Spinach, dill and feta meat balls with summer orzo salad and garlic yogurt
Serves 4
Ingredients:
Meatballs:
1 Tbls. Extra virgin olive oil + more for frying meatballs
120g baby spinach leaves, chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1 small brown onion, peeled and diced small
500g pork and beef/veal mince or chicken mince
1/4 cup + 1 Tbls. fine breadcrumbs (or GF oat flour if GF)
1 egg, beaten
3 tbls chopped fresh dill
80g crumbled feta
Zest of 1 lemon
2 tbls chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp dried oregano
Fine sea salt & black pepper
Orzo salad:
1 cup dried orzo (aka risoni)
2 tbls Extra virgin olive oil
2 tbls fresh lemon juice
3 small tomatoes, diced
1 Lebanese cucumber, cut in half lengthways and sliced about 5mm thick into half moons
Handful chopped parsley and/or mint or basil
2 tsp dried oregano
Garlic yogurt:
3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
Salt and pepper
To serve:
lemon wedges (optional)
Method:
Heat a large nonstick sauté pan over medium heat. Add the olive oil, onion, garlic and spinach, cook for 2-3 minutes until the spinach is wilted. Spread out onto a plate or tray and allow to cool. Once cooled, squeeze out as much water as possible and add it to a medium sized mixing bowl. Add in the remaining meatball ingredients including salt and pepper and mix well to combine. Scoop into 18 balls and roll into rounds and place on a baking paper lined tray until ready to fry.
NOTE: you could bake these at 220C conventional (200C fan-forced) for 15 minutes rather than frying if you prefer, but I like to fry for the browning. If using chicken mince, the mixture is a bit more “wet”. You could add a bit more breadcrumbs or refrigerate the mixture after making so it firms up a bit to make rolling a bit easier. Otherwise they will be more of a patty than a ball which is not a big deal.
Bring a small pot salted water to the boil. Add in the orzo and cook to the package instructions. Drain and rinse under cold water then immediately toss in the the 2 Tbls. of olive oil so it doesn’t stick to itself.
Add in the remaining orzo salad ingredients and toss to combine. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt and black pepper.
To make the garlic yogurt, combine the ingredients in a bowl, mix and keep cold until ready to eat.
To cook the meatballs, heat a large nonstick fry pan over high heat. Add a good drizzle of olive oil and swirl it around to coat the base of the pan. Add in the meatballs so they are not touching but are close together. If your pan is not big enough, you may need to fry these in two batches. Allow the first side to become deeply browned for about 2-3 minutes before flipping and cooking another 5-6 minutes (total cook time is about 10-12 minutes). Once they are a bit cooked and browned you can roll them around a bit more to get brown on all sides but resist trying to do this too early or they might fall apart.
Serve the yogurt on the base of the plate with the orzo salad on top and the meatballs on top of that. Serve with a lemon wedge to squeeze on top.