If you haven't tried Greek baked meatballs in red sauce, you are in for a treat! These are known as Soutzoukakia or Izmir Kofte, and they are the BEST! Flavor-packed meatballs with loads of aromatics, fresh parsley, and a special blend of spices including ground cumin, baked in a special red sauce! Plus, one secret ingredient makes these Greek meatballs extra juicy!
These can be prepared in advance. Be sure to read through for tips and what else to serve along!
Soutzoukakia! Say it with me, sou-tzou-kakia! Or you can call these Izmir Kofte (meatballs). Izmir, Turkey is actually where these delicious meatballs originated, making their way to Greece sometime in the 20th century.
Soutzoukakia are delicious football-shaped meatballs made from a special meat mixture with onions, garlic, fresh herbs, and a unique spice combination, the star of which is cumin! There's not a ton of cumin in the mixture, but its warm and distinctive flavor with bitter, lemony undertones provides a great earthy base here. Adding to the flavor is the epic red sauce the meatballs are baked in.
Oh man...so good!
Secret Ingredient
These baked meatballs are extra tender and juicy thanks to a secret ingredient included in the meat mixture. READY FOR IT? Toasted whole wheat bread that's been soaked in milk. This is a trick I learned from Yiayia Helen, and it's one I always use when I make these keftedes or these Lebanese-style meatballs.
If you need to, use gluten free bread like this kind, but do NOT skip this part!
How to Make Soutzoukakia: Greek Baked Meatballs
1. We use lean ground beef in the meat mixture (a combination of beef and pork is fine as well). Add in the rest of the ingredients including toasted bread, onions, garlic, spices, eggs, and fresh parsley.
2. Knead knead knead until you have well-combined meat mixture. Cover and chill in fridge for now.
3- Make the EPIC red sauce for the Greek meat balls. Starting with a little extra virgin olive oil, onions and garlic. Then adding in a little red wine, tomato sauce and spices. Let this goodness simmer for a few minutes.
4. Form meat mixture into elongated meatballs (football-shaped) and place in a lightly oiled baking dish
5- Pour the epic sauce on top. And bake in 400 degrees F until meatballs are cooked through (about 40-45 minutes or so). Tip, check part-way through, if needed add a little water.
Turn this into a Greek feast!
These meatballs are great over Lebanese rice or plain orzo. But you can turn this dinner into a feast by adding a side of Greek Salad, Greek Green Beans or Briam!
More Tips for these Baked Meatballs
- What kind of meat to use? Here we use lean ground beef, but you can use equal portions of beef and pork. You can also try mixing in ground turkey, if you like.
- Prepare-Ahead: If you want to get a head start on this recipe, you can make the sauce one night in advance. You can also mix the meat mixture one night in advance of cooking; store in the fridge in a glass container with a tight lid. When ready to cook, warm up the sauce and follow recipe instructions from there.
- Leftovers: these Greek meatballs should keep well for 3 or so nights in the fridge. Store in tight-lid glass containers. You can also freeze leftovers; thaw out in the fridge overnight. Heat leftovers in a medium-heated oven, add more liquid to your pan and cover until warmed through.
More Recipes to Try:
Greek Shrimp with Tomato and Feta
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Greek Baked Meatballs: Soutzoukakia
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 16 pieces (serves up to 8 people) 1x
Description
Perfectly tender baked meatballs, prepared Greek-style with onions, garlic, spices and fresh herbs in a special red sauce. Be sure to check out the notes for tips and ideas.
Ingredients
For Meatballs
- 2 slice whole wheat bread (toast-size), toasted to a medium-brown (or use Gluten Free bread if you need)
- ¼ to ⅓ cup 60 ml milk or water
- 1.5 lb/680.389 g lean ground beef
- 1 small yellow onion, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 medium eggs
- 1 tsp/2.36 g ground cumin
- ½ tsp/1.3 g ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp/0.6 g dried oregano
- ½ cup/17 g chopped fresh parsley
- Salt and pepper
- Drizzle Early Harvest Greek extra virgin olive oil
For Red Sauce
- Early Harvest Greek extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ cup/118.294 ml dry red wine
- 30 oz/850.486 g canned tomato sauce (that's 2 15-oz cans of sauce)
- 1 bay leaf
- ¾ tsp/1.77 g ground cumin
- ½ tsp/1.3 g cinnamon
- ½ tsp 2 g sugar
- Salt and Pepper
Instructions
- In a small bowl, place the toasted bread and cover with milk (or water) to soak. When bread is soft and well-soaked, squeeze the liquid out completely and discard remaining milk if any.
