about 1/2 tsp of cumin.
Oh man it’s good stuff!
That is a great idea! Thanks for the comment.
Excellent
4th time preparing and can’t beat these!
Currently preparing them now along with the vegetable Briam
Really gonna enjoy
Ohh the briam with these losh kebab would be a delicious combo! 4th time? That’s great. Thanks for commenting!
Best lamb beef burger I’ve ever had. Wow. Going to try all your recipes now :)
I really appreciate it! It’d be great if you leave a comment on the recipes you try and let me know how they come out.
Great 😂 I’m still making these couldn’t tell you how many times. Just doing a quick check of your recipe and saw your comment. Fantastic 👍👍👍