Our best recipes with meatballs include everything from the tastiest, juiciest Italian style meatballs of the kind mum and dad made back in the 1970s, when they were served with spaghetti, to our juicy Cambodian pork meatballs recipe for aromatic little meatballs fragrant with ginger, garlic, shallots, kaffir lime, and lemongrass, served with rice porridge or on num pang, Cambodian banh mi.
Who doesn’t love meatballs?! Whether served on their own, with salad, in a soup or rice porridge, or with pasta in the much-loved spaghetti with meatballs, it seems everyone in the world is looking for home-cooked recipes with meatballs right now, and recollecting the incredibly charming film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Remember that?!
I have no idea why we’re all on the search for recipes with meatballs, though I have to confess that we’ve made meatballs twice this week and tomorrow I’ll be making them again. More meatball recipes coming soon. Perhaps it’s because meatballs are delicious, comforting, and endearingly old-fashioned, and in a world that’s so upside down right now, we all need comfort and a reassurance that some things never change.
But before we tell you more about our best recipes with meatballs, we have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by supporting our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon; or by buying a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; booking a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith; or by buying something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, or gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers. We may earn a small commission but you won’t pay any extra.
If you don’t find cooking inspiration in this round-up, do browse our recipe archives, which is brimming with 15 years of recipes we’ve cooked, created and collected around the world, from places we’ve lived, worked, travelled, and loved. Now let me tell you all about our best recipes with meatballs.
Best Recipes with Meatballs from Italian Style Meatballs to Spanish Albondigas
Our best recipes with meatballs from Italian meatballs and Spanish meatballs to Southeast Asian meatballs.
Cypriot Meatballs Recipe for Cyprus Style Keftedes with Beef, Pork and Potato
Our Cypriot meatballs recipe for Cyprus style keftedes makes melt-in-the-mouth meatballs imbued with heady spices such as cinnamon and fragrant herbs like fresh parsley, fresh dill, and fresh and dried mint. Made with minced beef and pork, and grated potatoes, the meatballs are shallow-fried and served with talatouri (Cypriot tzatziki), pita and salad.
Cypriot keftedes differ from Greek keftedes in a few ways: they include potatoes, a specialty of Cyprus; cinnamon, a much loved spice in Cyprus; and fresh and dried mint, a favourite herb of Cypriots. These are fantastic with this Cypriot tomato salad or refreshing watermelon, tomato and halloumi salad.
A tip: use digital kitchen scales to weigh the spoons of minced meat mixture before shaping them into meatballs to ensure the meatballs are uniform in size and cook evenly. While I shallow-fry these meatballs in a big, deep frying pan, you could use your favourite skillet or do them on an outdoor barbecue or grill.
Cypriot Meatballs Recipe for Cyprus Style Keftedes with Beef, Pork and Potato
Greek Meatballs Recipe for Keftedes – Juicy Meatballs with Greek Herbs
This easy Greek meatballs recipe for keftedes makes juicy meatballs gently infused with quintessential Greek herbs – dried oregano, fresh flat leaf parsley and fresh dill. Made with beef – which could be switched out with a combination of beef and pork or lamb – the meatballs are shallow-fried.
These moist and herby meatballs make one of our best Greek recipes. Serve these meatballs with tzatziki, the creamy Greek yoghurt and cucumber dip, a bowl of this traditional Greek salad with feta cheese, and a stack of warm pita, and you have a very satisfying dinner or lunch right there.
Meatballs amake great sharing food if you’re cooking for a crowd. Just set plates of meatballs on the table with bowls of salad, dishes of olive, Greek eggplant dip, taramosalata, artichoke dip, perhaps this pan fried feta cheese, and maybe some chicken souvlaki (Greek-style skewers), and guests can help themselves, eating the meatballs as they like.
