Keftedes Greek Meatballs

Makes 16 one ounce Greek meatballs.  Serves 4-6 people

I used to get these awesome Greek Meatballs at one of my favorite restaurants.  They call them Keftedes.  That restaurant was always such a pain though.  Many days they were closed due to another fire or they were remodeling again and they pretty much always had the worst service.  Sometimes these tiny morsels weren't even available and I would find myself dreaming about them.  This tastes very close to their version if not actually even better.  These are healthy on any diet and at the same time they don't make you feel like you are on a diet.

Ingredients:  

Greek Meatballs:

• 1 lb. Ground Beef
• 1 egg
• 2 thin slices old sourdough bread soaked in 1/4 cup milk put bread in bowl and soak in milk
• 1 clove minced or pasted garlic
• 1/4 of medium sized red onion shredded
• Juice and Zest of 1/2 lemon
• 2 tablespoons fresh Mint
• 1 tablespoon fresh Oregano
• Dash of Cinnamon
• Dash of Nutmeg

Tzatziki Sauce:

• 1 1/2 cups Greek yogurt
• 1/4 C fresh dill minced
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 Large English Cucumber, sliced with vegetable peeler salted and drained of water
• salt and pepper
• 1 large clove of garlic minced or pasted
• juice of half lemon

Directions:

Peel cucumber with vegetable peeler down to seeds into a strainer, salt and let excess water drain off while you prepare the rest of the meal.  Throw seeds of cucumber out.

For Greek Meatballs:

Pre-heat oven to 425° F

Let Meat sit until at room temperature.  After meat has come to room temperature add to a medium sized bowl with grated red onion, egg, lemon, and the rest of the spices.

Form into approximately 1 ounce tiny loaves

Put into ungreased pan.

Bake at 425° F for about 20 minutes or until golden brown

For Tzatziki Sauce:

In a blender or food processor combine the greek yogurt, fresh dill, cumin, cucumber, lemon, garlic, salt and pepper.  Blend until smooth.  

I found this recipe searching for Greek Meatballs here This was the second time that we made this and this time we used less mint about half of what Rachel suggested but you might like more.  We also used less milk this time for the bread using only 1/4 cup milk to soak it in and less meat just 1 pound instead of 1.5 pounds.

Most of you will be really concerned about the use of the sourdough bread but we learn by way of the South Beach diet that the acidity in the sourdough actually makes it safe for our diet and will not cause our gi levels to rise enabling us to satisfy our need to eat great food while on the HCG diet as well as lose weight at the same time.  Another thing to keep in mind is that it is a small amount of bread stretched throughout the entire recipe so don't let it worry you.

This recipe will work for both P2 and P3


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