Minty Meatballs

I wanted to make something with the ground beef that I had in the freezer, and when I saw that this recipe used cooked quinoa instead of breadcrumbs, I just had to try it out. These meatballs have lots of great flavor! I love all of the fresh herbs in there, and the  quinoa helped make them nice and fluffy. The addition of allspice in the meat was really nice, too. With flavors like this, I love having something like mast o khiar to go with it, so I mixed some greek yogurt, chopped cucumber, dried mint and a good pinch of salt together, and scooped it up with each bite of meatball. It was great! It would be nice wrapped in a pita as a sandwich, too.

Minty Meatballs
SELF June 2013

Makes 24 meatballs

These are fairly large and entrée-sized. If you want them smaller, reduce the cook time by a few minutes.

1 ½ pounds lean ground beef (85 percent lean)
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped, plus more for garnish
½ cup fresh mint, finely chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
½ cup 1 percent milk
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon allspice
Parchment paper

In a bowl, mix together all ingredients until combined. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour, up to 24 hours. Heat oven to 425°F. Form meat mixture into 24 oval balls (about 3 tablespoons each). Arrange on 2 cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake 8 minutes; turn and bake 10 minutes more. Garnish with parsley if desired; serve.
Per 3 meatballs: 231 calories, 14 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 7 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 18 g protein

Big Flavors Rating: 4 Stars