When I was 13 years old I could not WAIT to turn 18. It took forever, but as you may have noticed, I made it. Now that I feel like setting the brakes on time, days pass flying by, turn into weeks, months, so here we are at the end of May, and I find myself with quite a few years added to those eighteen. Unreal. Anyway, the last Monday of May brings with it the formidable joy of Reveal Day from The Secret Recipe Club. If you don’t already know about it, a food blogger is paired with another one in secret, has about a month to pick a recipe and cook from it, then the whole group blogs about their chosen dish at the exact same time. Nothing is cooler than this, you must admit. I was paired this month with Life on Food, hosted by Emily, a 31-year-old woman with stunning blue eyes and a food blog that is a stalker’s dream! She’s been blogging since 2008, and her index of recipes is quite extensive. At first I decided to make something sweet, and almost settled on her Blackberry Oat Muffins. But then, I flirted with Carrot Cake Pancakes and with Pistachio Dark Chocolate Toffee. Not sure what happened to my sweet tooth, but the outcome was nevertheless perfect: a fantastic dish of juicy meatballs laying on top of toasted orzo. Life on Food means life is good!
LAMB MEATBALLS WITH TOASTED ORZO
(slightly modified from Life on Food)
1 quart chicken stock
2 slices white bread, crusts trimmed
Milk, for soaking
1 pound ground lamb
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon grated onion
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 lemon, juiced, plus 2 tsp zest
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and pepper
olive oil, for drizzling
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup orzo
3 cups fresh baby spinach, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup crumbled feta
Heat the oven to 400 degrees . In a medium saucepan, heat the chicken stock over low heat; keep warm. In a small bowl, soak the bread in the milk.
In a large bowl, combine the lamb and egg. Wring out any excess milk from the soaked bread and crumble the bread into the meat. Stir in 1/4 cup parsley, onion, garlic, lemon zest, oregano, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Drizzle with olive oil; mix. Roll the mixture into 20 meatballs and arrange on a nonstick or parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until browned, 15 to 18 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the orzo and cook until golden, about 5 minutes. Stir in a few ladles of the warm stock and allow it to absorb before adding more. Keep adding stock a little at a time and cook until the orzo is al dente.
Stir in the spinach to heat through in the last-minute of cooking. Remove from the heat. Stir in the lemon juice and feta. Serve the orzo in shallow bowls. Top with the meatballs and remaining 1/4 cup parsley.
ENJOY!
to print the recipe, click here
Comments: In the opening paragraph of her post on this recipe, Emily says… I plan my meals, snacks, grocery lists days in advance. I don’t want to be unprepared. Currently I have only about 2 cups worth of flour. I want to make muffins that require 3 cups. I am stressed. That gave me such a big smile, because I am exactly the same way. With the added quirk of often forgetting what I have hidden deep inside in the pantry, so I “think” I have only a cup of flour, but two unopened bags will be found when I bring yet another from the store. I never fail to amaze myself.
This was a great meal, my main change was to use a gluten-free bread which I had in the freezer begging to be used up. The bread was made with almond flour and some ground nuts, I thought it would go nicely with the lamb meatballs, and indeed it worked well. The toasted orzo was super creamy, more like a risotto with all the starch of the pasta as part of the sauce. It did not take that long to cook, we like our orzo very al dente.
Emily, I hope you had a great time with your assignment! And, as usual, I invite my readers to go poke a blue frog. Said frog will take you to a collection of goodies made by my fellow friends on The Secret Recipe Club for today’s reveal day…
ONE YEAR AGO: Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Bars
TWO YEARS AGO: Penne with Trapanese Pesto
THREE YEARS AGO: Superman
FOUR YEARS AGO: Spring Pasta
FIVE YEARS AGO: Ice Cream Melts for Mango
Bewitching Kitchen 
Those meatballs look delicious Sally! I know what you mean about time racing by, but you look fabulous!!! Just so you know.
