My seventy-eighth recipe with the Wednesday with Donna Hay group is Eggplant and Feta Meatballs, was chosen by Sarah, and is found online here. I also made the accompanying Tzatziki sauce, found online here.
The ingredient list for the meatballs: eggplant, olive oil, ground beef, parsley, mint, garlic, lemon rind, feta cheese, salt, and pepper. The ingredient list for the sauce: yogurt, cucumber, mint, garlic, honey, cumin, salt, and white pepper.
This recipe takes a bit of work, not a lot, it was all finished in 45 minutes once I had the eggplant cooked and cooled (I did that the day before while I had the oven going for something else). When I looked at the list of ingredients for the meatballs, I wasn't too certain they would hold together while cooking (and I am not the best or even close to good at making meatballs look lovely and round and gorgeously browned, etc.) as there weren't any breadcrumbs or egg or anything else I could see would work as a binder for them, but you know what? They held together pretty well and all those calories from the extra bread and egg weren't present, go figure. Anyway, the eggplant is kind of mushy so that might be what held it together, yours will probably look better than mine.
I couldn't taste the eggplant in the meatball at all, but I could discern little chunks of it. It all just tasted like a meatball, no eggplant taste at all for me, which was fine...I do like eggplant, but the guys aren't too fond of it. It all tasted ever so nice, delicious and moist, and the feta, garlic, and lemon in the mixture gave it all great seasoning. I would make these again, they were delightful in taste and fairly fun to process and make.
The accompanying sauce worked
so nicely with that hint of cumin and honey in it that I don't usually
have in my other Tzatziki sauce recipes. Definitely a repeat for us both the meatballs and the sauce were delicious! (There were 3 small ones on my plate and I helped myself to another 2, and maybe I could have eaten another when all was said and done, they were great!)
Wonder what the others thought? Gaye's post is here. Margaret's post is here. Chaya's post is here. Sarah's post is here. Next is Gaye's choice, Coleslaw, found in Modern Classics 1, page 46. Join us and leave a link to your post, no commitment required.