Ready for a Balkan BBQ feast? It’s time to make your own super easy beef sausages. These Cevapi are stuffed full of garlic, parsley and paprika for a huge flavor kick. Pair with your favorite salad for the ultimate Mediterranean lunch. This recipe of Mediterranean origin are great and so much fun to make and eat. Hint, make a larger batch and use for later in the week with your favorite pasta or salad.
Cevapi – Balkan Beef Sausages
Ready for a Balkan BBQ feast? It’s time to make your own super easy beef sausages. These Cevapi are stuffed full of garlic, parsley and paprika for a huge flavor kick. Pair with your favorite salad for the ultimate Mediterranean lunch.
Equipment
- large fry pan
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 4 each garlic cloves
- ½ bunch italian parsley finely chopped
- 1½ oz water
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper fresh ground
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- This is step 1-4 of instructions
- In a large bowl, pop in the minced beef, garlic, parsley, sweet paprika, salt and pepper. Mix by hand until roughly combined.
- Next grab a small dish and mix the water and baking soda together until it dissolves a little bit (it won't mix entirely, this is fine).
- Add the baking soda mixture into the meat mix and massage together for a good 5 minutes until it's all combined.
- Get out a large plate – it's time to make the sausages! Get a small handful of the mixture and first roll it into a ball then into a small sausage shape. Pat each end to flatten and pop it on the plate. The length should be around the width of your hand.
- Set a large grill pan or frying pan on medium heat and drizzle in the olive oil. Once heated, cook the sausages in batches (don't overfill the pan). Let them cook a few minutes each side, until they're browned. Chop one in half to check if they're cooked in the middle. A slight pink is okay for beef sausages.
- Once cooked, serve hot with fresh lapinja bread, chopped raw onion and ajvar spread.
Notes
You only need simple ingredients that are easy to mix together so you’ll have tasty homemade sausages in no time.
We love that Cevapi can be made as a big batch – you can double or even triple the recipe and freeze them to cook when you need. This is perfect if you’re entertaining for a large crowd
Cevapi (pronounced Che-Vah-Pee) are small finger-sized Serbian / Balkan sausages that are usually made from ground beef (and sometimes ground pork or ground lamb… or a mix of all three!) before being grilled over charcoal for the ultimate melding of flavours. They often have spices such as paprika, salt and black pepper added and are similar to Kofta Kebabs found in other parts of Europe.
You’ll most likely find these simple Balkan sausages in Bosnia, Macedonia and Serbia. We love that they’re so easy to replicate at home.
The meat is the star of the dish in the recipe, then we vamp it up with a few seasonings and spices and you’re good to go.
The Meat: We used 100% minced / ground beef. It’s common to have combinations of beef, pork and lamb though, so feel free to experiment with the ratios and mixture.
Baking Soda: You might be tempted to skip on this simple ingredient, wondering why it’s even necessary, but you’d be surprised how important it is! Baking soda actually helps to tenderise the meat and give you good springy texture.
For Cooking: It’s best to cook your cevapi over a charcoal grill, however, we understand not everyone has one available, so a large frying pan on the stove is also fine. If you have no cooktop, you can cook Cevapi in the oven. Set to 180C / 360F and place the sausages on a lined baking tray. Turn them every 10-15 minutes until browned, and cut one in half to check if they’re cooked through. If they get a little dry, baste them with a touch of olive oil. They should take around 30-45 minutes.
To serve: Grab some fresh bread – lapinja is the most common, and spread with Ajvar, a popular Balkan hot red pepper spread. Then if you like you can also load it with raw chopped onion and sliced cucumber and tomato. To make it a little creamy, you can add sour cream.
We’ve used beef in our sausages, but it’s also very common to use pork or lamb.
What is Cevapi served with?
Cevapi is traditionally served with chopped onion, fresh lepinja bread (you could substitute with focaccia or pita bread in a pinch) and ajvar spread.
To add some freshness, you can also add some freshly sliced tomato and cucumber.
