Juicy, tender and delicious beef meatballs with zucchini and Parmesan.
I am starting with a big statement today: these are the juiciest, most delicious meatballs I have made in a long time!!! No kidding!!!
I make lots of meatballs: beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish, then vegetarian with different grains, nuts, chickpeas, vegetables and so on. And to tell you the truth, I can get pretty enthusiastic with most of them and I would praise them as well, but these ones… ahhhh, they were so good, I don’t even find the words anymore…
Juicy Zucchini Beef Meatballs with Parmesan
The flavor of these Juicy Zucchini Beef Meatballs with Parmesan was just amazing, I used the best ground meat I can buy from Angus beef grazing on wide fields around our village, a zucchini and dill from my friend’s garden, eggs from the neighbor’s hens and fresh breadcrumbs from homemade bread. If there was ever an overly organic meatball, this was it! 🙂
And even better than the taste was the consistency of these zucchini meatballs. Perfectly tender and delicate and more succulent than any other meatball I have ever tasted. It must be the zucchini in it, you cannot really taste them, they are so mild and their taste gets easily covered by the beef, dill and Parmesan taste, but you can feel those zucchini, that is the juiciness they give to the meatball.
Another great thing about these Juicy Zucchini Beef Meatballs with Parmesan is that you can get fussy eaters into eating zucchini without them even realizing it. I chose not to tell my kids what exactly they were eating, I just said we have meatballs and that was it. They ate lots of them and loved them and wished me to make them again soon and they didn’t even change their minds after I revealed to them what exactly was inside. They just didn’t care anymore. 🙂
So, I loved all the zucchini recipes in this series and there are still some to come, but if there was only one you would choose to make, I can strongly recommend these Juicy Zucchini Beef Meatballs with Parmesan, you will love them.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius/ 390 degrees Fahrenheit. Grate the zucchini finely and squeeze out excess liquid. Don’t overdo it, you still want to have some moisture, just squeeze lightly to remove what is too much. Grate the onion and the garlic cloves finely as well. Grate the Parmesan. Chop the dill finely. Remove the crust from the bread slice and crumble the bread with your fingers to obtain crumbs. Beat the eggs lightly. Place the beef, zucchini, onion, garlic, Parmesan, dill, breadcrumbs and eggs in a bowl. Add salt and pepper generously and mix everything with your hand. Add some more salt and pepper to taste. Form the meatballs, I had 35 medium ones. Press them a little flat with your hand. Heat one tablespoon vegetable oil in a large skillet and start frying the meatballs, about 2 minutes each side, in batches. As they are ready, transfer them to a baking tray lined with baking paper. Add another tablespoon oil in the skillet, if necessary, and continue the process with the rest of the meatballs. Bake the meatballs for 7 or 8 minutes. Serve immediately with mashed potatoes and salad (or vegetables) or serve cold as part of a cold buffet. You can slice the cold meatballs and pack them in a sandwich with some good mustard and some sliced tomatoes and a couple of salad leaves.
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9 comments
That’s a nice way to get veggie hating kids or husband to eat more greens :-))
Yum! I’m with the kids. I know I would eat more than my fair share of these wonderful meatballs. And how wonderful that you can source everything locally!
this is a use for zucchini that i haven’t seen–it’s brilliant!
Meatballs are one of my favorite comfort foods! And I love how they are endlessly versatile 🙂 Normally I don’t much if any red meat, but you’ve got me convinced that I need these in my life! And you know I love that you added some zucchini in there for extra veggie goodness! Pinned!
What a clever idea! I love it and will certainly try one day too (I also like your meatballs on a purée plate; why haven’t I thought about it???).
I think I should try this recipe cause it different from the others
[…] as much as I do! She has several tasty looking zucchini recipes that I plan to try out like the Zucchini Beef Meatballs, Vegan Zucchini Cashew Curry, and Zucchini Feta Pancakes. I settled on the Savory Zucchini […]
I was looking for a recipe like this (beef zucchini meatballs) because I have a Hungarian friend who makes them. But there seems to be a mistake in the quantities: it should probably be 1/2 Kg of meat for 1.1 lb.
You are right, Jean. 1 kg are 2.2 lbs and that is the amount you need. I will correct that. Thank you.