Baked Mediterranean Meatballs with Roasted Vegetables Recipe

Baked Mediterranean meatballs are juicy pork and beef meatballs packed with dried herbs and roasted on one tray with sweet mini plum tomatoes, peppers, courgettes and olives. The whole dinner is ready in under an hour, with very little washing up.

Baked Mediterranean meatballs are made by mixing pork and lean beef mince with egg, paprika, dried herbs, garlic powder and onion powder, then roasting them over a tray of vegetables coated in olive oil. The meatballs brown on the outside and stay tender inside, while the vegetables soften and pick up the juices from the meat. It takes about 20 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes in the oven, and the meatballs can also be cooked in the air fryer. The recipe is high in protein, naturally low in carbs and easy to scale up for meal prep.

Ingredients for Baked Mediterranean Meatballs

• Pork mince – A 5–10% fat pork mince keeps the meatballs juicy without leaving the tray greasy.
• Lean beef mince – Beef with around 5% fat adds a deeper, meatier flavour and helps the meatballs hold a firm, round shape.
• Egg – The egg binds the mince so the meatballs don't crack or fall apart when the tray is stirred.
• Paprika – Paprika gives the meatballs a warm, mildly sweet flavour and a deeper golden-brown colour.
• Dried oregano, thyme, sage and parsley – This herb mix gives the meatballs their Mediterranean flavour without any chopping.
• Garlic powder and onion powder – Both add savoury flavour and spread evenly through the mince, so there are no raw bits of onion or garlic.
• Salt and black pepper – Seasoning the mince well matters, because the inside of a meatball can't be seasoned once it's cooked.
• Courgettes – Cut into quarter rounds, courgettes soften quickly and soak up the olive oil and herbs.
• Green and black olives – Large green olives turn soft and buttery in the oven, and black olives add a salty, savoury bite.
• Peppers – Cooking peppers cut into wedges roast until sweet and lightly charred at the edges.
• Red onion – Thinly sliced red onion turns soft and sweet and adds colour to the tray.
• Mini plum tomatoes – Ripe mini plum tomatoes are sweeter than standard cherry tomatoes and burst into a light, jammy juice as they roast.
• Olive oil – A generous coating of olive oil stops the vegetables drying out and helps them caramelise.
• Dried oregano, marjoram, parsley and basil – A second herb mix for the vegetables keeps the whole tray fragrant and matches the seasoning in the meatballs.
• Spring onions (optional) – Thinly sliced spring onions scattered over the top add a fresh crunch and a bit of green.

How to Make Baked Mediterranean Meatballs

1. Step 1: Put the pork mince, beef mince, egg, paprika, dried herbs, garlic powder and onion powder into a large bowl, and season with salt and pepper. Mix well with your hands until everything is evenly combined. Roll the mixture into neat, round meatballs, keeping them fairly large so they stay juicy in the oven.

2. Step 2: Wash the vegetables and cut them into your preferred shapes. Spread them out on a large baking tray, using the biggest one you have so nothing is crowded. Line the tray with kitchen foil first if you want an easier clean-up.

3. Step 3: Drizzle the vegetables generously with olive oil, then add the dried herbs, salt and pepper. Massage the seasoning into every piece with your hands until the vegetables are glossy with oil and well coated in herbs.

4. Step 4: Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan, 400°F). Either cook the meatballs in the air fryer at 190°C for 12–15 minutes, or place them on top of the vegetables on the tray. Roast for 20 minutes, give everything a gentle stir, then return the tray to the oven for another 10 minutes until the baked Mediterranean meatballs are golden and cooked through.

How to Serve and Store Baked Mediterranean Meatballs

Baked Mediterranean meatballs make a full meal on their own, but they also go well with a spoonful of Greek yogurt or tzatziki, warm pitta bread, couscous, orzo or plain rice. For a lighter plate, serve them over a green salad with a squeeze of lemon and some sliced spring onions on top. Spoon the tray juices over whatever sits underneath, as they carry a lot of the flavour.

