These Greek style lamb meatballs are juicy, flavorful, and ready in just 30 minutes! With tender ground lamb, oregano, cumin, and feta cheese, they're a delicious weeknight dinner or easy lunch!
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Why You'll Love these Lamb Meatballs!
These meatballs can be served on top of salad or rice or wrapped in pita and served gyro style.
- Super easy to make! These meatballs are super simple and come together in less than 30 minutes.
- Perfect for meal prep! Since these meatballs are so easy, I love to double the batch and make a bunch of sides for the week and then freeze any leftovers.
- Full of flavor! With Greek spices like cumin and oregano (and a healthy serving of feta cheese) these lamb meatballs are super tender and flavorful!
Ingredient Notes
You just need a few simple ingredients to make these Greek style lamb meatballs!
Ground Lamb - The lamb is the star ingredient! It's full of flavor and has just enough fat for super tender meatballs. It can sometimes be hard to find, but I can usually always find it at Target or Walmart! You can also substitute 80% ground beef or ground pork.
Egg - This is important to help bind the meatballs together! Always use 1 egg per 1 pound of meat.
Red Onion - I like the flavor of red onion best in these meatballs, but feel free to substitute yellow onion or shallot.
Feta Cheese - Don't skip the feta! You'll get delicious little pockets of melty cheese in the meatballs that adds to their perfect texture. Usually I recommend blocks of feta in brine for the best flavor, but in this case pre-crumbled feta works best because there's less moisture.
Oregano - Fresh oregano pairs beautifully with the lamb, but you could also substitute fresh mint.
Lemon - Just a little bit of lemon juice adds some brightness to the meatballs.
Spices - Cumin is one of my favorite spices to use in Greek style recipes but you can leave it out if you prefer. I also add in some cayenne for a little heat, but that's optional too.
The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.
How to Make Lamb Meatballs
Preheat the oven to 425°F and lightly oil a baking sheet.
Add all of the ingredients to a large bowl, and use your hands to mix until fully combined, but be careful not to overwork the meat. [If you're like me and don't like touching raw meat, use some disposable food-safe gloves.]
Use a cookie scoop, to make 2 tablespoon size balls and gently roll them in your hands to get a perfect round shape. Then place them about 2 inches apart on your baking sheet. You should end up with roughly 20 lamb meatballs.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the lamb meatballs are browned and reach an internal temperature of 160°F.
To cook on the stove: Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat in a large cast iron skillet. Add the meatballs and turn every 2 minutes until all sides are browned and the meatballs are cooked through to 160°F, about 6-8 minutes total. Cook the meatballs in batches to avoid over crowding the pan (this helps them all get crispy on the outside).
What to Serve with Lamb Meatballs
These lamb meatballs are delicious as an appetizer or as part of a main course dish! They're good in wraps, served over rice, or just with a Greek dip like tzatziki.
- Sourdough naan or pita bread
- Homemade tzatziki
- Tomato cucumber salad
- Rice, orzo, or couscous
- Arrabiata or harissa based sauce
Recipe FAQ's
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Preheat the oven to 300°F. Place the lamb meatballs on a baking sheet and cover with foil. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until warmed through.
Place the cooked meatballs on a baking sheet and freeze for about 30 minutes. Then transfer to an airtight container (I love these vacuum seal bags) and freeze for up to 3 months. Let thaw in the fridge overnight.
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
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Recipe Card
Greek Style Lamb Meatballs
Special Equipment
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 pound ground lamb
- ¼ cup red onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup feta cheese, crumbled
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons fresh oregano, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground cayenne
Serve With
- tzatziki
- naan, or pita
- lemon orzo
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F and lightly oil a baking sheet.
- Add all of the ingredients to a large bowl, and use your hands to mix until fully combined, but be careful not to overwork the meat. [If you're like me and don't like touching raw meat, use some disposable food-safe gloves.]
- Use a cookie scoop, to make 2 tablespoon size balls and gently roll them in your hands to get a perfect round shape. Then place them about 2 inches apart on your baking sheet. You should end up with roughly 20 lamb meatballs.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the meatballs are browned and reach an internal temperature of 160°F.
- To cook on the stove: Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat in a large cast iron skillet. Add the meatballs and turn every 2 minutes until all sides are browned and the meatballs are cooked through to 160°F, about 6-8 minutes total. Cook the meatballs in batches to avoid over crowding the pan (this helps them all get crispy on the outside).
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Amy Fey says
My hubby loves the seasoning
nawar taha says
Can. I use Cottwge cheese instead of feta ?
Kyleigh Sage says
I don't recommend that as cottage cheese will add too much moisture to the meatballs which can negatively affect the texture. You could just leave out the feta or substitute something like goat cheese instead.
Annie Bee says
Oh my gosh, these are amazing!! I tripled the recipe and made it exactly as is....I recently started cooking for my daughter's family to help her out. There are two very picky 6'3" teenage twins who not only eat a great deal but also are very picky!! Everyone loved these. I served with Myzithra pasta and Greek salad. This is definitely pinned to my recipe board!!! Thank you!!!!
LBC says
Made a double batch of these for my family of four so that I could freeze some later. The family loved them so much. They are packed with flavor and a great addition to a Mediterranean bowl, or even a sandwich. I had leftover mujadara (Lebanese lentils & rice) and served this on top of that with some tzatziki, marinated tomatoes, and cucumbers.
Shannon says
These came out great! We used them to make gyros.
I only did 2 small things different. I used yellow onion instead of red onion and paprika instead of cayenne pepper.
I ended up with 15 meatballs.
Anne says
Came out great!
Christine says
This recipe is excellent and made it in 15 minutes .i didn’t add the feta and it’s still delicious.Thank you
Lucas says
I love this recipe. I used harissa sauce in the meatballs for the spices. I served it with pearled couscous flavored with zhoug.
Kyleigh Sage says
Oh harissa in the meatballs sounds SO good! I'll have to do that next time I make them!
Kellie says
Great idea! I considered doing this also, but I’m making the meatballs for gyros and the my tzatziki sauce is already packed full of flavor (I added homemade Greek seasoning to it) AND I’m making a side of harissa sweet potato fritters so I figured that was enough harissa for this meal. Next time, I’m trying this recipe with the harissa and serving as an appetizer at a potluck.
Najah says
Really easy recipe, simple and delicious. We saved some mince and left out the salt/pepper for the kids.
Molly says
These were just delicious. My whole family loved them. We wrapped them in pitas with a little tzaziki - like a gyro only so much more tender. This recipe is a keeper!