Greek Meatballs Recipe for Keftedes – Juicy Meatballs with Greek Herbs
Juicy Meatball Noodle Soup Recipe with Jammy Soft Boiled Eggs and Aromatic Herbs
Our juicy meatball noodle soup recipe with jammy soft boiled eggs, aromatic herbs, crunchy fried onions, chillies, and chives makes a Southeast Asian style noodle soup with deliciously rustic homemade pork meatballs. Called kuy teav in Cambodia, this comforting bowl of soup is typically eaten for breakfast, but also makes a comforting brunch, lunch or dinner.
This meatball noodle soup recipe will make you succulent pork meatballs that swim in the kind of savoury noodle soup that you’ll find all over mainland Southeast Asia, but is closest in style to the traditional Cambodian noodle soup called kuy teav, which we eat here for breakfast in Cambodia‘s northern city of Siem Reap.
The main differences between my meatball noodle soup recipe and the soup you’ll slurp in a local noodle joint are the style of meatballs and the boiled eggs. When eggs are served with noodle soups and rice porridges here in Southeast Asia they’re generally hard boiled, while the meatballs are firm, dense and chewy. Mine melt in the mouth.
Juicy Meatball Noodle Soup Recipe with Jammy Soft Boiled Eggs and Aromatic Herbs
Easy Baked Meatballs Recipe with Middle Eastern Baharat Seven Spices
Our easy baked meatballs recipe will make you tender juicy meatballs flavoured with the Middle Eastern spice blend called sabaa baharat or just ‘baharat’ or seven spices. It’s one of our favourite Middle Eastern recipes. If you enjoyed our beef kofta recipe but find squeezing the mince around a skewer fiddly (some do), you’ll love these little meatballs.
Formed in minutes, due to their small size the meatballs bake quickly in the oven, remaining moist. They’re also versatile. Serve them with toothpicks at a social gathering or eat them as an appetiser or a main with Middle Eastern dips hummus and baba ganoush and salads such as fattoush and tabbouleh.
I love to roll the meatballs up in soft warm pita bread spread with carrot ‘hummus’ or beetroot ‘hummus’ and sprinkled with loads of fresh mint and parsley. They’re also fantastic stuffed into crispy baguettes on layers of hummus, shredded lettuce and pickles for a Middle Eastern style banh mi.
Easy Baked Meatballs Recipe with Middle Eastern Baharat Seven Spices
Tastiest Juiciest Italian Style Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
My recipe for the tastiest tender-soft Italian style meatballs of the kind my mum and dad made back in the 1970s – when it was served with, not on, spaghetti! – is perhaps the best of our best recipes with meatballs.
The recipe is based on the classic Southern Italian meatballs, which Italians called polpette, made in Sicily and Calabria with ricotta, parmesan and pecorino cheeses that are fried until brown then simmered in a rich classic Italian tomato sauce.
Cook them in your favourite fry-pan or trusty skillet, although we actually use a round flat bottomed wok to heat the olive oil and fry the diced onion until soft and translucent – a lot of recipes call for raw onion, but soft fried onion is key for me – and fry the meatballs, as it’s easier to brown them more evenly.
You can use breadcrumbs – and I do use them in other meatball recipes – but for this old-fashioned meatball recipe, I do as my mother and grandmother did and soak white bread in whole milk as that’s one of the secrets to super-moist meatballs.
Serve these meatballs with tomato sauce as the Southern Italian do, at the centre of the table, sprinkled with chopped fresh flat leaf parsley, celery leaves or fragrant basil, with a simple salad of fresh rucola tossed in extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar – or with your favourite pasta.
Best Meatballs Recipe for the Tastiest Juiciest Italian Style Meatballs
Best Spaghetti and Meatballs Recipe for the Comfort Food Favourite
Our best spaghetti and meatballs recipe makes one of our best pasta recipes, as the key ingredients are made from scratch, from a rich deeply flavoured tomato sauce to the juiciest, tastiest homemade meatballs that simmer in the sauce, which the spaghetti is stirred in before being plated.
