Friday, April 16, 2010

Middle Eastern meatballs


Everyone at our church loves for there to be a couple of crock pots full of meatsa-ball-eys at every fellowship dinner.  While I have often fallen back on the traditional Italian or Swedish style treasures, last time I brought a Middle Eastern variety, and they were a hit!

These meatballs should be served with pita bread and a honey-lemon-yogurt sauce.  Here's the recipe for a large quantity.

Middle Eastern Meatballs

2 onions, coarsely grated
2/3 c matso meal or dry breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper
2 t turmeric
2 t paprika
1/4 t ground red pepper
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 eggs
1-1/2 lbs ground turkey or chicken
1-1/2 lbs ground beef or lamb
Olive oil

1 c Greek yogurt
1 T fresh lemon juice
1 T honey
Pita bread, cut in halves
Lemon wedges

Combine all the ingredients through the meat in a large bowl.  Form into meatballs.  In a large skillet, brown the balls in batches on two sides.  Don't worry about cooking them through.  Place each batch into a crock pot and cook on low for a few hours until cooked thoroughly.

Mix the yogurt with the lemon and honey, and serve with the meatballs and pita bread halves.  Add more lemon juice to the meatballs if needed.  

3 comments:

Eileen The Artful Crafter said...

These sound delish. I've already got recipes for Italian and Swedish meatballs - doesn't everyone? I look forward tot trying these for something just a little bit different. TFS.

Anonymous said...

simple and tasty! what i usually add to increase the middle eastern flavour is a bit of ground cumin and fresh chopped cilantro. hope you like that version too! :)

Cyndi L said...

Oh yeah, definitely bring on the cumin. I'm not a big fan of cilantro, but sumac is a nice addition too :-)