Middle Eastern Cumin Meatballs

Thank you, very good! We did not make the tomato sauce. Instead, we used a mild cucumber sauce as for Pitas, and used these meatballs in pita pockets. They were very good. We'd also use them with a curry sauce, as well.

This recipe is friggen delicious. It goes perfectly with this recipe for risotto also... Risotto with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Mozzarella. Awesome.

My Egyptian husband loved these and proclaimed them to be the best meatballs he ever ate. A few small changes. First I used Italian bread crumbs. For the sauce I did add onions, more cumin and dried bay leaves. The sauce still could use some help but it was pretty good. Unfortunately the toddler did not like the meal. If he had I would have rated it higher.

Very tasty meatballs! Could use a little more cumin next time. The sauce was great. I used a box of Pomi chopped tomatoes as the base - tasted great with the lemon juice. Served with bulghur and fresh steamed spinach. Thanks for the recipe! It's a keeper for sure!

Great garlicky flavor in these. I didn't have tomato paste so I just used beef stock for the water and some mexican tomato sauce (Del Fuerte brand) that I had opened in the fridge. The sauce all simmered away though during cooking and there was none to spoon over the meatballs or rice, so next time I will double it. I did add a little flour/water slurry right at the beginning to help thicken the sauce up a little. Really good, I enjoyed this quite a bit. I served this with Jeera (cumin) rice. Thanks for the great recipe, I'm making this again.

Good flavor. My meatballs fell apart, though. I've never had that problem before, but I just served it as ground beef over rice and it tasted good.

Easy to make and delicious!

I love this dish! I've made it many times. I only made a few alterations...I doubled the garlic & cumin (my 2 favorite flavors) for the meatballs. I like the sauce a lot. I did saute onions and garlic first then added the other ingredients. I would double the sauce if you want to add more if you are serving with rice.

I loved this dish! it was very flavourful and unique... my whole family was very surprised and loved it and had alot to say about it. I added chopped onions to the tomato sauce and it only added to the flavour. It was very simple to make and I will definitly make it again.

Substituted tempeh for ground beef and put all "meat"ball ingredients through the food processor. I found that I needed to bake the "meat"balls after browning, because of the tempeh substitution, and I made the balls about ping-pong ball size or slightly smaller. Baking at 350F for about 10 minutes toughened them up enough (they were quite crumbly even with the egg and bread crumbs, but worth it for vegetarians to enjoy Middle Eastern "meat"balls). Good flavour--consider adding minced parsley to the balls.

I liked it. Very unique. Cumin set it apart. Think I need to play with the tomato sauce recipe a bit though kinda bland.

Made this two or three times now. My in-laws, who are both great cooks ate seconds, and my toddler even ate it!

The meatballs were fantastic but the tomato sauce seemed like an afterthought - lacks much flavor. Taste just like it sounds - tomato paste mixed with water.

A bit bland.

Amazingly good!! I must admit I tweaked it because my husband would not have liked just the tomato paste flavor ( I did). But I added a little can Tomatoes & Green Chili's and for the tomato paste I used the Roasted Garlic version. I did the whole amount of garlic and a whole teaspoon Cumin! Yummie!! And in the end I added two big spoons of Sour Cream to make it smoother and less tomato. Oh my so good! Next day even better!! Thanks!!

These were so good! I think I would up the cumin next time for even more of that flavor, but otherwise, delicious. Thanks for the tip of serving over bulgur - I had a box in my pantry to use up and this was a great way to do it.

Hey I am from middle east and it really do remind me of home...i added Satureja instead of cumin to give it special flavour...

Husband said"these are good". He's a chef and owns three restaurants. He's also Moroccan. I more than doubled the cumin and garlic powder. I also added another tablespoon of tomato paste. i think a small amt of puréed onions mixed into meatballs would really have given it a kick. I made these for my young kids as well but if I were making for adults I think I would have added a sm amt of chile powder. Easy but I also did not sautée the meatballs on med high for 10 min. Just a few min until each side was browned. we have an electric oven/stove top. :( ... Ohh p.s. I also added paprika and coriander powder.

I really had to tweak this. I used canned, diced tomatoes to make the sauce. First I sauted onions and garlic and then added the tomatoes and tomatoe paste (if I have any around). I also added cumin to the sauce. You really can do anything you want with this. I really think the water is not necessary.