A generous sprinkle of Parmigiano Reggiano and fragrant fresh basil leaves complete this classic comfort food favourite. The only things we haven’t made are the dried pasta and Parmigiano Reggiano, because Italians do both better.
My spaghetti and meatballs recipe incorporates two recipes I’ve shared, my rich tomato sauce recipe – which I also used on this classic chicken parma recipe – and my homemade Italian meatballs recipe.
Best Spaghetti and Meatballs Recipe for the Comfort Food Favourite
Spanish Meatballs Recipe for Albondigas, a Traditional Spanish Tapas Dish
This classic Spanish meatball recipe for albondigas makes another one of our best recipes with meatballs. These juicy Spanish-style meatballs simmer in a rich tomato sauce spiced with smoky paprika and a slight kick of chilli.
Albondigas is a tapa, a small snack plate available at tapas bars in Spain, where a tapas bar crawl – a bar-hop to sample these delicious snacks – is must-do for food-loving travellers, and fun to replicate at home.
We use our kitchen scales to weigh the spoons of minced meat mixture before shaping it into meatballs to ensure they’re uniform in size – we like to aim for 32 g / 1.13 oz for these – so that they cook evenly. That size is what you’ll find in most tapas bars. It’s meant to be a snack not a full meal, plus that smallish size will cook faster. The mixture makes us around 30-32 meatballs.
We recommend serving up a dish of these juicy morsels with slices of crusty bread to mop up the sauce, as part of a tapas spread. This recipe was the first in a series of Spanish tapas recipes, which so far includes recipes for chorizo and potato croquettes, Spanish chorizo in red wine for chorizo al vino tinto, and Spanish style garlic shrimp.
Spanish Meatballs Recipe for Albondigas – First in a Series of Traditional Spanish Tapas Recipes
Southeast Asian Grilled Pork Meatballs with Rice Paper, Rice Noodles, Salad and Pickles
Our grilled pork meatballs recipe with rice paper, rice noodles, salad, and pickles makes a sharing style dish popular in Southern Cambodia and Vietnam, hence ‘Southeast Asian’, and it’s another of our best recipes with meatballs. Best presented on a platter so people can help themselves, it’s a delicious DIY dish that you can eat as you wish, wrapping and rolling the meatballs with salad and pickles in the rice paper.
These grilled pork meatballs should be served with rice paper, vermicelli rice noodles, fresh salad vegetables and fruit, a quick pickle of carrot and daikon, and a dipping sauce to create a delicious sharing plate that can be served as an appetiser or main course or family-style in the centre of the table as part of a larger feast of Vietnamese food, Cambodian food or Southeast Asian food.
While our Cambodian friends from Phnom Penh and Southern Cambodia would call this a Cambodian dish, our Vietnamese friends would argue it is Southern Vietnamese. The reality is that it’s one of a genre of dishes consumed in both countries; dishes that have crossed borders, existed before there were borders, and travelled over land and ocean, because you’ll find variations of this dish not only in Cambodia and Vietnam, but in the Vietnam and Cambodian diasporas.
We love this grilled pork meatballs recipe with rice paper wherever we eat it and whatever form it takes, because what’s most fun about this dish is that it’s a sharing dish that can be eaten as a communal meal, shared amongst friends and family, and there are few better things to do in the world than that, especially right now.
Southeast Asian Grilled Pork Meatballs with Rice Paper, Rice Noodles, Salad and Pickles
Cambodian Pork Meatballs Recipe for Wraps, Rolls, Soups, Salads and Sandwiches
Our Cambodian pork meatballs recipe will make you juicy little meatballs that are incredibly delicious and aromatic thanks to a seasoning comprised of some of Cambodia’s most quintessential ingredients used in a Khmer kroeung or herb and spice paste, including ginger, garlic, shallots, kaffir lime, and lemongrass. It makes another one of our best recipes with meatballs.
