Lamb Meatballs and Vegetables in Lemon Sauce

Submitted by Deantini

"These meatballs are delish; serve with rice and a nice n' fresh salad of tomatoes and cucmber with an olive oil/lemon dressing. From Canadian Living Magazine 2002"

 

• Ready In: 40mins
• Ingredients: 21
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• Vegetables

• 2 carrots
• 2 celery ribs
• 2 potatoes
• 1 leeks or 1 onion, chopped
• 2 1⁄2 cups water
• 3⁄4 teaspoon salt

• Meatballs

• 1 egg
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 onion, grated
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1⁄3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 1⁄3 cup fresh dill, chopped
• 3⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 lb lean ground lamb
• 1⁄4 cup all-purpose flour, for rolling meatballs
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, for browning meatballs

• Lemon sauce

• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1⁄2 cup cooking liquid from vegetables or 1/2 cup chicken broth
• parsley or dill sprigs, to garnish

directions

1. Cut carrots and celery into 1/2-inch thick slices. Peel and cut potatoes into 3/4-inch cubes.
2. Place in wide saucepan along with leek/onion, salt and water; bring to boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium; simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in bowl, lightly beat egg; mix in bread crumbs, onion, garlic, parsley, dill, salt, pepper and cayenne. Add ground lamb and mix well. Form into 1-inch (2.5 cm) balls. Spread flour on plate; roll each ball in flour.
4. In nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat; brown meatballs.
5. Add meatballs to vegetables; simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon when cooked through.
6. Meanwhile - in bowl, whisk eggs with lemon juice; whisk in the cooking liquid. Pour back into saucepan; cook, stirring constantly and being careful not to boil, until thick enough to coat back of spoon, about 3 minutes.
7. To serve plate meatballs and vegetables, pour sauce over meatballs and serve with rice and perhaps a salad. Garnish with parsley or dill.

Reviews

[duonyte]

Loved loved loved the meatballs. No ground lamb in several markets, so I used ground turkey and can only imagine how much better the lamb would have been. I did not have enough fresh dill in the garden due to the hot weather, so used my Recipe #459009 for the meatballs, leaving the fresh to sprinkle as a garnish. The veggies - we just did not care for. The meatballs are so good and they deserve outstanding veggies. Next time I would drop the potatoes and treat the rest of the veggies as aromatics to flavor the water and meatballs as they cook. When mine had finished cooking the allotted time, I did not even have the 1/.2 cup of cooking liquid needed for the sauce left in the pan. I am certain that the tempered eggs are meant to be mixed back into the cooking liquid to create the sauce, otherwise you just have scrambled eggs. So I heated up more broth - 1 1/2 cups or so, used the 1/2 cup needed to temper the eggs, then finished off the sauce. The sauce was delicious not only over the meatballs but also over the rice. I think I would make some kind of spinach to serve with this next time. Definitely a dish worthy of your attention!