Baked Mediterranean meatballs are great for meal prep, so it makes sense to double the quantities and use two trays and two eggs for the meatball mixture. Leave everything to cool, divide it between airtight containers and keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat in the microwave until piping hot all the way through, or warm it in a covered dish in the oven at 180°C (350°F) for about 15 minutes.

The cooked meatballs freeze well for up to 3 months. Freeze them in a single layer on a tray first, then move them to a freezer bag so they don't stick together. Freezing the roasted vegetables isn't recommended, because courgettes, peppers and tomatoes turn soggy and watery once defrosted. Defrost the meatballs overnight in the fridge and reheat them until hot in the centre.

More Easy Recipes You Might Enjoy

If you like simple, filling dinners with mince or plenty of roasted vegetables, these recipes are worth trying next.

• For another low-carb mince dinner, try Turkey Courgette Boats — hollowed-out courgettes filled with seasoned turkey mince and baked until tender.
• If you have extra pork mince, make these Easy Pork Mince Patties — quick, juicy patties that work for dinner or packed lunches.
• To use up a tray of mixed veg, go for this Easy Roasted Vegetable Pasta — colourful roasted vegetables tossed through pasta for a budget-friendly meatless meal.
• For a vegetarian traybake, have a look at these Roasted Vegetables and Halloumi — golden halloumi roasted with Mediterranean vegetables on one tray.

How Much Do Baked Mediterranean Meatballs Cost to Make?

Baked Mediterranean meatballs are a budget-friendly dinner almost everywhere, since mince and seasonal vegetables are cheap supermarket staples. These are rough costs for the whole tray, which serves 4:

• UK – Around £10 for the tray, or about £2.50 per serving. Pork and lean beef mince are easy to find at Tesco, Aldi or Lidl, and the discount supermarkets keep the cost of olives and mini plum tomatoes down.
• Ireland – Around €12.50 for the tray, or roughly €3.10 per serving. Dunnes Stores, SuperValu and Lidl all sell Irish pork and lean beef mince, and baked Mediterranean meatballs for four cost far less than a takeaway.
• USA – Around $17, or about $4.25 per serving. Walmart and Kroger stock ground pork and 93% lean ground beef, and grape tomatoes work if mini plum tomatoes are hard to find.
• Australia – Around A$21, or about A$5.25 per serving. Coles and Woolworths sell pork mince and lean beef mince, and peppers and courgettes are cheapest in late summer.
• Greece – Around €10.50, or about €2.60 per serving. Sklavenitis and AB Vassilopoulos sell mixed pork and beef mince ready to use, and the local laiki (street market) is the cheapest place for olives, peppers and ripe tomatoes.