Petite in size, these perfumed pork meatballs are perfect for wrapping in lettuce leaves with loads of fresh fragrant herbs; rolling up in rice paper with plump shrimp or prawns, rice noodles or vermicelli, basil, mint and coriander; added to Cambodian rice porridge, borbor, or noodle soups such as Cambodia’s kuy teav; and squeezed into crunchy num pang, Cambodia’s popular baguette sandwich akin to Vietnam’s banh mi.
This recipe makes quite a different meatball to the grilled pork meatballs recipe, above. While those pork balls are typically eaten with rice paper, vermicelli rice noodles, fresh salad ingredients, a quick pickle of carrot and daikon, and a dipping sauce – and these can be, too, of course – that pork mince mixture includes roasted rice and peanuts and none of the aromatic herbs of this meatball.
Here in Siem Reap, we typically grill our pork meatballs outside on the balcony on a traditional clay brazier using charcoal (we use these coconut charcoal BBQ briquettes), however, if the heat or rain forces us to grill indoors we use a typical stovetop Korean BBQ grill pan. I know if we had more space outside Terence would be using one of these outdoor barbecue or grills, and if we were back in Australia, we would probably be doing these on a Weber.
Cambodian Pork Meatballs Recipe for Wraps, Rolls, Soups, Salads and Sandwiches
Cambodian Num Pang with Meatballs Recipe for the Best Summer Baguette Sandwich
Our Cambodian num pang with meatballs recipe will make you the best summer baguette sandwich and it’s another one of our best recipes with meatballs. Num pang is Cambodia’s less-famous but equally delicious cousin to Vietnam’s bánh mì.
Cambodian num pang with meatballs are a popular street food snack in Cambodia, particularly here in Siem Reap. French-style Cambodian baguettes (also called num pang) are filled with juicy fragrant pork meatballs, a quick pickle of carrot and daikon, salad, and fresh herbs.
Cambodia’s lesser-known num pang is typically compared to the globally-renowned Vietnamese banh mi and, in some ways, they are a bit ‘same same but different’ when it comes to fillings and flavours.
If you made and enjoyed our juicy pork meatballs recipe, above, or our num pang pâté recipe which makes a baguette filled with a thick spread of rustic French country-style pâté, generous layers of cold cuts, crunchy cucumber, fresh aromatic herbs, and creamy French mayonnaise, then you’re going to love this Cambodian num pang with meatballs recipe.
Make sure to heat up your baguettes. They’re extra delish when they’re warm. Spread your creamy mayo on thickly. This is not a time for light mayo. And do make some of our homemade Sriracha sauce, if you haven’t already, and squirt plenty of that on. Slices of bird’s eye chillies are optional, but we do love the extra bite.
Cambodian Num Pang with Meatballs Recipe for the Best Summer Baguette Sandwich
Comforting Cambodian Rice Soup Recipe with Pork Meatballs for Borbor Sor Using Leftover Rice
This comforting Cambodian rice soup recipe with pork meatballs cooked in the congee is made with leftover rice and it’s another one of our best recipes with meatballs.
This Cambodian rice soup offers nourishment for the young and old, as it’s so easy to eat and so adaptable; it serves as home medicine for the sick; and it would have to be Cambodia’s rice soup for the soul.
While this rice soup is generally made in Cambodian homes with leftover boiled steamed jasmine rice, you could make it from scratch if you really wanted to, by following steps one and two in this Cambodian chicken rice porridge recipe.
There are just a couple of ingredients that need a pound and we recommend doing that in a mortar and pestle as it releases the flavours and aromas so wonderfully.
We often get asked which fish sauce we use. We use Cambodian fish sauces for Cambodian recipes, Vietnamese fish sauces for Vietnamese dishes, Thai fish sauces for Thai food, etc, however, if you’re not in Southeast Asia, we recommend Thailand’s Megachef for its quality consistency, although many of our American friends like the American-Vietnamese brand Red Boat Fish Sauce.
