Baked Lamb Meatballs With Feta And Butter Beans

Ingredients

• 50 g breadcrumbs
• 100 g feta
• 400 g lamb mince
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cinnamon
• 700 g butter, drained and rinsed
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 red onion, roughly sliced
• 800 g tomato, finely diced
• parsley, finely chopped
• green salad, to serve

Method

1. Tip the breadcrumbs into a large mixing bowl with 2 tablespoons of feta brine and leave for 5 minutes to soften — the brine seasons the mix from the inside, so don't skip it.
2. Add the lamb mince, cooked red lentils, cumin, lemon zest, and a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Season properly here — this is your only chance to get salt into the meatballs themselves. Mix by hand until evenly combined and the mixture holds together when pressed.
3. Shape into 24 small meatballs, roughly the size of a walnut. Wet hands stop the mixture sticking.
4. Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan).
5. Scatter the meatballs and sliced red onion into a baking dish in a single layer, drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and toss to coat. Don't crowd them — if your dish is too small, use two. Meatballs touching each other steam instead of browning.
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the meatballs are browned on top and the onion has started to soften and catch at the edges.
7. Pull the dish from the oven and stir in the chopped tomatoes, grated carrot, cinnamon and butter beans. Rinse the tomato tin with a splash of water and tip that in too — the extra liquid breaks the tomatoes down as they bake, so the sauce tastes of fruit rather than tin. The cinnamon will bloom in the residual heat as you stir; you'll smell it shift from raw and dusty to warm and fragrant within seconds.
8. Stir in the reserved lemon juice, season with salt and pepper, then gently fold everything together so the meatballs sit three-quarters submerged in the sauce.
9. Crumble the feta over the top in generous chunks and drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil.
10. Return to the oven for 30-35 minutes, until the sauce is thickened and bubbling at the edges, the feta is golden in patches, and the meatballs are cooked through.
11. Rest for 5 minutes before serving — the sauce will settle and deepen. Taste it now and adjust the salt; tinned tomatoes vary, and a final pinch is often what ties the whole dish together.
12. Bring the dish to the table, scatter the chopped parsley over the top, and serve straight from the baking dish with the green salad alongside.