Youva-whata?
Youvarlakia! Youvarlakia are little Greek meat and rice balls in avgolemono, or egg lemon, sauce. If you've ever had avgolemono or chicken lemon rice soup, it's pretty much the same thing but, you know, with meatballs instead of chicken :)
This is a really simple dish, and pretty healthy, to boot. You can make this more or less soup-like depending on your preferences. Just reduce or increase the amount of broth accordingly.
And can you believe I have now voluntarily tempered eggs for 2 days in a row?
Youvarelakia
1 Tbsp. butter
1 large onion, divided
4 cups broth
1 lb. extra lean ground beef (and not just for the nutrition, but so you don't get a greasy broth!)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup uncooked white rice
3-4 Tbsp. fresh parsley or 1-2 T dried
fresh dill, to taste
ground pepper, to taste
4 eggs, divided
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2-3 lemons)
Cut the onion in half. Finely mince or grate one half and put in a medium sized bowl.
Dice the other half of the onion. Add butter to saucepan or small casserole/stockpot to melt. Add the diced onion and cook until translucent. Add the broth to the pot and bring to a light boil.
Meanwhile, make the meatballs. To the grated/minced onion, add the beef, salt, parsley, dill, ground pepper, uncooked rice and 1 beaten egg. Form the mixture into 1" meatballs (you will get around 25 or so).
Drop the meatballs into the broth. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 20-25 minutes, until meatballs cook through and rice is done. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat.
In a medium bowl, whisk the 3 remaining eggs with the lemon juice until combined.
Slowly drizzle 2 ladles of the broth from the meatballs into the egg/lemon mixture, stirring continuously so as not to scramble the eggs.
Slowly pour the egg/lemon/broth mixture back into the meatballs, again stirring continuously as you do so. Season to taste again, if necessary.
Serve meatballs with a ladle of sauce (or as much as you want).
Nutrition info per servings (4 servings). Note: I used 96% lean beef, but this calorie information is using 93% lean. Calories: 361 / Fat: 15.2g / Carbs: 25g / Fiber: 1.1g / Protein: 32.7
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