Comforting Cambodian Rice Soup Recipe with Pork Meatballs for Borbor Sor Using Leftover Rice
Rice Congee with Pork Meatballs Recipe for Khao Dtom Moo Suup
You’ll love this rice congee with pork meatballs recipe for khao dtom moo suup – especially if you’re a lover of rice bowl meals and you’ve made and enjoyed our other Southeast Asian congee recipes, such as this Thai rice soup with shredded chicken and this Cambodian rice soup with meatballs.
Rice porridges and rice soups – or congees as Chinese rice porridges are called, and China is almost certainly where they originated – are made all over Southeast Asia, especially here in Cambodia, and in neighbouring Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Laos.
Many of the rice soup and rice porridge recipes in the region are what are called ‘same same but different’ here in Southeast Asia. But the Cambodian congee recipe is the most similar to this Thai-Lao rice porridge recipe, which makes a very satisfying bowl of rice porridge bobbing with flavoursome pork meatballs, topped with chilli oil and crunchy fried shallots, and garnished with loads of fresh fragrant herbs.
This rice congee with pork meatballs recipe for khao dtom moo suup is based on a recipe of the same name in Lao-Thai-American chef James Syhabout’s delightful cookbook Hawker Fare, Stories and Recipes from a Refugee Chef’s Isan Thai and Lao Roots. I’ve just made a few tweaks to the chef’s recipe.
Rice Congee with Pork Meatballs Recipe for Khao Dtom Moo Suup
Xiu Mai Recipe for Vietnamese Meatballs in Rich Tomato Sauce with Coriander
Our xiu mai recipe makes Vietnamese meatballs in tomato sauce that are traditionally eaten with crusty Vietnamese baguettes, dunked in the rich sauce and used to scoop up the meatballs. ‘Xiu mai’ is Vietnamese for ‘meatballs’ and in Vietnam xiu mai are eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner, in cold and warm climates. Leftover xiu mai? Make banh mi xui mai.
You’ll love this xiu mai recipe if you’re a fan of Vietnamese street food. In Vietnam, xiu mai is a much-loved street food dish that’s also eaten in the home. You could order a single bowl of xiu mai from a street food stall, which will be served with a demi baguette for you to break up and dunk into the rich sauce and scoop up the meatballs. In your own home, you could serve xiu mai with bread or with noodles or steamed rice.
But xiu mai is also a dish that’s popular to go out and eat with friends, especially on a chilly evening in Dalat, in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. A former French colonial hill station, established for its cooler climate, and set amidst mountains, forests and lakes, Dalat is famed for its delicious produce, coffee and tea, grown on the farms, orchards and plantations surrounding the city that’s become a foodie and coffee destination.
Xiu Mai Recipe for Vietnamese Meatballs in Rich Tomato Sauce with Coriander
Russian Meatballs Recipe for Tefteli Meatballs Made with Rice in a Tomato Sauce
This Russian meatballs recipe for tefteli makes my grandmother’s home-cooked meatballs. One of my favourite Russian-Ukrainian recipes, they’re some of the juiciest meatballs you’ll ever taste.
Made with ground beef and minced pork, grated carrot and cooked rice, these incredibly delicious meatballs are coated in flour, fried until brown to lock in their juices, and simmered in a rich, creamy tomato sauce to finish cooking and soak up even more flavour.
My family served these meatballs as one of an array of many sharing-style dishes served at one of our Sunday family feasts that might include savoury pirozhki (hand pies), stuffed cabbage rolls, kotleti (chicken meat patties), beetroot potato salad, potato vareniki and pelmeni.
At other times, on those quieter and less boisterous mid-week nights, we’d eat these meatballs on individual plates, atop creamy mashed potatoes, garnished with fresh fragrant dill, with a crisp Russian garden salad and plate of dill pickles on the side.
