Greek meatballs with a garlicky-yogurt sauce
Meatballs are such a comfort food, and so easy to make! With this greek style recipe with warm hints of cinnamon and lemon zest tanginess you can't go wrong.
Ingredients:
For the meatballs
300gr of minced meat (half pork half beef)
1 onion
2 eggs
the zest of 1 lemon
1 clove of garlic
1 tsp of oregano
1 tsp of cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste
For the sauce
1 small tub of greek yogurt
1 clove of garlic
Fresh parsley
The juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Method
Wijnand and I have tried numerous amounts of recipes for meatballs and one of the things I discovered that really makes your meatball awesome is giving love to your onions. So I usually start by sautéing a finely chopped onion and let it cool. Instead of the commonly used chunks of raw sharp flavor, this will give your meatball the sweetness and softness of the onion.
After the onion is cooled down a bit add it to a mixing bowl with the salt, pepper, oregano, cinnamon powder, grated garlic, the zest a the lemon and 2 eggs. I like to give this a good whisk to make sure everything is blended properly.
Now add in the minced meat and slowly add the breadcrumbs until the consistency of your meatball no longer sticks to your hands, but still looks juicy. Do not over do the breadcrumbs, nobody likes a dry ball.
Roll your mixture into balls and let them rest in the refrigerator for an hour. I do this so all the flavors have time to set in, but also because they tend to keep their shape better during frying.
While your meat is resting, grab a bowl and add in the Greek yogurt, grate one clove of garlic and add the juice of half a lemon, a tablespoon of good quality extra virgin olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Serve with some chopped parsley and voilà, your garlicky awesomeness is ready.
Now back to the meatballs, add a gulp of olive oil to a frying pan and slowly fry on medium heat until all sides are browned then pop on a lid and let simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes (depending on how big your balls are).
Serve with the yogurt sauce and a side salad.