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Honestly, I don’t miss being 18 at all… tough years, insecurities, fears, anxiety. Much much better now. Only anxiety and a few fears, mostly in the realm of insects 😉 Ok, I am cake-o-phobic too. Still, life is much better now than it was in 1978 😉
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The meatballs look delicious. I’ve never cooked with orzo but I should give it a try.
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Oh, you definitely should bring orzo to your pantry – make sure you write it down so you don’t bring two more bags like “some people” 😉
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Will do. 🙂
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Happy Reveal Day and Happy Memorial Day~ Love the meatballs and the orzo looks great~ Lynn @ Turnips 2 Tangerines
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Thank you! Hope you are enjoying your Reveal Day… great collection of goodies this month!
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Hush – let’s keep these delicious meatballs secret : ) !! Methinks I was a little older than you when I wanted to be SO much more mature !! GROWN UP !! ‘Course it did happen and now would so want matters to reverse 🙂 !! Thank God many things no longer ‘stress’!! One of the benefits . . . like the Greek influence . . .
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so agree with you! So many things were sources of stress and doubts. Good to get that learning curve out of the way
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I wondered how the secret recipe club works, and now I know, very cool!!! Love the toasted orzo 🙂
Ah, the passing of time…someone from my past recently popped back up in my life, and memories and thoughts of 20 years ago have been playing round my mind for the past few days. All I can say is, thank goodness for the passing of time!!! I’m much happier now 🙂 x
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A couple of years ago I found a text I wrote when I was 15 years old – I tell you, it was hard for me to recognize myself. I cannot even say I enjoyed reading it. OH, well – part of life
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I can understand that. There are many times that I am thankful that I didn’t have a daughter, I’d hate to have watched her go through what I did 😦
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Really good explanation on how the secret recipe club works. I had wondered! The orzo sounds delicious – very much like Greek spanakorizo (made with rice). I think I prefer your orzo version. Oh…and the meatballs are brilliant, too!
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Well, now I want to make some spanakorizo…. 😉 The horizon is wide open!
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Wow, those meatballs look amazing, and I am totally intrigued by that method of making orzo – can’t wait to try that. Lucky you being assigned to Emily’s blog – I had her blog a few months back and know how much you must have enjoyed your assignment.
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Sorry… your comment for some reason ended up in my spam folder! THE NERVE! Glad I checked it, so I could recover it… Yes, try this method to make orzo, it is totally different, producing a much more substantial end result… very good!
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OH YES Sally, that is JUST my sort of recipe and I adore lamb, so those meatballs would be very welcome on my table! Have a wonderful bank holiday weekend, Karen xxxx
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Thank you, Karen! I love lamb too and it had been a while since I cooked with ground lamb – so flavorful!
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I am constantly forgetting what baking staples I have in my pantry. I either forget I have 3 bags of unopened whatevers…or I forget that I ran out and need to buy more. These meatballs have my stomach grumbling – they look so good! Happy Reveal Day!
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In my arms, sister! 😉 Apparently we have a crowd of sisters out there…
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Meatballs are one of our favorite dinner options. These are so awesome!! Great pick this month 🙂
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Thank you, Melissa! Glad that you stopped by to say hello…
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We have a lady that comes to clean the house and keep us organized every week. And every week she says, “Why do you have two open bottles of bbq sauce in the fridge? That takes up too much space,” or something similar. She also complains about organizing the pantry every single week because I don’t put things back in their proper spot. 🙂
I would love these lamb meatballs and toasted orzo sounds really good.
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I absolutely positively MUST organize my pantry soon. It is chaotic in there.
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Oh, this looks SO delicious! This is exactly the type of recipe I would chose, too – what a lovely combination of flavors + textures. Perfect choice for the SRC this month!
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I love it that the recipe turned as a complete meal – so easy!
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Love the sound of that orzo! Fab pick this month 😀
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The orzo was pretty spectacular and could stand on its own too, for a vegetarian meal…
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Oh my goodness! I do that with my pantry all the time! I think I have something and find out I don’t. Or am convinced I don’t have something and after I buy it, it turns out I did. I’m really curious about the toasted orzo. I’ve never cooked it like that. It does sound a bit like risotto – and delicious!
