Greek Meatballs with Tzatziki Sauce
by This post may contain affiliate links.
Greek Meatballs are easy to make with a combination of ground beef and pork. They’re delicious served with Tzatziki Sauce in pita bread, with orzo or with a Greek salad! You can also serve them with toothpicks as a wonderful party appetizer.
This recipe for Greek Meatballs can be made on the stove, on the grill or baked in the oven. They are low carb and easily made gluten free!
We love meatballs around our house! From German Meatballs with Potatoes to Slow Cooker Swedish Meatballs to Korean BBQ Meatballs, we always find a way to make meatballs international!
Today, we’re going Greek with our meatballs and dipping them in one of my all-time favorite sauces, tzatziki sauce. The flavor of the meatballs is so delicious, top them off with the cool, creamy yogurt sauce and you’ve got a winner!
I’ve served these meatballs as party appetizers with toothpicks and tzatziki sauce on the side for dipping. I’ve also served them for dinner on pita bread, similar to these Ground Turkey Gyros, with hummus, cucumber tomato salad and tzatziki sauce.
For a lighter option, serve the meatballs with a Greek Salad, or turn them into the ultimate comfort food meal by serving the meatballs over cooked orzo pasta salad.
No matter how you serve them, you’re going to love the flavor of these delicious Greek meatballs!
Table of contents
Step by step instructions
- Prepare the meatballs.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
- Saute onions and garlic in the olive oil, then set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine ground beef, ground pork, cooked onion and garlic and diced tomato.
- Quick tip! Feel free to switch up the ground meat and use ground lamb instead of ground pork.
- Add ground cinnamon, salt, allspice, cayenne pepper, ground cloves, parmesan cheese, feta cheese, breadcrumbs and an egg.
- Use your hands to mix all of the ingredients together, then form into meatballs just bigger than the size of a golf ball.
- Cook the meatballs.
- On the grill: Heat a grill over medium heat. Place a sheet of nonstick foil on the grill. Place the meatballs on the foil and grill for 20 minutes, flipping half way through.
- In the oven: Preheat the oven to 400°F. Place the meatballs in an even layer on a foil-lined baking sheet and into the oven for 20 minutes.
- On the stove: Using the same skillet you used to cook the onions and garlic, heat more olive in the skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the meatballs and sear on all sides for 3-4 minutes. Cover the skillet, reduce the heat to medium-low and continue cooking for an additional 20 minutes.
How to make tzatziki sauce
- In a small mixing bowl, combine greek yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and fresh dill.
- Refrigerate until ready to use.
What to serve with the meatballs
- Greek Quinoa Salad – a healthy side dish that’s full of flavor!
- Orzo – I like to add lemon juice, lemon zest and fresh herbs, like dill and parsley, to the orzo after it’s cooked. You could also pair the meatballs with this Greek Orzo Salad recipe!
- Greek Bruschetta – the perfect appetizer to start your Greek feast!
- Pita Bread – these meatballs are delicious wrapped up in warm pita bread with hummus, feta cheese and tomato cucumber salad! (Yes, all these things ⬇️)
- Feta Cheese
- Hummus
- Tomato Cucumber Salad
How to make the recipe keto
These Greek Meatballs contain 3 carbs per meatball. To reduce the carbs in these meatballs for a keto diet, substitute traditional breadcrumbs with pork panko. This will reduce the carbs per meatball from 3 carbs down to 1 carb each.
Pork panko is also gluten free, so using it instead of traditional bread crumbs will also make this recipe gluten free.
More meatball recipes to try
Fellow meatball lover? You have to check out these delicious meatball recipes!
- Thai Peanut Turkey Meatballs
- Cheesy Bacon Wrapped Meatballs
- Chinese Orange Glazed Meatballs
- Chicken Marsala Meatballs
- Caribbean Jerk Chicken & Pork Meatballs
- Baked Meatballs with BBQ Sauce
Greek Meatballs with Tzatziki Sauce
Ingredients
Greek Meatballs
- 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1 cup onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 lb ground pork
- ½ cup diced tomato
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp allspice
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese, grated
- ¼ cup feta cheese, crumbles
- ½ cup breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
Tzatziki Sauce
- 1 cup greek yogurt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp lemon juice, fresh squeezed
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp fresh dill
Instructions
Greek Meatballs
- Add 1 tbsp olive oil to a large skillet on the stove over medium high heat.
- Add the onion, saute 4-5 minutes.
- Add the garlic, saute for an additional minute, then remove from the heat.
- In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, ground pork, diced tomato, cinnamon, allspice, cayenne pepper and ground cloves.
- Add the parmesan cheese, feta cheese, breadcrumbs, egg and cooked onions and garlic.
- Use your hands to mix all of the ingredients together until well combined.
- Form the mixture into approximately 28 golf ball sized meatballs.
- In the same skillet you cooked the onions and garlic, add the additional 1 tbsp olive oil and place on the stove over medium high heat.
- Add the meatballs to the skillet and sear on all sides for 3-4 minutes.
- Cover the skillet, reduce the heat to medium-low and continue cooking for an additional 20 minutes. (You can also bake the meatballs in the oven or grill them, see notes below for further instructions.)
Tzatziki Sauce
- Prepare the Tzatziki sauce by combining all of the ingredients for the sauce in a medium mixing bowl.
- Refrigerate the sauce until ready to use.
Notes
- Baked Method: preheat the oven to 400°F. Form the meatballs, then place them in an even layer on a foil-lined baking sheet and into the oven for 20 minutes.
- Grilled Method: preheat a grill over medium heat. Place a large piece of nonstick foil on the grill. Form the meatballs, then place them on the foil on the grill. Grill for 20 minutes, flipping halfway through.
- Low Carb: to reduce the carbs per meatball, use pork panko instead of breadcrumbs. This will reduce each meatball from 3 carbs to 1 carb.
- Gluten Free: to make the recipe gluten free, use gluten free breadcrumbs.
Nutrition Facts
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
