Greek Meatballs With Artichokes and Lemon Sauce

anti_pop's Note:

This was a childhood favorite of mine. My dad used to cook this for me, and served it over egg noodles.

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 40 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 6

Yield: 18.0 Meatballs

• 1 (6 ounce) jar marinated artichoke hearts
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 eggs, separated
• 1 cup seasoned dry bread crumb
• 1/3 cup milk
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried mint
• 1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 3 beef bouillon cubes
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 lemon

Directions:

1. Drain artichokes and reserve marinade.
2. Slice lemon.
3. In a large skillet, warm 1 tbsp reserved marinade over medium heat.
4. Saute onion in marinade.
5. In a large bowl, beat egg whites lightly with fork.
6. Add onions, breadcrumbs, milk, salt, pepper, oregano, eggs, mint and ground beef. Mix well.
7. Shape into meatballs. Roll each meatball in flour.
8. In a large skillet, over medium heat, saute meatballs in the remaining artichoke marinade.
9. Remove meatballs as they brown.
10. Add water and bouillon cubes to skillet. Mash bouillon cubes into water. Stir until smooth and thick.
11. Stir in lemon juice and lemon slices. Return meatballs to pan. Cover and cook over low heat about 10 minutes.
12. Add artichoke hearts. Cook 2 more minutes.
13. Remove meatballs and artichokes to serving platter, leaving sauce in pan.
14. Beat egg yolks. Stir 1 tbsp sauce in pan into yolks (to temper) and combine with remaining sauce.
15. Serve over meatballs.

Reviews

[Cooking Bunny]

I made this a couple of months ago, it was amazing. I loved this dish, the pairing of lemon, artichokes and meatballs was beautiful. The only thing that I am going to add is more artichokes next time, I ran out of marinade way before I finished browning the meatballs.