Russian Meatballs Recipe for Tefteli Meatballs Made with Rice in a Tomato Sauce
Russian Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe with Chicken Meatballs for a Comforting Old-Fashioned Soup
This Russian chicken noodle soup with chicken meatballs recipe makes my take on one of my Russian family recipes, my Russian grandmother’s chicken noodle soup – with a few tweaks – and it’s another one of our best recipes with meatballs.
It’s an old-fashioned chicken noodle soup – let’s call it a retro soup – but it’s also a comforting soup as only chicken soups made from scratch can be. Super easy to make, it comes together quickly, in just 30 minutes or so, and is perfect for easy weeknight meals or weekend lunches.
The chicken meatballs cook in the soup and there is no stock to make, the flavour coming from the meatballs and subtle use of spice. It’s also a fantastic soup for leftovers, refrigerating well, and tasting even better the next day.
While baboushka made her chicken noodle soup in autumn and winter – when she didn’t have big pots of borscht or shchi simmering on the stove – Terence and I have lived in tropical Southeast Asia so long that we eat hot soups year-round. Southeast Asians believe hot soups make you perspire, thereby keeping you cool.
The flavours are well balanced, but if you want more punch, add a little paprika to the chicken meatballs, or sprinkle chilli flakes for even more kick. Chilli flakes aren’t very Russian, but plenty of fresh fragrant dill, sour cream, dill pickles, and slices of dark rye bread on the side will ensure this chicken noodle soup doesn’t lose its identity.
Russian Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe with Chicken Meatballs for a Comforting Old-Fashioned Soup
Meatball Stroganoff Recipe for Juicy Meatballs in a Gently Spiced Mushroom Gravy
My meatball Stroganoff recipe combines recipes for two of my favourite Russian dishes, a spicy mushroom Stroganoff and juicy Russian meatballs called tefteli. It makes a deliciously comforting dish of Stroganoff meatballs that in cool weather can be served with creamy mashed potatoes, crispy shoestring fries or buckwheat kasha and in warm weather can be lightened up with a garden salad.
If you’re a devotee of meatballs, then you’re definitely going to love this meatball Stroganoff recipe which takes inspiration from the incredibly tender Russian tefteli, which swim in the famous Russian mushroom dish that’s something of a global phenomenon.
If you enjoy my rich, creamy, spiced beef Stroganoff recipe you’ll love my other Stroganoff recipes – my chicken Stroganoff, mushroom Stroganoff (more of our best mushroom recipes here), pork Stroganoff (made with the Chinese velveting technique), spaghetti Stroganoff (a fusion of Strog and spaghetti Bolognese) and this succulent meatball Stroganoff.
Meatball Stroganoff Recipe for Juicy Meatballs in a Gently Spiced Mushroom Gravy
German Meatballs Recipe for Juicy Meatballs in a Creamy Caper Gravy
This German meatballs recipe makes deliciously tender meatballs in a delightfully tangy caper gravy that are traditionally served with buttered parsley potatoes. You could also serve these melt-in-the-mouth meatballs with creamy mashed potatoes and coleslaw or a crisp garden salad, with dishes of dill pickles and sour cream.
This German meatballs recipe for Königsberger klopse is a very old recipe dating back to the Middle Ages, although the East Prussian name ‘klops’, which meant ‘meat dumpling’ didn’t come into existence until later so they were probably called ‘minced patties’ or ‘meat rissoles’ instead.
Hold your tongues until you taste these melt-in-the-mouth meatballs. These German meatballs may not be the most attractive meatballs – they’re not seared brown from pan-frying, nor smothered in a luscious tomato sauce, nor swimming in a creamy mushroom gravy – but the term ‘flavour bomb’ was obviously invented for this meatball. If you’re a meatball lover you’re going to love these.
German Meatballs Recipe for Juicy Meatballs in a Creamy Caper Gravy
Please do let us know in the Comments below if you make any of our best recipes with meatballs as we’d love to know how they turn out for you.