- Transfer the bread to a large mixing bowl. Add round beef and remaining meatball ingredients. Knead well until well-combined. Cover the meat mixture and rest in the fridge for now.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- While oven is heating, prepare the sauce. In a sauce pan or large skillet, heat 2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil over medium heat until shimmering but not smoking. Add onions and cook for 3 minutes or so. Add garlic and cook for another minute, stirring regularly. Now add red wine and cook to reduce by about ½, then add tomato sauce, bay leaf and remaining sauce ingredients. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Prepare a large baking dish and lightly oil the bottom with extra virgin olive oil.
- Take the meat mixture out of the fridge. Wet your hands and scoop portions of about 2 ½ tablespoon of the meat mixture and form into large elongated meatballs (football-shaped.) You should have 15 to 16 meatballs or so. Arrange meatballs in the papered baking dish and top with the sauce (be sure to have removed the bay leaf from the sauce.)
- Place the baking dish on the middle rack of your heated oven. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until the meatballs are well cooked through (check part-way through to make sure sauce is not dry, and if needed, add a little bit of water to the bottom of the baking dish.)
- Remove from oven and add another drizzle of EVOO. Garnish with parsley and serve over rice or orzo.
Notes
- Cook's Tip: baking time will vary from oven to oven
- Cook's Tip: The toasted soaked bread is what makes these meatballs extra juicy. Do not skip this part. If you need to, use gluten free bread.
- Cook's Tip: here we use lean ground beef, but you can use equal portions of ground beef and ground pork. You can also mix in ground turkey.
- Prepare-Ahead Tips: If you want to get a head start on this recipe, you can make the sauce one night in advance. You can also mix the meat mixture one night in advance of cooking; store in the fridge in a glass container with a tight lid. When ready to cook, warm up the sauce and follow recipe instructions from step #6 on.
- Tips for Leftovers: these Greek meatballs should keep well for 3 or so nights in the fridge. Store in tight-lid glass containers. You can also freeze leftovers; thaw out in the fridge overnight. Heat leftovers in a medium-heated oven, add more liquid to your pan and cover until warmed through.
- What Else to Serve Along? These meatballs are great over Lebanese rice or plain orzo. Turn this dinner into a Greek feast by adding a side of Greek Salad along with Greek Green Bean Salad or Briam!
- Recommended for this Recipe: Early Harvest Greek extra virgin olive oil (from organically grown and processed Koroneiki olives) and from our organic spice collection, ground cumin.
- SAVE! Try our Greek Olive Oil Bundle and our Ultimate Mediterranean Spice Bundle!
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Entree
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Greek
Keywords: Baked Meatballs, Meatballs in Red Sauce, Greek Meatballs
David Law says
Made this tonight. Incredible result! I did make one change however. I substituted ground pork for ground beef. I served with roasted carrots, and green beans with lime and parsley backed up with Orzo with pickled lemon. Will be making this again for guests in the near future.
Suzy says
Sounds wonderful! Glad to hear it also works well with ground pork. Thanks, David!
Phyllis says
Made these for dinner tonight and they were AMAZING. We loved them. Thanks for another delicious recipe!
★★★★★
Suzy says
My pleasure, Phyllis! So glad you enjoyed it!
Kay Norman says
I made this last night for dinner. It was fantastic! The sauce is SO flavorful. The meatballs were delicious. I have plenty of leftovers (just 2 of us), but they won't last long. I am sure they will be even better heated up.
★★★★★
Mellinger Elizabeth says
I do not have red wine. Do you have a substitution for this? Or do I need the red wine?
Suzy says
Hello! You could use a little beef or vegetable broth here instead of the wine.
Kristi says
Hello. How would I prepare this if using frozen prepared meatballs? Thx u
Suzy says
Hi, Kristi. Have never tried this recipe with prepared, frozen meatballs, so I can't totally advise here. I guess you could cook the meatballs as indicated on the package instructions, add the homemade sauce on top at some point.
Peggy says
We had these for dinner tonight with basamati rice and Israeli salad. Dinner was a hit, everyone was impressed and we had fun trying to pronounce soutzoukakia! Added a little sumac to my salad too😉. Enjoying learning to cook healthier with your recipes. Haven’t made anything we didn’t enjoy yet. Thank you.
★★★★★
Suzy says
Wonderful! Thanks, Peggy!
Roslyn says
I just made this today and served it for dinner. The flavors were wonderful! Doesn't seem like much cinnamon and cumin, but they give big results. This is a keeper.
