Lamb meatballs with warm yoghurt and Swiss chard from Nopi - The Cookbook (page 147) by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ramael Scully

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Ingredients

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Accompaniments: Crushed Jerusalem artichokes with tarragon

Always check the publication for a full list of ingredients. An Eat Your Books index lists the main ingredients and does not include 'store-cupboard ingredients' (salt, pepper, oil, flour, etc.) - unless called for in significant quantity.

Notes about this recipe

treay on June 15, 2025

We had this dish for the first time last night and to be honest they were just ok. Our main issue was the grass-fed lamb mince, that left us with a strong gamey flavour in our mouths. I thought that the flavour would be much nicer being grass-fed meat, but I did some research this morning, and apparently the gaminess flavour in grass-fed lamb is very common. The yoghurt and chard sauce was very nice but it split - something that the author says it can happen, but can be recovered by adding a bit more stock or yoghurt. I added more yoghurt and kind of improved but could not get it back. I serve it with Mejadra and it really suited this recipe. It is suggested to eat it with some yoghurt on the side, and the fact that the lamb recipe had a yoghurt sauce made me think it would work together. If I cook the meatballs again, I'll make them with either beef or pork mince instead. I think that might suit our palate better.
DePollepel on August 25, 2021

nice, with rice
KarinaFrancis on June 27, 2021

This was delicious ! Yes it was a lot of work (2.5 hours start to finish). By accident we ended up with the perfect ratio, we halved the meatball part of the recipe and made the full amount of sauce. I wish I had pomegranate because that would have made this even better
joneshayley on October 11, 2019

This wasn’t for me, despite the other reviews I found the yoghurt sauce claggy against the fatty lamb, though the pomegranate seeds did much to improve it, I won’t make this again
nadiakoj on April 15, 2019

This recipe is fantastic. I wish I had read previous comments before giving it a go as yes, the sauce definitely needs to be doubled and then it'll be perfect. We even used the spinach and loved it.
TrishaCP on January 08, 2018

We doubled the sauce and that was a good call. The sauce was great and I loved the pop of pomegranate at the end.
MmeFleiss on June 05, 2017

I agree with sosayi that doubling the sauce gave us the right proportion of meat to yogurt sauce. Delicious, but more time consuming than I had anticipated.
sosayi on April 07, 2017

The meatballs freeze beautifully, so making extra is a great idea. Once you have that done, this comes together really quickly for an easy weeknight dinner. I'd also recommend doubling the sauce. Addicting!
KarenS on February 28, 2017

Wonderful flavors, and the egg+cornstarch trick kept the yogurt sauce deliciously thick, napping the meatballs beautifully. I used toasted sesame seeds instead of pine nuts and oven 'fried' the meatballs while I made the sauce.
cultus.girl on August 28, 2016

This is a lovely recipe. Rave reviews. We only had two meatballs each and that was ample with a side vegetable dish and salad.
cathinchley on October 13, 2015

Realistically 3 meatballs per person is sufficient for a serve, particularly as you are having something else on the side. We made a double recipe and got 55 meatballs. Although the recipe states the pomegranate seeds as optional, they really cut through the yoghurt to balance this dish perfectly.