Mediterranean Style Meatballs with Roasted Garlic Tzatziki

This is a very simple and quick low-fat recipe that tastes delicious! I like to use low fat yogurt for the tzatziki. Usually, tzatziki calls for fresh dill, but I did not have any on hand so I used fresh cilantro. It gives it a great flavour!

Here is what you need:

For the meatballs:

1/2 kg of extra lean ground beef

1 teaspoon of ground cardamom

1 teaspoon of ground coriander

1 teaspoon of paprika

2 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh parsley

3 cloves of crushed garlic

1 Teaspoon of olive oil

Salt to taste 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl mix together the ground beef with all the spices, olive oil, garlic and parsley. Then, form 2 inch round balls and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Bake in oven for approximately 25 minutes.

Tip: *Halfway through the baking, you may want to turn your oven to the broil mode so that the top will brown nicely. If you have a gas stove, you can flip the meatballs over halfway through.

For the Tzatziki:

1 Cup of low-fat natural yogurt

1/4 Cup of shredded cucumber.
(To keep the tzatziki from becoming to watery, drain the excess water from the cucumber.)

3 cloves of roasted garlic
(I usually pop the unpeeled garlic in the toaster oven for 5 minutes)

2 Tablespoons of fresh cilantro
(or dill, if you want a more traditional tzatziki)

Pinch of salt

Add all these ingredients together in a bowl and mix well with a spoon. Then, put in the fridge until you are ready to use.

Buon Appetito!