Suzy says
Thanks, Roslyn.
Dawn says
Made this the other night and husband said it is the best meatballs Iever made! Made with orzo and garlic bread.
Suzy says
Thanks, Dawn!
Karen Cox says
Since my family LOVES this sauce, I made it with cubed chicken, which I browned first in a little olive oil, then simmered in the sauce. Delicious,
Suzy says
Great idea! Thanks for sharing, Karen!
Renee says
Hi! I made these Greek Baked Meatballs (Soutzoukakia) and they were wonderful--I would not change a thing (and I always change things 🙂
But, my main question is what type/brand of white rice did you use as at the beautiful bed of rice above. Even my long-grain rice is not as pretty and well, long, as yours.
Thank you for all of the great recipes and ideas.
Suzy says
So glad to hear it, Renee. I don't remember the brand of rice at the moment, I'm sorry. But here is my rice recipe with some helpful tips: https://www.themediterraneandish.com/lebanese-rice-with-vermicelli/
Elizabeth says
That looks like Bismati rice
Lynn says
Many times I see that people change a few ingredients. These recipes has been kitchen-tested many times. I always make as is, so should people. Then next time tinker with the ingredients if you like. I never thought of adding cinnamon but it goes to show you, go out-on-a-limb and try it. Yummy, yummy meatballs - a winner. Thanks Suzy. Love your recipes.
★★★★★
Suzy says
Lynn, thank you so much! I am so glad you enjoyed it
Elena says
Made this tonight and it was a family hit!!! Served with your simple Greek salad and some couscous.
Thank you so much!!!
★★★★★
Suzy says
Sounds like a wonderful meal!!!
Galina Fedorova says
I used ground beef mixed with ground lamb and replaced tomato sauce with diced tomatoes for more texture (i don't like canned tomato sauce). It turned out very delicious! I had enough liquid to get it through 45 min of baking.
Good combination of flavors.
★★★★★
Suzy says
Sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing!
Susan M Knoll says
Excellent! Put this together in the afternoon and baked it for dinner. I soaked the bread in 1/2 cup red wine verses water or milk. This is an easy flavorful recipe that would taste excellent on a cold winters night. I served it with whole wheat orzo but I think next time I will use cauliflower rice. All of my kids loved it!
★★★★★
Suzy says
Thanks for sharing, Susan!! So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
PJ Goetz says
Made this exactly as the recipes states. I made Greek pilaf to serve with the meatballs. It was so good. My family loved it. They said it’s a keeper. Will make again.
★★★★★
Suzy says
Awesome! Thanks, PJ!
Melissa Chandler says
I was a bit skeptical because I'm not used to using cinnamon in a savory dish, but oh my goodness was I wrong! This was SO yummy that I hid the leftovers in the back of the fridge so that I could have it for lunch the next day. So yummy served over a simple orzo flavored with a little olive oil, garlic, and parsley. YUM!
★★★★★
Suzy says
Haha sound like you really enjoyed it, Melissa! Thanks for sharing.
Marie says
I might have enjoyed this recipe if I could have read it. Pop-up ads covering the majority of my screen on this site.
Suzy says
Marie, we appreciate you stopping in and sharing your feedback. The ads you see on this page allow us to provide the recipes to you and all our wonderful readers completely free of charge.
Lacey Whitehead says
These are the best meatballs we have ever had! We LOVE the sweetness of the sauce. We use elk or venison for the meat, because that's what we have on hand--and it turns out fantastic every time. My kids eat these and they have always refused to eat any other meatballs. Thank you for this recipe! I am so happy to have found your website and subscribed--we haven't tried a single recipe yet that we didn't love. You're great!
★★★★★
Suzy says
Yay! So glad you like the meatball recipe (and that it's a hit with the kiddos)!! Thanks, Lacey!
Natalie says
I noticed you didn’t include ground lamb as one of the options to mix with the ground beef. Would that not work as well in this recipe?
Suzy Karadsheh says
If you have ground lamb and want to give it a try, it will work!
Diana says
I have made this 3x. Delicious flavors as usual with your recipes, thank you. However, I thought that I got a better result if I covered the baking dish with foil, uncovering at the last. The sauce did not over-thicken and the meatballs were more tender that way.
★★★★★
Tamara says
Can you use ready made breadcrumbs? If so, how
much?
Suzy says
Hi Tamara, ready bread crumbs will not provide the same consistency but they can work. 1/3 cup bread crumbs should be more than enough.