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Kristy, just today I was about to bake some bread and needed sesame seeds to sprinkle on top – of course, I only had black sesame seeds, which would be ok, if it wasn’t for Peter Reinhart, in one class I had with him, mention that he thinks black sesame seeds look like mouse droppings…. I simply stopped sprinkling those on top of bread…. Soooo, there I went, quick drive to the grocery store while the bread proofed… (sigh)
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lol! I have three bottles of sesame seeds. I kept putting them on my grocery list when what I really needed was sesame seeds. Too bad we’re not neighbors, you could have shopped in my pantry. 😉
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Between you and me… I have TWO bottles of black sesame seeds. I have no idea why. I need therapy. (sigh, sigh, sigh)
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Oh I definitely need to try this!
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Hope you do… it was super yummy!
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I love lamb meatballs and the orzo is the perfect foil for them. Great choice this month.
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meatballs are always nice – a bit like a meatloaf, but cooking so much faster… I never fry them, baking works well for us, and I don’t have to deal with the leftover oil, which I find a bit unpleasant anyway… 😉
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This looks delicious!!! I’ve added it to our meal plan for next week. Great pick!!
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Awesome! I hope you enjoy it, we certainly did!
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I love Emily’s blog!! She always has amazing recipes. This dinner is no less….love that the orzo is toasted!!
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Makes all the difference, doesn’t it? I love new ways to prepare an ingredient, the little unexpected twist that changes it all
hope you are doing great 😉
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These posts always make me remember old recipes that need to happen again. I am glad you liked this dish! Happy reveal day!!
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Same to you… hope you had fun reading the collection of this month!
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Ooh, this sounds perfect! My son loves orzo, so this will be a great way to get him to eat more spinach. Will definitely be trying.
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The spinach turns almost like a sauce, so I bet your son would clean his plate!
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So you’re already 18 years old? And I thought you were 16, 17 at the most 😉
Those lamb meatballs look incredible, I could use a giant serving today for lunch!
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You were clearly fooled by my tremendously joyful personality… cannot blame you. Others suffered the same fate. 😉
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I have made lamb meatballs or koftas similar to this before and they are quite delicious so good choice for reveal day! It looks like a good warm weather sort of food paired with a salad.
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Indeed, a salad would be perfect to round up the meal…. I don’t remember if we had one with it, as I made this recipe a few weeks ago… time passes…. 😉
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This looks so tasty! Wonderful pick! We really enjoyed browsing your site this month. It was so hard to choose what to make!
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Great to see you here! And of course, I am glad you guys had fun stalking me… 😉
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Yummmm!!! Those look absolutely amazing – that orzo looks PERFECT!
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this way of cooking orzo makes it so much better than traditional methods… worth trying!
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I have recently gotten really into lamb, and these meatballs look just perfect. Great choice!
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We cook lamb maybe once a month, but it had been a while since I got ground lamb – flavorful, perfect with the orzo
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Yum! Looks super tasty! I’ve never tried making lamb meatballs before, but these definitely look like they are being to be tried!
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I usually make them smaller, but this time I decided for a slightly bigger size, and two would be enough for my dinner, actually
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It is crazy how quickly time is flying! I would happily slow it down…especially since my boss wants me to hand him a first draft of a paper by next Friday while simultaneously doing ALL THE EXPERIMENTS. Sigh. Breathing. Love this comfort meal!
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Hummmm, that sounds pretty challenging – I have a hard time dividing between writing and working at the bench – it seems there is some inertia associated with changing from one frame of mind to another, so….. best of luck with it all… soon you will be on your honeymoon, though… that should compensate for all the grievances!
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Sally, those meatballs look amazing! I love that you put them on top of orzo; what a delicious meal!
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Indeed, I loved it that this SRC assignment turned out as a complete meal, and a very tasty one too!
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I don’t think I’ve ever had lamb! I gotta try it!
The orzo looks great. yum!
Great pick!
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I love orzo but always forget about it. Looks great.
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