Greek Meatballs
Greek Meatballs

Hello everybody, hope you are having an amazing day today. Today, we’re going to prepare a special dish, greek meatballs. It is one of my favorites food recipes. This time, I will make it a little bit tasty. This is gonna smell and look delicious.

Greek Meatballs is one of the most favored of current trending foods in the world. It is easy, it is fast, it tastes delicious. It’s appreciated by millions daily. They’re nice and they look wonderful. Greek Meatballs is something that I have loved my whole life.

To get started with this recipe, we have to prepare a few components. You can have greek meatballs using 34 ingredients and 6 steps. Here is how you can achieve that.

The ingredients needed to make Greek Meatballs:
  1. Take For the meatballs
  2. Get ground beef or pork, lamb, chicken, turkey (or combination of beef and pork)
  3. Make ready plain breadcrumbs (paleo - omit, gluten free - use GF breadcrumbs)
  4. Take finely chopped red onion
  5. Take garlic, minced
  6. Get finely chopped Kalamata olives (I use and recommend Lindsay Naturals Kalamata Olives)
  7. Take chopped fresh parsley
  8. Get chopped fresh mint
  9. Prepare large egg
  10. Take salt
  11. Take freshly ground black pepper
  12. Take paprika
  13. Make ready ground cinnamon
  14. Take freshly ground nutmeg
  15. Prepare oregano
  16. Get thyme
  17. Prepare For the Roasted Vegetables:
  18. Prepare medium eggplant (choose one that isn't too fat but more slender to avoid too many bitter seeds), peeled and diced into ¼ inch pieces
  19. Take garlic, peels left intact
  20. Prepare extra virgin olive oil
  21. Make ready SAUCE
  22. Take medium red onion, chopped
  23. Make ready extra virgin olive oil
  24. Take small red bell pepper, seeded and diced
  25. Prepare dry red wine (or use white if using chicken or turkey)
  26. Make ready can crushed tomatoes (I recommend certified San Marzano's from Italy)
  27. Take chopped sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained
  28. Prepare salt
  29. Get freshly ground black pepper
  30. Take thyme
  31. Take oregano
  32. Get whole Kalamata olives, drained (I use and recommend Lindsay Naturals Kalamata Olives)
  33. Make ready chopped fresh parsley
  34. Take chopped fresh mint
Steps to make Greek Meatballs:
  1. First we’re going to get the eggplant going so that can roast while we’re working on the other stuff. Select an eggplant that is on the narrow side. Fat ones tend to have more seeds which results in a bitter flavor. The peel also tends to be bitter in flavor and tough in texture, so peel the eggplant completely. - - Dice it into chunks about 1/4 inch in size. You can make them larger if you prefer. - - Don’t worry about tossing them with lemon juice to prevent them from getting brown. They’re going to get very brown while roasting them anyway. - - First get the roasted eggplant and garlic going. Toss them with a little salt and the olive oil and spread them out single-layer on a lined cookie sheet. Roast for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned, turning once with a spatula after about 10 minutes. Remove Set aside. Once cool, peel and mince the roasted garlic.
  2. Combine all of the meatball ingredients in a large bowl. Use your hands or a food processor to incorporate the ingredients. Form the mixture into 1-inch balls (you can make them larger if you prefer).
  3. Heat about 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and brown the meatballs on all sides (See NOTE for oven baking method). Transfer the meatballs to a plate and set aside.
  4. Add the red onions and the oil if more is needed and cook them until soft and caramelized, about 6-8 minutes. Add the red bell pepper and cook for another couple of minutes until softened. Add the wine and bring it to a rapid boil. Boil for 2 minutes.
  5. Add the roasted eggplant, roasted garlic and all of the sauce ingredients, except for the olives, parsley and mint, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Return the meatballs to the sauce, cover and simmer for another 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the whole Kalamata olives, cover and simmer for another 5 minutes then stir in the chopped parsley and mint.
  6. Garnish with some extra parsley and mint and serve with crusty bread, rice or orzo and a Greek or leafy green salad

So that’s going to wrap it up for this exceptional food greek meatballs recipe. Thanks so much for your time. I’m sure you can make this at home. There’s gonna be interesting food at home recipes coming up. Remember to save this page in your browser, and share it to your family, colleague and friends. Thanks again for reading. Go on get cooking!