Lamb and Feta Meatballs with Quinoa Tabbouleh
Serves: 4 Makes 14 meatballs
Time: Prep - 20 mins
Cook - 2 hours
This is not your ordinary meatball dish. These are so good I would go as far as to say you could serve them up when entertaining (and I have on multiple occasions). Don’t let the cooking time put you off, this is a very easy dinner to prepare but whenever you are making a tomato-based meal from scratch it is imperative that you allow the tomatoes enough time to cookout, that is how you end up with a lovely rich flavour (and a fabulous aroma through the house). If you want to save time on the night then cook the sauce ahead of time.
Leftovers
Tonight’s dinner can easily feed four people so you should have plenty of leftovers for lunch when just feeding two people.
What you'll need
1 small brown onion
4 cloves of garlic
4 sprigs of oregano
1 cup of red wine
2 tins of whole peeled tomatoes
500g lamb mince
1/2 cup of quick oats
1 egg
1 tub of Persian feta approx. 200g
1 cup of mixed quinoa
1 bunch of curly parsley
1 bunch of flat leaf parsley
3 Roma tomatoes
1/4 cup pinenuts
From the pantry
1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander
olive oil
salt and pepper
Make Me a Vego
If your cutting back on meat but still want to do this dish I have two suggestions, you could go lighter on the mince and add grated carrot and zucchini to the mix instead, with an egg to help bind it, or take the cheat option and buy ready made vegetarian “meatballs” from the supermarket.
Save Time
Make the sauce the night before and this could be a dinner that's ready in just over half an hour.
Optional for Vego’s
You could use something like field mushrooms instead of meatballs with lots of spinach and parsley.
Prep and Cook
Make Sauce
Peel and finely dice the onion and garlic.
Finely chop oregano removing any large woody stalks.
Heat a large oven-safe fry pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil on high heat.
Sauté the onion, garlic and oregano until soft - approx. 4 minutes.
Once the onion mix is softened (it will be a lovely light golden colour) remove half the mix and place in a mixing bowl. Then add the red wine to the frypan and allow the wine to reduce by half.
Add the whole peeled tomatoes, crushing them each by hand as you add them to the pan.
Swill each can out with roughly a quarter can of water and add. ( This does three things - ensures you use all the tomato, helps to soften the acidity and cleans the can ready for recycling).
Bring the tomato mix up to the boil. Season well with salt and pepper and turn down to a simmer with a lid on if you have one.
Cook for 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have deepened to a lovely rich red colour.
Cook Quinoa
Rinse quinoa in a sieve under cold running water.
Combine in a pot with 2 1/2 cups of water (if you only have white quinoa use 2 cups of water) and a pinch of salt. Bring up to the boil and continue to cook until almost all the liquid has gone and small bubble craters are appearing.
Remove from the heat and cover with an airtight lid and leave to steam.
One Pan for Everything
If you use a large Fry pan that can also go in the oven then you can use that same pan for the rest of the dish, saves on washing up.
Make Balls
Add the mince, egg, ground coriander and quick oats to the bowl with the onion mix you saved.
Finely chop half your bunch of curly parsley and add this to the mix. Season really well with salt and pepper and mix to combine.
Drain the oil away from the Persian feta.
Use your hands and roll a ball about the size of a golf ball into your hands. Then flatten it and put a half teaspoon of feta in the centre, fold the sides up around the feta and roll back into a ball. Repeat till the mix is finished (remaining feta will get used later). Place on a tray and pop into the fridge until your sauce is ready.
Preheat Oven to 180c
Cook Balls
When your tomato sauce has thickened, has turned a lovely deep red colour and has a well developed flavour, you can dot the meatballs around in the dish, scattering the rest of the feta over top and place in the oven to cook for 20 minutes.
Toast Pine nuts
In a tray in the oven for 6 minutes.
Make Tabbouleh
Roughly dice the tomatoes.
Wash and roughly chop the flat leaf parsley, saving a few sprigs to garnish the meatballs.
Roughly chop the remainder of the curly parsley.
Remove the lid from your quinoa and fluff up with a fork. Season with salt and pepper. When your meatballs are ready, combine altogether and serve in a salad bowl.
Plate it Pretty
This dish looks visually at its best when served in the baking dish. Scatter the toasted pine nuts over the meatballs with a few picked parsley leaves.
Serve tabbouleh on the side.
Enjoy!
Lunch tomorrow
How many meatballs did you have left? Or did you eat this meal with guests? I served it up to friends so we had no leftovers but you should, in theory, have plenty for lunch if it is just the two for dinner.