Fluffy, tender meatballs in a creamy lemon sauce with butter. These Greek Keftedes take only 30 minutes to cook and just 15 minutes to make!
Traditional Greek Keftedes are oval-shaped meatballs or small round ones (Keftedakia) that are pan or deep-fried. This Keftedes recipe though is slightly different. Once the Keftedes are pan-fried they get cooked in a creamy, lemony, sauce.
Table Of Contents
It's a quick and delicious Greek food that's perfect as a speedy dinner. You can also make the Keftedes mixture ahead of time as mentioned below, so it will be even quicker to make!
What They Taste Like
Think of a very fluff and juicy, meatball smothered in a creamy, glazy buttery sauce, with a delicious tangy lemon flavor and a garlicky aftertaste.
Types Of Meat
To make these scrumptious meatballs in lemon sauce, I'm using two types of ground meat, beef and pork. Pork adds extra flavor and yields a moister meatball due to the fat it contains.
You can also make these meatballs just with ground beef. Or with ground lamb just like in my other meatball recipe of Lamb Meatballs In Yogurt Sauce.
How To Make Them Fluffy
These meatballs are pillowy-soft and fluffy. That's because of the soaked bread in the mixture. It keeps them moist all throughout cooking.
Soaking bread and adding it to a meatball mixture is a classic Greek cooking technique to make soft and juicy meatballs.
Traditionally the bread is soaked in water then squeezed and added to the mixture. Another ingredient that helps make them fluffy is the wine added. If you don't want to use alcohol, simply add a tablespoon of red wine or apple cider vinegar (a classic addition to Greek meatballs) or just water.
Make Ahead Of Time
You can make Keftedes mixture ahead of time and keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days before shaping and cooking. You can also shape them, lay them on a sheet pan with parchment paper, and freeze them. Then add in food storage bags and keep them in the freezer for up to 2 months. In that case, thaw in the fridge overnight.
Serve With
I like serving these meatballs in lemon sauce with Roasted Greek Potato Wedges, or a Greek rice side dish such as Prasorizo (Rice with Leeks), Spanakoryzo (Spinach Rice), or some plain steamed rice.
Recipe
Keftedes In Lemon Sauce
Ingredients
For The Meatballs:
- olive oil
- 600 grams (1.3 pounds) ground beef or half ground beef half ground pork
- 1 large egg
- 100 grams (3.5 ounces) crustless bread
- 4 tablespoons white wine
- 100 grams (½ cup) onion minced
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano + extra to serve with
- 2 tablespoons dried parsley or fresh minced
- fine sea salt
- ½ teaspoon ground pepper + extra for the sauce
- all-purpose flour
For The Sauce:
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 garlic cloves finely chopped/minced
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 cups (500 ml) hot water or stock vegetable, beef, or chicken stock
- 1 bay leaf
- 5-6 tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
Prepare The Meatballs:
- Soak bread in cold water. Tear it into smaller pieces and then let it soak for a couple of minutes.
- Add the ground meat to a mixing bowl along with the egg, parsley, oregano, cumin, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper.
- Add the soaked bread. Squeeze it well first to remove as much water as possible. Then add it to the bowl with the ground meat.
- Knead the meatball mixture for 2-3 minutes until everything is thoroughly combined.
- Shape into 15 oval-shaped meatballs (about 65-70 grams each) and place on a large plate.
- Refrigerate for 30 minutes to become firm and hold their shape.
- Heat a generous splash of olive oil in a saute or frying pan.
- Coat the meatballs in flour and shake to remove excess.
- Sear the meatballs on both sides to get a brown color. Don't flip or disturb them before the first 3-4 minutes of cooking have passed. Then turn them using two forks.
- Transfer the meatballs to paper towels to drain excess oil.
Make the sauce:
- In a saute pan melt butter over low heat (You may use the same saute pan as before as long as you clean it of remnant browned bits, no need to wash it though).
- Saute the garlic until soft.
- Add the flour raise the heat to moderate and cook, stirring with a wooden spatula until sandy in color and smells toasted.
- Pour in the hot water or stock and the bay leaf. Season with salt and pepper. Bring sauce to a simmer.
- Add the meatballs and put the lid on.
- Simmer for about 20 minutes, turning them once and scraping the pan so they won't stick to the bottom. Taste the sauce for any additional seasoning.
- Pour the lemon juice and cook for another minute.
- Serve warm with plenty of freshly ground pepper and some dried oregano on top.
It’s very delicious! I made it twice. I used 4 tablespoons of flour instead of 8 and added hot water.
It’s preferable to use less bread and cook the meat well.
Unfortunately, I decided to go with the published recipe rather than halve the amount of flour used in the sauce, as recommended in another comment and the sauce was much too thick and looked very unappealing. It’s important to note that the sauce doesn’t thicken until it has been fully cooked for several minutes and will appear too thin up to the point when the thickening kicks in. I have now tried two. Recipes from this site and, sadly, both were disappointing.
Followed the directions to the letter even though I wondered about 4 TBL of flour. Two would have been plenty. We ended up with a thick gelatinous mixture. Not appealing to look at or to eat.
I would try this again though, I’d just adjust the flour amount.
I did visit two groceries to find the meat. Finally end up at the butcher and he machined the meat for me. This recipe is delicious. The sauce was perfect. I served it with potatoes baked in the oven. Mmmm
Very easy and fun to make. And very delicious. I served with a lemon rice and Parmesan’s green beans sautéed in EVOO.
I made these and the only thing I did different was used fresh mint instead of dried parsley. They were soooooo good. I will for sure make again. I served over egg noodles with a Greek Salad.
I tried this recipe, and unfortunately, it didn't make the cut. The meatballs are really tasty, but the sauce is off. I had to add lemon zest to make it actually taste lemony and not just sour. Also, the sauce was really thick, and didn't reheat very well.