I am so excited to share these Mediterranean Meatballs with Tzatziki Sauce with you guys today. They are jam packed with flavor, ready in under 45 minutes, perfect for meal prep, dinner, or an appetizer. I couldn’t stop eating them while I was shooting the recipe, and I know they’ll impress everyone in your life!
Honestly, I haven’t been in the mood to cook or be creative. Like, at all. I started this year off in a little bit of a slump. I was binge eating, ignoring my feelings, living in my fears.. it was pretty gross. Upon reflecting on what changed from how great and aligned I had been feeling in 2019, I realized I was no longer attending my women’s group. The year long spiritual growth program had ended, and I didn’t have anyone to hold me accountable to my spiritual practices. So, instead of getting grounded through meditation, I was getting grounded through eating paleo junk food. Simple Mills cookies, Lillabees cookies.. Cappello’s pizza. Those were basically my staples for a couple months.
Want to know what came back? Raging symptoms of candida. BOO! Since I’m still in the process of detoxing heavy metals, my body is incredibly prone to candida imbalance. While I tolerate sugar in small amounts, going hog-wild on it ends me up in a not-so-awesome place. Another friendly reminder that healing isn’t linear, folks!
I decided to join another short term meditation group, and I’m working on building up my practice at home. I reigned in the sugar consumption once I realized what was happening, and I’m taking some anti-microbial herbs to support the rebalancing of my body’s bacteria as I continue my heavy metal detox. You know what happened when I did all those things? I felt inspired to start cooking again! Et, voila! Mediterranean meatballs with tzatziki sauce were born.
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How do you make mediterranean meatballs?
IT IS THE EASIEST THING EVER. Basically, you throw less than 10 ingredients in a bowl, mix them up with your hands, and then form them into about two dozen golf-sized meatballs. I like to pan fry my meatballs to brown them a bit, but if you want to skip that step you can easily just put them in the oven and cook them for an extra 10 minutes or so.
What’s in mediterranean meatballs?
Ground beef (I used 85% lean)
Ground lamb
Onions
Garlic
Arrowroot flour (I get mine at a great discount from Thrive Market)
Dried oregano
Salt
Parsley
How do you make paleo tzatzki sauce?
Super simple! Just add coconut yogurt, salt, olive oil, cucumber, and garlic together! It’s really refreshing, and tastes amazing on top of my mediterranean meatballs. You could also throw it on grilled chicken, a salad, or honestly just eat it straight up for a savory version of yogurt.
Snag the recipe here!
delicious mediterranean meatballs with dairy-free tzatziki sauce
How should I serve mediterranean meatballs?
I threw mine in an gluten-free, AIP friendly pita, but they’d taste delicious on a salad! I’m going to serve them to my husband with rice. Top them with parsley to make things look pretty! These are also perfect for meal prep since they’re so easy to make and the recipe makes 6-8 servings (depending on how many meatballs fill you up!).
Definitely try dipping them in my AIP Tzatziki Sauce, too!
How should I store the meatballs?
These store well in the refrigerator up to a week. You can also throw these meatballs in the freezer for up to 3 months if you want to have an AIP meal on hand. After freezing, thaw them in the refrigerator. To reheat, simply pop them in the oven at 300 degrees for 15 minutes or until warmed all the way through! You could also put them in the microwave, but I don’t have on so I’m not sure of how long it would take to reheat.
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You may also like:
Paleo Banana Muffin (AIP, Gluten-free, Egg-free)
Crockpot Pineapple Chicken Recipe (AIP, Paleo, Whole 30)
Asian Chopped Salad (AIP, Paleo)
Mediterranean Meatballs
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 lb ground lamb (or pork)
- 2 tbsp garlic cloves (minced)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2.5 tsp oregano (dried)
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley (minced)
- 1 cup red onion (minced)
- 1/4 cup arrowroot powder
Heat oven to 400° F
Place all ingredients into a bowl and using your hands, mix until fully incorporated
Form the mixture into approximately 25 golf ball sized meatballs
Place two oven safe skillets on the stove and turn the heat to high
Add one tablespoon of cooking oil (I've used both olive oil and duck fat) to each pan to melt. Pan is ready when you add a drop of water to it and it quickly sizzles
Carefully place 12 meatballs in each skillet to brown, approximately 2 minutes/side
Remove the skillets from the stove and place them in the oven uncovered on the middle rack for 15 minutes or until their internal temperature reads 155-165° F (cooking time will vary by oven)
Remove from oven, let cool, and serve on a bed of romaine lettuce with tziki sauce (see notes)
If you want this process to go faster, skip browning the meatballs and simply bake them in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Personally, I wouldn’t skip the browning because they become slightly crispy and more delicious!
Pair these with my 5 Ingredient AIP Tzatziki Sauce.
I made these meatballs tonight with a couple of alterations. One , I didn’t have ground lamb, I had ground beef 85-15 and ground turkey. Since Turkey Has a lot less fat compare to lamb, I added 1 tablespoon coconut oil to my mixture. Also I couldn’t find my oregano Spice so instead I used Italian spices 2 1/2 teaspoon. Yes I probably made these into Italian meatballs by doing that but, I’m ok with that because now I know i can make Italian meatballs that are aip compliment the same way 😉 next time I’ll use oregano. I baked them in The oven for 25 mins and since I added the coconut oil to the meatballs they did become crunchy on the outside but yet perfect texture in the inside. next time, I would add another half a teaspoon of salt to the recipe Since I found them lacking salt. In overall fantastic recipe , thank you so much for sharing ❤️
Hey sarah! Thank you so much for making my recipe and rating it. That means a lot to me. It’s so funny you thought they were lacking salt. I got a comment from someone the other day that they had too much, haha! Anyway, appreciate you and that you took space to comment.