You guys, I am SO IN LOVE with this meal! Browned beef full of warm spices, a medley of roasted vegetables with caramelized edges, and a bed of warm rice makes a fabulously well rounded meal that is a perfect candidate for meal prepping. These Beef Kofta Meatballs with Roasted Vegetables are my new easy-peasy healthy prep for the week!
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Vegetable Substitutes
You have a few options with this meal. I highly suggest tailoring the vegetable selection to what you have available for a good price in your area at the time. Some other vegetables that work well for roasting are eggplant, mushrooms, and bell peppers. Whichever vegetables you choose, try to get a range of color.
How to Serve Beef Kofta Meatballs
I placed my meatballs and roasted vegetables over a bed of rice because I loooove rice, but if you want to go a low carb route you can place them over some spinach or baby greens. If you want something a little more special than plain rice as a bed, you can do Spinach Rice with Feta. If you’re the type that likes your meals saucy, you can do a simple yogurt dill sauce, like the one in my Greek Chicken Wraps, or my famous Lemon Tahini Dressing, which can be in my Mediterranean Farro Salad recipe.
Beef Kofta Meatballs with Roasted Vegetables
Servings 4Ingredients
Roasted Vegetables*
- 1 zucchini ($0.84)
- 1 yellow squash ($0.58)
- 1 pint grape tomatoes ($1.89)
- 3/4 red onion ($0.48)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.26)
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder ($0.02)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- salt & pepper ($0.05)
Meatballs
- 1 lb. ground beef ($5.29)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.16)
- 1/4 red onion, minced ($0.16)
- 2 Tbsp parsley, chopped ($0.11)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp cumin ($0.03)
- 1/8 tsp cinnamon ($0.02)
- 1/8 tsp cloves ($0.02)
- 3/4 tsp salt ($0.03)
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.08)
Other
- 4 cups cooked rice ($0.76)
- 2 Tbsp parsley, chopped, for garnish ($0.11)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Dice the zucchini and yellow squash. Reserve 1/4 of the red onion for the meatballs and cut the remaining 3/4 into 1-inch slices. Place the chopped zucchini, squash, onion, and grape tomatoes on a large baking sheet.
- Drizzle the olive oil over the vegetables, then add the garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper. Use your hands to toss the vegetables in the oil and spices until they are evenly coated. Spread the vegetables out evenly over the baking sheet, then transfer them to the oven.
- Roast the vegetables in the oven for 40 minutes, or until they are wilted and browned on the edges, stirring once half way through.
- While the vegetables are roasting, prepare the meatballs. Mince the remaining 1/4 red onion. Add the ground beef, red onion, minced garlic, chopped parsley, oregano, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, and salt to a bowl. Mix the ingredients together until they are well combined.
- Shape the meat mixture into 16 ping pong sized meatballs. This is a good time to begin cooking your rice so that it’s finished at the same time as the meatballs and vegetables.
- Heat a large non-stick or cast iron skillet over medium heat. Once hot, 1 Tbsp cooking oil and swirl to coat the surface of the skillet. Add half of the meatballs and cook on each side until well browned (about 7 minutes total). Be careful as you turn the meatballs, as they can be quite delicate. If it’s easier, you can flatten them into mini patty shapes. Transfer the cooked meatballs to a clean plate, add more oil to the skillet, and cook the second batch in the same manner.
- Once the meatballs are cooked and the vegetables have finished roasting, it’s time to assemble the meal. Place about 1 cup cooked rice on each plate or container, add 1/4 of the roasted vegetables, then top with four of the beef kofta meatballs. Top with a little more chopped parsley and enjoy!
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Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!How to Make Beef Kofta Meatballs – Step by Step Photos
Start with a few vegetables for roasting. Be sure to pick vegetables that are in season or on sale for a good price in your area at the time. This recipe is wonderfully flexible in this way. I used a zucchini, a yellow squash, a red onion, and a pint of grape tomatoes, but you could also choose something like an eggplant, mushrooms, or bell peppers. Preheat your oven to 425ºF.
Dice the zucchini and squash into one-inch pieces. Reserve 1/4 of the red onion for the meatballs, and slice the rest of it into one-inch slices. Place the chopped zucchini, yellow squash, red onion, and the pint of cherry tomatoes on a large baking sheet. Drizzle with 2 Tbsp olive oil, then add 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Toss the vegetables until they are evenly coated in oil and spices.
Roast the vegetables for about 40 minutes, or until they are wilted and browned on the edges. Stir once, half way through. While the vegetables are roasting, you can prepare the meatballs.
Mince the remaining 1/4 of the red onion. Add 1 lb. ground beef to a bowl, then add the minced red onion, 2 cloves minced garlic, 2 Tbsp chopped parsley, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, 1/4 tsp cumin, 1/8 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp cloves, and 3/4 tsp salt.
Use your hands to mix the beef and seasonings together until they are well combined.
Shape the meat mixture into 16 ping pong sized meatballs. The easiest way to do this is to divide the mixture in half, then in half again, then in half again and so on until you have 16 fairly equal sized pieces, then shape them into balls. This is also a good time to start cooking your rice if you want it to finish cooking at roughly the same time as your vegetables and meatballs.
