Middle Eastern style meatballs – These juicy flavor-packed meatballs are made in 30 minutes and are great with a side of rice, made into delicious sandwiches, or a great protein on your salads. I seasoned the meatballs with warm spices, added pine nuts for some crunch, and baked them on a bed of onion sumac.
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These meatballs are a twist on the Libyan kofta with caramelized onions. The traditional way is to shape the meatballs and then flatten them, coat them in some flour, and pan-fry them. I prefer my version a little better because they are a lot easy to make. No onion caramelization here! This recipe will make 17 medium size meatballs. I used a medium size ice cream scooper to make sure they were all the same size so that they bake evenly. I hope you give these juicy middle eastern style meatballs a try, they are AMAZING!
How to Make Middle Eastern Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup pine nuts chopped walnuts or pistachio
- 1/4 cup finley chopped parelsy
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp salt or less according to your taste
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper or less according to your taste
- 3-4 minced garlic gloves I used small garlic cloves
- 1 tsp ground paprika
- 2-3 tsp ground turmeric or less according to your taste
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp Aleppo chili pepper or cayenne pepper ( if you do not like spicy food, only add 1/4 tsp)
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1.4 lb ground beef
- 2 tbsp sumac
- 1 large white onion thinly sliced
Instructions
- Preheat oven 415 F
- In a large bowl, add the ground beef, spices, egg, panko bread crumbs, pine nuts and olive oil. Using your clean hands, mix everything together really well.
- In a large baking dish or cast iron pan, drizzle some olive oil and spread the sliced onion. Sprinkle the sumac all over the onions.
- Using an ice cream scooper or a spoon, shape the meat balls and place on top of the onion. Repeat this step until you no longer have any of the mixture left.
- Place the pan on the middle rack and bake for about 17 minutes or until meat is cooked through.
- Serve with a side of rice or make sandwiches with them – ENJOY!
I really enjoyed the beautiful texture of these meatballs. The spices were delightful, but personally, I’d add much less cayenne/Aleppo Pepper. I’d decrease it even to maybe 1/4-1/2 tsp. Unfortunately when we bit into the meatballs it was too much heat. I will be making this again with this adjustment because aside from that they’re just so so so good!
Hi! Thank you for trying out the Middle Eastern Style Meatballs! I will make a note in the recipe to “adjust the spice according to your preference”! 🙂
Interesting. I enjoyed the Aleppo pepper very much, it’s the cinnamon I found to be a little heavy handed. I used camel meat to make these, and they were pillowy soft and tender. I don’t think I’d use beef. They need a stronger meat for all the spices. Lamb or goat would work well.
Um, these were so delicious!! I just made them on the stove (without the aleppo or cayenne and parsley which I didn’t have on hand) and they came out incredibly tender and flavorful! The sumac really comes through. Will definitely be making these again and again. Thank you!
Yay! So happy you you enjoyed them! 🙂
Our new favorite! I left out the cinnamon sure to my daughter’s allergy. The family really enjoyed these.
I made these tonight and we ate with pita, cucumber and carrots and baba ganoush. I had almost 2 pounds of meat so just sort of scaled it up a bit, and used walnuts instead of pine nuts – they were super tasty! We will definitely make again,