Mini Greek Meatballs

The cookbook calls these Mini Greek Meatballs, but I think mine are not-quite-mini Greek Meatballs. I use a plastic tablespoon to scoop up just enough meat to make each meatball, and I get 24 meatballs from a pound of ground beef, not 40 like the recipe says. I'm also cooking mine quite a lot longer. If you like Greek flavors, be open minded about the cooking mess, and give the meatballs a try.

Looks are a bit deceiving in this photo, but each of my meatballs is about 1 1/2 tablespoons of meat. If you'd like them a bit smaller, the recipe says to make each meatball about a tablespoon.

Mini Greek Meatballs
(Makes about 24 small meatballs, recipe adapted slightly from The South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook.)

1 pound lean ground beef (I use ground beef with less than 10% fat)
1/2 small onion, minced
1/2 cup very finely crumbled feta cheese (measure after crumbling finely with a fork)
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used 2 tsp. minced garlic from a jar)
1 large egg
1 T extra virgin olive oil, plus more for baking dish
1 T dried Greek oregano
4 tsp. red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp. salt (optional, I used a tiny bit of Vege-Sal)
1/4 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp. Greek seasoning (optional, I used Penzeys)

Preheat oven to 400. Use a food processor to chop the onion very finely, then drain if it seems like there is a lot of liquid. (In the photo I used red onion, but any onion will work.)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, then use your hands to mix ingredients.

Lightly oil a 9 X 13 baking dish. Shape meat into 1 tablespoon size meatballs and place on baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes, after which time you will see some liquid oozing out. Turn meatballs and bake 10 more minutes. Turn again, and bakd 5-10 more minutes, until meatballs are well-browned and cooked through.

I do want to warn you that the meatballs look like a mess for about 2/3 of the time they're cooking because some of the cheese and vinegar oozes out during the cooking process. If you're patient and keep browning them, all those things nicely carmelize and the finished meatballs are delicious.

Meatballs are delicious served with tzatziki sauce.