Place a non-stick or cast iron skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add 1 Tbsp cooking oil (high-heat oil of your choice) and swirl to coat the surface of the skillet. Add half of the meatballs and cook them until they are browned on all sides. Turn them carefully as they cook because they are fairly delicate. They should take about 7-ish minutes to cook on all sides, but this will depend on the heat of your skillet. Once cooked, transfer the meatballs to a clean plate, add a little more oil, and cook the second batch in the same manner.
When your meatballs are finished cooking, the vegetables and rice should be finished at about the same time. And then it’s time to build your bowls/plates/containers! Place about 1 cup cooked rice on your plate, top with 1/4 of the roasted vegetables, and 4 of the cooked meatballs. Sprinkle a little chopped parsley on top, and enjoy!!
And like I said, these Beef Kofta Meatballs with Roasted Vegetables make the PERFECT meal prep! If you feel like you need some sauce, you can do an easy dill yogurt sauce (like the one in this recipe) or my lemon tahini dressing (like in this recipe). I would pack the dressings separately from your meal prep containers so you can heat them up and add the dressing after.
I made this last night and it was so good! Meal prepped it with mashed potatoes because I wanted to use up some. Will make again!
I’m making this tomorrow, meal prep. I have potatoes to use up so I’m going to make it over mashed potatoes. Looking forward to it! I love roasted veggies.
Added an egg to the meatball mixture, otherwise made as directed. Wonderful. Will be adding to the rotation.
Made this tonight – it was a hit! Very fantastic with the recommended dill yogurt dressing from your site. Thank you!!
Can we get a recommendation for a sauce to serve with this meal? I love to dip or drizzle over top! Maybe I just love sauces too?
Sure! Just read where it says HOW TO SERVE BEEF KOFTA MEATBALLS in the blog post. XOXO -Monti
This meal has been one of my favourites for years — it’s unreal! I serve it with garlic hummus and instead of making actual meatballs, I do a “deconstructed” version.
I combined your meatball recipe with a recipe for slow cooker porcupine style meatballs elsewhere (where you add rice into meat mixture) and set on low ~5hrs. I plan to have them with pita pockets and the lemon dill yogurt sauce from the Mediterranean Turkey burger post
Way too much sodium
How can that be cut down?
That didn’t look right to me so I reran it through the nutrition calculator. It did come back quite a bit lower. The only way to reduce the sodium in this recipe is to reduce the added salt in the ingredients list, but keep in mind that the nutrition calculator only estimates the total sodium for the recipe based on ingredient databases, which may or may not match the actual ingredients that you use.
Do you think this could be a sheet pan meal….roasting 5he meatballs with the vegetables?
Yep! You’ll just need to play around with the timing of when to add the meatballs so they don’t over cook. :)
I usually bake my meatballs at 425 for about 15 minutes. So maybe throw them in on a separate sheet the last 15 minutes?
Hi Jenni! You can absolutely roast them in s a separate pan, but I’m team #lessdirtydishes, I would roast them all in the same sheet pan so the veggies soak up that rendered meatball fat.
We were rewarded this recipe when using the “surprise me” button while walking up to the grocery store. And boy, were we surprised! Such a great recipe. We made it as-is with the “Spinach Rice with Feta” (sub quinoa) and the “Yogurt Dill Sauce” recipes as Beth suggested. So much flavor and very balanced. The timing was perfect for batching out the meatballs while the veggies roasted. This would also be a great dish for entertaining. Easy to multiply. Hang with your guests in the kitchen flipping meatballs and drinking wine. That’s how I will be enjoying this recipe next time. Thanks Beth!
The meatballs were great (I went my own way for sides)! I kept all the seasoning exactly as directed and only added 1 egg (since there was a comment about them being fragile – problem solved!).
Anyway, they turned out great.
Could you make this with ground chicken instead – we are a non red meat household… Thx!
Hmm, it will definitely change the flavor a lot. I can’t really envision how the flavors would go together. It might be one of those things that you just have to try to see if you like it. :)
We don’t eat red meat either and I always use ground turkey for this. It’s one of our favorite meals!
Very good recipe! I may try using ground chicken or turkey next time and baking instead of frying the meatballs, just to cut out some fat… but if you don’t care about fat content this recipe is perfect as written! (It’s not even that much TBH I’m just on a strict diet.)
This is one of my favorite recipes on this site. I gasped when I took my first bite. Everything was so fragrant and delicious! I added a dollop of plain greek yogurt and a spritz of lemon juice, and that really took everything up a notch. One of my new favorite, go to recipes
I accidently made slightly larger meatballs, 12 total instead of 16. I was worried they wouldn’t cook all the way through, so I baked them at 400 for 20 min, then sauteed in a cast iron with a 1/2 tbsp oil. This ended up being too long and the meatballs were slightly tough. I thought my 80/20 ground beef would have enough fat, but it did not. So stick to smaller meatballs if you can. Or just bake them, they looked fine/browned enough just out of the oven honestly, and you use way less oil. Besides that, flavor is amazing.
These were incredible. I added fresh mint, cayenne and ground ginger. A keeper!