Lamb meatballs with lemon-garlic orzo

It wasn’t until I traveled to Greece a few years ago that I came to truly appreciate lamb. I had in my head a faulty picture of lamb, something tough and chewy, similar maybe to an overcooked pork chop. After seeing lamb on almost every menu in Greece, we finally ordered a leg of lamb, baked and served in a clay pot. After one bite, everyone in my family was instantly in love with lamb, and my preconceptions vanished.

Since that trip, I’ve come to really appreciate and at times crave the delicious, grassy flavor of lamb. However, cooking lamb in a clay pot can be time-consuming and infeasible on a busy week night. Luckily, I’ve discovered that cooking with ground lamb can be almost as satisfying yet much quicker to whip into a dish.

In this easy weeknight recipe, the meatballs are mixed with fresh herbs that enhance the natural flavor of the lamb. A lemon-garlic yogurt sauce gives the dish some creamy tanginess, and everything is then piled on a bed of fluffy orzo.

Tell me about orzo

I love, love, love cooking with orzo (and eating it too!). A staple of Mediterranean cooking, orzo looks like rice but is actually a short-cut pasta. That makes it much easier to cook, and it’s a delicious way to add substance to many dishes, including salads and soups. My favorite simple way to prepare orzo is by mixing it with some olive oil, feta, salt, pepper, and fresh herbs for a yummy snack or a side.

Regular yogurt versus Greek yogurt

I feel like yogurt is probably a staple of most kids’ diets, but I could be totally off base. Anyone remember Trix? Or Go-Gurt? The delicious tubes of colorful sugar labelled as yogurt? No offense to Yoplait, but you have to admit that the yogurts we loved as children are more of a dessert than a wholesome snack—which is quite different than my current yogurt consumption habits!

What exactly is yogurt?

Plain yogurt is made by taking raw milk, typically from cows, and pasteurizing and homogenizing it. When pasteurized, the milk is heated quickly and then cooled, an act that helps kill harmful bacteria and makes it safe to consume after more than a few days. Homogenization is a treatment that keeps the fatty cream layer from separating from the liquid part of the milk, lending yogurt its creamy texture.

Finally, to truly turn the milk into yogurt, live cultures are mixed in as the yogurt goes through its fermentation process. These live cultures are essentially bacterial microorganisms—not the gross kind—that have been linked to improved gut health among other benefits.

The problem with many brands of yogurt is that manufacturers might then mix in a variety of different additives like sugar and dyes that can be harmful to your health. No judgement if a strawberry Go-Gurt is your favorite afternoon snack, but if you’re trying to chase the superfood gut-friendly benefits of yogurt, it might be best to choose “Plain” when you’re in the dairy aisle.

Now, what is Greek yogurt?

With an initial process much like regular yogurt, the biggest differentiating factor with the Greek variety is obtained by straining out the whey, making it thicker and higher in protein than regular yogurt. In fact, “Greek yogurt” is simply the commercial term for “strained yogurt,” which is a process employed in many cuisines, including Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian. Through the straining process, Greek yogurt’s sugar content is also reduced as compared to regular yogurt. With the thick texture and high protein content of Greek yogurt, though, I usually find that it fills me up way quicker than regular yogurt.

In this recipe, you can use whatever type of yogurt your heart desires, but make sure to keep it plain so the extra sugars and additives don’t mess with the overall flavor. Just remember that regular yogurt will be a bit runnier, more like a sauce, and Greek yogurt will be thicker, more like a dip or a spread.

Now that we know (almost) everything about yogurt and orzo, what else do we need?

Ground lamb While you can use other ground meats like beef or turkey for this recipe, I love the unique flavor of lamb, plus it’s fun to diversify your meats

Egg This is needed to help meld the meatballs together

Parsley, mint, and dill An herb medley that holds up

Garlic and EVOO I cook few meals that don’t use both of these things…

Lemon You’ll want to use both the zest and the juice of your lemon, so make sure it’s a good one!

Feta cheese You’ll add this to the yogurt sauce, and I’m never against adding an extra sprinkle on the very top as well

Cucumber Sliced cucumber adds some crunch and some cool factor to this dish

I sincerely hope you love this dish and add it to your weeknight repertoire. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

⟶ the recipe

Lamb meatballs with lemon-garlic orzo

ingredients

1 pound ground lamb

1 egg

4 tablespoons chopped parsley, separated

1 tablespoon chopped mint

3 teaspoons minced garlic, separated

1 cup orzo

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped dill

Zest and juice of one lemon

½ cup plain or Greek yogurt

¼ cup crumbled feta cheese

1 cucumber, sliced

Pinch of salt

Prep time

10 minutes

Cook time

20 minutes

Total time

30 minutes

4 servings

instructions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix together the lamb, egg, 2 tablespoons of the parsley, mint, 1 teaspoon of the garlic, and salt in a large bowl. Coat your hands with some olive oil, and form the mixture into little balls. Place the balls one to two inches apart on the prepared baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes or until they’re cooked through.

Meanwhile, cook the orzo according to package instructions and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, dill, lemon zest and juice, and the rest of the parsley and garlic.

Transfer 1 tablespoon of the herb mixture to a small bowl, and add the rest to the orzo. Stir the yogurt into the small bowl with the herb mixture and add the crumbled feta.

Transfer orzo to bowls, and top with meatballs, yogurt sauce, cucumber slices, and additional feta if desired.

⟶ recipe notes

Adapted from Eating Well

⟶ time-savers

If you start by popping the meatballs in the oven, everything else in the recipe comes together fairly quickly, making it the perfect meal for a busy weeknight
Another way to shorten this recipe is to cook the orzo and make the sauce ahead of time. Double the amount of both and you can make a whole other meal out of them!