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 and served with tzatziki (yoghurt and cucumber dip), a Greek salad, and pita bread.

If you’re a fan of meatballs, you’ll love this recipe for keftedes or Greek meatballs, which are moist and herby. It’s one of our best Greek recipes. If you’re looking for quick and easy meal ideas, serve these meatballs with tzatziki, the creamy Greek yoghurt and cucumber dip, a bowl of this classic Greek feta salad or Greek lettuce salad, maroulosalata, and a stack of warm pita, and you have a very satisfying dinner or lunch right there.

These Greek meatballs are juicy and gently flavoured with quintessential Greek herbs such as dried oregano, fresh flat leaf parsley and fresh dill, but you could spice things up by adding a little ground paprika or chilli flakes to the mix. Shallow-fried, the meatballs are cooked in a pan in minutes and are best when piping hot, although I’m happy to eat them cold.

If you are a meatball lover, we have loads of recipes with meatballs. And who doesn’t love meatballs?! You can serve meatballs with potatoes or salad, pasta or rice, in soup or congee, roll meatballs up in rice paper or tuck them into a baguette.

I’m especially fond of my meatball Stroganoff, these melt-in-the-mouth German meatballs, and our Spanish meatballs, which we serve as part of a Spanish tapas spread, and if you enjoy these Greek meatballs, you’ll love our recipe for Cypriot meatballs, which are what we call same same but different in Southeast Asia.

If you’re looking for more cooking inspiration, we have many hundreds of recipes you can browse in our archives, and you can click on the heart on the right of every post to save your favourite recipes and stories in your private account.

Greek Meatballs Recipe for Keftedes – Juicy Meatballs with Greek Herbs

I adore these Greek meatballs. They’re so easy to prepare and shallow-fried they cook in a pan in minutes. Plus, they’re nothing if not versatile. You can sub or add more herbs – along with oregano, Greeks use a lot of thyme, rosemary and mint – and as I mentioned above, you could add ground paprika for warmth, or even a kick of heat with chilli flakes.

I tested this Greek meatballs recipe with fatty ground beef and a mix of fatty beef and pork mince (I love both for flavour plus fatty equals juicy), wagyu beef mince (which also had lost of flavour, but a finer texture; and was surprisingly reasonably priced); and lamb mince (delish, but hard to source here).

Meatballs also make 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, maybe some chicken souvlaki (Greek-style skewers), and stacks of warmed pita bread, and guests can help themselves, eating the meatballs as they like. I highly recommend wrapping them up in pita, slathered with tzatziki.

Tips to Making this Greek Meatballs Recipe for Keftedes

Just a few tips to making this Greek meatballs recipe, as they’re super easy to make and come together quickly. I love to serve these meatballs piping hot, straight from the pan, on a bed of tzatziki, showered in oregano and fresh dill and flat leaf parsley, so make your tzatziki and Greek salad before frying the meatballs.

Back in our Siem Reap kitchen, Terence and I often make meatballs or dumpling fillings together and we use digital kitchen scales to weigh the spoons of minced meat mixture before shaping them into meatballs. By weighing the mixture you’re ensuring the meatballs are uniform in size, and that way the meatballs will cook evenly.

However, here in my mum’s kitchen in rural Australia, there are no kitchen scales and I haven’t been able to find any, so I’ve been guessing at the sizes, just using a tablespoon to scoop out a very generous spoonful of minced meat mixture, and I reckon they’re very close in size. I put that down to a lifetime of making meatballs and dumplings.

I shallow-fry these Greek meatballs in a frying pan but you could use your trusty skillet or even a round flat bottomed wok. When Terence grills indoors he often uses a stovetop Korean BBQ grill pan.

If you’re having a weekend barbecue, you could also cook the meatballs on an outdoor barbecue or grill. In Cambodia and Vietnam, local cooks grill meatballs outside on a traditional clay brazier using charcoal, which are fantastic if you don’t have a barbecue.

I haven’t stipulated how much olive oil to use to fry the meatballs, as it depends on what size pan or skillet you use. But you’ll be shallow-frying the meatballs, not deep-frying, so you want to pour in enough olive oil to generously coat the pan.

I lay down each meatball in rows, separating them by a couple of centimetres or so, and remembering the direction you laid them down in. By the time you’ve laid all the meatballs down in the pan, it will be time to return to the first meatball.

Use tongs, as the oil will splatter, then continue to turn the meatballs in the same order you laid them down in, to ensure they cook evenly. Turn them a couple more times until they’re evenly coloured and cooked, around 10 minutes.

Use the tongs to place the Greek meatballs on beds of tzatziki, drizzle on a little more quality extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkle on some more herbs, and serve immediately with warm pita bread, tzatziki and Greek salad or tomato and onions.

Greek Meatballs Recipe for Keftedes

Greek Meatballs Recipe for Keftedes – Juicy Meatballs with Greek Herbs

AuthorLara Dunston

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 and served with tzatziki (yoghurt and cucumber dip), a Greek salad, and pita bread.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Greek

Servings made with recipeServings 12 meatballs

Calories 134 kcal

Equipment

10 Inch Hybrid Nonstick Frying Pan

Mixing Bowl

Ingredients

 

MetricUS Customary

 

1x2x3x

• 300 g beef mince - fatty beef or mix of beef and pork
• 1 small onion - grated
• 1 garlic clove - minced
• 1 egg - beaten
• ½ cup fine breadcrumbs
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp flat leaf parsley - finely chopped
• 1 tsp fresh dill - finely chopped
• 4 tbsp olive oil - for shallow frying, more as necessary

Instructions

 

• To a large bowl, add the mince beef, grated onion, minced garlic, beaten egg, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and herbs, and use your hand to combine just enough so the ingredients are incorporated. Don’t over-mix as the texture will be firm and bouncy rather than loose and rustic.
• Sprinkle a little flour onto a tray so the meatballs don’t stick. Use a tablespoon to scoop out the mince mixture and roll it into a ball around 4cm in diameter and lay it on the tray, then repeat until you’ve used up all the mixture. It should make around a dozen meatballs.
• Prepare a serving plate or two by laying down some pita bread, spreading some tzatziki on the pita, and sprinkling it with fresh parsley leaves, dill sprigs and oregano.
• To a large fry pan, pour in enough olive oil to generously coat the pan, lay down each meatball, separating them by a couple of centimetres or so; by the time you’ve laid them all down it will be time to turn the first meatball, using tongs; then continue to turn the meatballs in the same order you laid them down in, to ensure they cook evenly. Turn them a couple more times until they’re evenly coloured and cooked, around 10 minutes.
• Use tongs to transfer the meatballs to the serving plate (or two), placing the meatballs on the bed of tzatziki, drizzle on more quality extra virgin olive oil and herbs, and serve immediately with warm pita bread, tzatziki and Greek salad or tomato and onions. Eat by rolling the lot up in the pita bread.

Notes

For serving: more dried oregano, fresh flat leaf parsley, fresh dill, extra virgin olive oil, and pita bread

Nutrition

Calories: 134kcalCarbohydrates: 5gProtein: 6gFat: 10gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0.3gCholesterol: 31mgSodium: 156mgPotassium: 100mgFiber: 0.5gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 25IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 21mgIron: 1mg

Please do let us know in the Comments section below if you make this Greek meatballs recipe as we love to hear how our recipes turn out for our readers.