Tips and Notes for Baked Mediterranean Meatballs

• Wet your hands before rolling – Lightly wet hands stop the mince sticking to your palms and give the meatballs a smooth surface. A smooth surface is less likely to crack in the oven, so the juices stay inside. Keep a small bowl of cold water next to you and dip your fingers every two or three meatballs. Don't soak your hands, as too much water makes the mixture slippery and hard to shape.
• Keep the meatballs the same size – Even sizes mean the whole batch cooks at the same rate, so none are dry while others are still pink in the middle. A kitchen scale makes this easy, and roughly 45g of mixture gives a good, generous meatball. An ice cream scoop is a quick alternative if you're making a big batch for meal prep. These baked Mediterranean meatballs are meant to be fairly large, so resist the urge to make small cocktail-sized ones.
• Mix the mince just until combined – Overworking the mince presses the meat together and makes the meatballs dense and rubbery. Mix with your hands only until the egg, herbs and spices are evenly spread and you can't see streaks of pork or beef. This usually takes about a minute. If the mixture starts to feel warm and sticky, stop and move on to rolling.
• Taste the seasoning before rolling – Raw mince can't be tasted, but a tiny test patty can. Fry a teaspoon of the mixture in a frying pan for a minute on each side, let it cool slightly and taste it. Add more salt, paprika or herbs to the bowl if it needs it. It takes two minutes and saves a whole tray of bland meatballs.
• Cut the vegetables to similar sizes – Courgette quarters and pepper wedges of about the same size roast at the same speed. The red onion is sliced thinly on purpose, because it softens quickly and melts into the tray. Leave the mini plum tomatoes whole so they keep their shape and burst gently in the heat. Don't cut the courgettes too thin, as they'll collapse and release too much water.
• Stir the tray gently halfway – At the 20-minute mark, use a wide spatula to turn the vegetables and move pieces from the edges into the middle. The edges of the tray are the hottest spot, so this stops some pieces burning while others are still firm. Turn the meatballs carefully so they brown on another side without breaking. Put them back on top of the vegetables before the final 10 minutes.
• Watch the salt when using olives – Olives from brine or jars add plenty of salt to the tray as they roast. If your olives taste very salty, give them a quick rinse and pat them dry before adding them. Go easy on the salt for the vegetables and taste the tray at the end. I use large green olives with a mild flavour, which turn soft and buttery in the oven.
• Scale up for meal prep with two trays – When doubling the recipe, split the vegetables across two trays and swap the trays between shelves halfway through. One overloaded tray steams the vegetables and leaves them watery. Use two eggs for a double batch of meatball mixture so it still binds well. Baked Mediterranean meatballs keep for 3 days in the fridge, so a double batch covers several lunches.

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Baked Mediterranean Meatballs

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Baked Mediterranean meatballs made with pork and lean beef mince, paprika and dried herbs, roasted on one tray with courgettes, peppers, red onion, olives and sweet mini plum tomatoes. An easy, high-protein dinner that's great for meal prep.

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

For the meatballs:

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• 250g (9 oz) pork mince, 5–10% fat
• 250g (9 oz) lean beef mince, 5% fat
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• ½ teaspoon dried sage
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper

For the roasted vegetables:

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• 2 medium courgettes (about 400g / 14 oz)
• 2 cooking peppers, mixed colours
• 1 large red onion
• 250g (9 oz) mini plum tomatoes
• 100g (3½ oz) pitted green and black olives
• 3 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 2 spring onions, thinly sliced - for serving

Instructions

1. Put the pork mince, beef mince, egg, paprika, oregano, thyme, sage, parsley, garlic powder and onion powder into a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper and mix with your hands until evenly combined. Roll into 12 large, round meatballs of about 45g each.
2. Wash and dry the vegetables. Cut the courgettes into rounds and then into quarters, slice the peppers into wedges and halve them again, and thinly slice the red onion. Leave the tomatoes whole. Spread everything with the olives on the largest baking tray you have, lined with kitchen foil if you like.
3. Drizzle the olive oil over the vegetables and add the oregano, marjoram, parsley, basil, salt and pepper. Massage the oil and seasoning into every piece until the vegetables are glossy and well coated.
4. Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan, 400°F). Place the meatballs on top of the vegetables and roast for 20 minutes. Gently stir the vegetables and turn the meatballs, then roast for another 10 minutes until the meatballs reach 71°C (160°F) in the centre. Alternatively, air fry the meatballs at 190°C (375°F) for 12–15 minutes, shaking halfway, and roast the vegetables on their own for 30 minutes. Scatter with spring onions before serving.

Notes

Meal prep: This recipe is great for meal prep, so scale it up. Cool the meatballs and vegetables, then store them in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 3 days, and reheat until piping hot.

Freezing: The cooked meatballs freeze well for up to 3 months. Freezing the vegetables isn't recommended, as courgettes, peppers and tomatoes turn soggy once defrosted.

Scaling up: For a double batch, use 2 eggs and split the vegetables across two trays. Swap the trays between shelves halfway through so they roast evenly.

Checking doneness: Mince must be cooked through to 71°C (160°F). If you don't have a thermometer, cut the largest meatball in half and check that there's no pink meat and the juices run clear.

Olives and salt: Jarred olives can be very salty. Rinse them if needed and taste the tray before adding extra salt.