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white plate with lemon wedges, herbs, and greek meatballs.

Greek Meatballs with Tzatziki Sauce

DELICIOUS Greek Meatballs with Tzatziki Sauce! Lemony, garlicky meatballs dunked in creamy yogurt sauce, aka heaven. Seriously, do not delay making these.
5 from 12 ratings
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Middle Eastern

Equipment

Ingredients
  

Greek Meatballs

  • 2 pounds ground beef
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon dried parsley
  • 1 lemon zested (wedges for serving!)
  • 2 cloves garlic minced or grated
  • ½ cup panko bread crumbs

Tzatziki Sauce

  • 1 small pickling or Persian cucumber
  • 1 cup Greek yogurt preferably full fat
  • 1 clove garlic very finely minced or grated
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 2 tablespoons fresh chopped mint leaves
  •  

Instructions
 

Meatballs

  • Preheat the oven to 425F and prepare a large baking sheet with parchment paper or cooking spray.
  • Combine all of the ingredients gently in a large mixing bowl. Using your hands or a small scoop, form the meat mixture into 24 meatballs.
  • Bake the meatballs for 15 minutes until golden and cooked through. Serve with tzatziki for dunking, or anyway you enjoy meatballs.

Tzatziki

  • Using a box grater, grate the cucumber and place in a small strainer or on paper towels. Sprinkle lightly with salt and let sit for about 15 minutes to drain, then proceed with the following steps.
  • Use a spoon to press as much excess water as possible out of the grated cucumber. Mix the drained cucumber with the yogurt, garlic, salt, sugar, and mint.
  • Taste the tzatziki, and add more salt or sugar if you’d like. Serve with the meatballs.

Notes

Freezing: Freezing these meatballs fully cooked may dry them out a bit, so to freeze I'd recommend baking them for 10 minutes, freezing, then reheating in the oven at 350F until fully thawed and cooked through, 30 minutes or so.
You can use turkey, pork, or lamb for these meatballs if you prefer! I have another recipe for lamb meatballs that is really delicious.
I use dried herbs for meatballs because I don't usually have a ton of fresh herbs around. If you have fresh parsley and/or oregano, feel free to use 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley and 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano instead.
The garlic can be swapped for 1 teaspoon garlic powder (not salt)
Any kind of bread crumbs you have on hand will work well in this recipe.
Tried this recipe?Let me know how it was!