Greek-inspired meatballs

By: Holly Bell
From: Recipes From a Normal Mum
Serves: 6
Photographer: David Loftus

Being an easy blusher, I like to think I notice embarrassment at ten paces. And when it comes to food, we apologise far too much for what we use and produce in our kitchens, especially when it comes to seasoning. Dried herbs are almost a dirty secret. Well, no longer! We need to reclaim dried herbs and stop being so sniffy. After all, the Italians and the Greeks have been using them without so much as a sorry or a stutter for many years. Long live dried herbs; they save us money and, used right, taste great. Here’s a recipe using dried oregano. Don’t even think about using the fresh stuff.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
1 tablespoon	olive oil
500g	lamb mince
75g	fresh breadcrumbs
30ml	whole milk
1	large egg
1 teaspoon	salt
1 teaspoon	ground black pepper
1 teaspoon	dried oregano
60g	feta cheese, crumbled

Method

Grease a large roasting tray with the oil and preheat the oven to 180°C. In a large bowl, mix together the mince, breadcrumbs, milk, egg, salt, pepper and oregano. Use your hands to make sure every ingredient is really well distributed. You can use a food processor to do this but beware of over mixing it into sludge. Add the crumbled feta and mix through gently with your hands.
Dip your hands in some cold water and form meatballs from the mixture, each about the size of a golf ball. I try to get the kids involved in this job if I can; many hands make light work and all that. Place each meatball on the greased tray and continue until the entire mixture has been used. Bake for 35 minutes, turning after 20 minutes. I serve these with either a simple feta-less Greek salad, my quick tomato sauce with orzo pasta or just toasted pitta with tzatziki. They’re great cold in lunchboxes the next day too.

Ideas for feta cheese

Bake cubes in the oven until brown and serve with a spoonful of honey and fresh figs or chilled sliced apple. Or crumble and mix into soured cream with chopped spring onion and grated cucumber for a light dip. Or slice and mix with watermelon chunks, olives and balsamic vinegar for a speedy, fresh salad. Or marinate cubes in a jar filled with olive oil, dried oregano, sliced garlic and black olives, to keep in the fridge to nibble on for the next fortnight.

Tags:: Great British Bake Off; Holly; Bell; Mum

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