Greek roasted burgers – Biftekia

You’ve been asking for a recipe for biftekia – Greek roasted burgers for months. Every time they appeared in my @littlehands_blw Instagram stories, I’d receive a hail of messages, but my reply was always the same: I make them by instinct, with whatever ingredients I have at home. I knew, though, that if I didn’t have two core ingredients, I wouldn’t be making them, but yes, the truth was that my biftekia (which are among my specialities) were always done by instinct—though I would need to write a recipe for them one day. So, this day has finally come. The fluffy oven-roasted meatballs that are beloved by the little hands with their secrets, their alternatives, and the tips for baby-led weaning are here, and you just have to read on to learn everything.

What we are going to need

• Ground beef. I choose meat without much fat. I don’t usually ask for meat from a specific spot, but I’ll often request to pass the meat through the grinder just once. This time, I had meat from my home village which had been passed twice through the grinder. There are also times when I have ground pork or lamb meat from my home village, and in these cases, I mix the meat.
• Vegetables. Tomatoes, onions, carrots. I can’t even imagine meatballs without tomatoes and onions. The tomato is my secret for fluffy meatballs, and the onion gives extra flavour. With that as a foundation, I use what other vegetables I have at home, depending on the season. So, in the summer I’ll be sure to add some grated eggplant because I really like it mixed with ground beef (and if you’ve made the dreamy mince pie, you’ll know how good it is), while in the winter, I’ll add some broccoli and no one will be able to tell.
• Oat flakes. Forget zwieback, rusk, toasted bread, or stale bread. I’ve been using oat flakes to make meatballs for years. Zwieback usually contains sugar and preservatives. Oat flakes are gluten-free, but if someone’s following a strict gluten-free diet for health reasons, they’ll need to find the ones bearing special signs saying there are not even traces.
• Olive oil. I use just a little olive oil.
• Spices. My absolute musts are sweet paprika and dried oregano.
• Parsley. I always have chopped parsley in my freezer, so even if I don’t have fresh, I just use a few spoons directly from the freezer.

Tips

• I usually roast the meatballs superbly, but you can roast them with oven-baked potatoes and a little grated tomato. In this case, start with the potatoes and add the meatballs to the pan later.
• Temperature differs from oven to oven, so make sure they’re not overcooked and dry.
• These meatballs can be eaten cold as well since they remain fluffy and don’t get harder.
• The dosage here fills a large baking sheet with meatballs, making about 16–18.

How to accompany Greek roasted burgers

We love eating them with mashed potatoes without butter and milk, for which I still owe you the recipe, but we also love them with the incredibly amazing baked potatoes that taste like fried ones, for which you’ll find the recipe here. Additionally, I make seasonal salad and/or accompany them with some boiled broccoli.

And in the freezer?

When I’m making meatballs, I make sure to make enough to store in the freezer for other meals. I usually store them raw, in fours, in plastic food bags, writing the date on the bags, and cook them immediately after removing them from the freezer. But I may bake the whole batch, and after they are cold, I may store a portion in the same way, in the freezer. When they’re stored already roasted, I remove the meatballs the day before and place them in the fridge to defrost, and I heat them up before the meal. As you can see, both are viable options, and it’s nice to know there’s an alternative ready.

You can find our bamboo bamboo plates here with a 10% discount, without any customs costs. Read more about our favorite plates here.

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