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Home » Main Meals

Moroccan Meatballs

Published: Nov 11, 2012 · Modified: May 22, 2023 by Muna · This post may contain affiliate links ·

Recipe

Today I introduce a gem from Morocco. A recipe for Moroccan Meatballs or, in Arabic, Kefta Mkaouara, which means round-shaped Kofta. These meatballs are flavorful and juicy, smothered in well-seasoned tomato sauce, with poached eggs. People add olives and other vegetables in some recipes, but we will keep this Moroccan recipe Easy yet bursting with flavor.

Moroccan meatballs in tomato sauce feature image.
Jump to:
  • WHAT ARE MOROCCAN MEATBALLS IN TOMATO SAUCE?
  • 🥘 INGREDIENTS YOU'LL NEED FOR MOROCCAN MEATBALLS
  • 🔪 HOW TO MAKE MOROCCAN MEATBALLS
  • 💭 COOKING TIPS
  • 🍲 MORE DINNER RECIPES YOU'LL LOVE
  • 🌡️ HOW TO STORE IT
  • 📖 Recipe
  • 💬 Comments

The Moroccan kitchen is known for its various tagine recipes and simplicity without compromising the flavor. The cooking time and the effort to cook a meal are usually minimal. In the authentic meatball recipe, you add the formed meatballs in the tomato sauce to cook. However, from my experience, shallow frying meatballs keep them juicy and tender from the inside and maintain a beautiful shape. If you love Moroccan dishes, try my Moroccan Couscous with lamb shank and my Moroccan Chicken Olive Stew.

WHAT ARE MOROCCAN MEATBALLS IN TOMATO SAUCE?

These lamb meatballs are seasoned with warm spices like paprika and cumin. Some add chopped parsley to them, others prefer coriander leaves, and both should be discarded in my sister's case.

Later the meatballs are added to a flavorful tomato sauce to cook. Most recipes add raw eggs with the meatballs and the sauce to poach them. Cover the dish until the meatballs and the eggs are cooked. Garnish the dish with chopped parsley or slices of olives, and then serve it with pita bread, cooked couscous, or plain rice. To keep it gluten-free, serve it with mashed potatoes.

Moroccan meatballs in tomato sauce garnished with parsley.

🥘 INGREDIENTS YOU'LL NEED FOR MOROCCAN MEATBALLS

Everything you need for this recipe is most probably in your kitchen already. Let’s have a look!

Tomatoes – Fresh tomatoes bring out a unique flavor; you can finely chop them or grate them for this recipe.

Onion – I always use red onions because I love the taste it adds to my dishes, but you can go for yellow onion.

Garlic - Only two minced cloves of garlic we'll use here. 

Warm spices – Black pepper, cumin, and paprika complement this recipe.

Ground beef or lamb – I prefer lamb meat because it is tender and cooks faster than beef, but both taste great in the tomato sauce.

Olive oil – I firmly believe that frying onions in olive oil adds more flavor and a hint of sweetness to a dish, and Moroccans love olives and olive oil.

Parsley or Cilantro leaves - You can use both fresh herbs, but they go for parsley in Moroccan cooking.

🔪 HOW TO MAKE MOROCCAN MEATBALLS

This meatball recipe is straightforward; you will see how simple it is to follow the steps below.

For the meatballs

Step 1

In a bowl, mix all the ingredients. Form equal size balls from the mixture.

Step 2

Fry the balls in olive oil. It will take around 8 minutes to cook the meatballs. Keep aside.

For the tomato sauce

Step 1

In a pan, add olive oil and onion. Sauté onion until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for a few seconds.

Step 2

Add the tomatoes and cook on medium heat until the olive oil surfaces.

Step 3

Add the rest of the sauce ingredients, and cook for 2 minutes.

Step 4 

Pour half a cup of hot water and let it simmer for 5 minutes.

Step 5

Add the meatballs, with its juices, to the sauce. Let it cook for 3 minutes.

Step 6

Break the eggs carefully in the sauce between the meatballs. Cover the pan and let it cook on medium heat for 6 minutes.

Step 7

To garnish, you can sprinkle chopped parsley.

Meatballs in tomato sauce.

💭 COOKING TIPS

- It's best to have some fat in the ground meat you choose to use in this recipe.

- Use yellow or red onion.

- Do not over-fry the meatballs, or they will turn dry. Remember that the frying is just to seal the juices within the meatballs; the rest of the cooking will be in the sauce.

- This recipe is Paleo Diet-friendly. Remove the eggs and then freeze it and add it to your meal prep.

🍲 MORE DINNER RECIPES YOU'LL LOVE

  • Moroccan Couscous feature image.
    Moroccan Couscous
  • Moroccan Chicken Olive Stew Recipe
  • Greek Meatballs feature image for the post.
    Greek Meatballs Keftedes with Tzatziki
  • cheese stuffed meatballs post feature image
    Cheese Stuffed Meatballs in Creamy Garlic sauce

🌡️ HOW TO STORE IT

When the dish is cool, place it in a plastic container and refrigerate for up to two days.

If you want to freeze the leftovers, remove the eggs and freeze the meatballs with the sauce for up to two months.

📖 Recipe

Moroccan meatballs in tomato sauce feature image.

Moroccan Meatballs with Tomato Sauce

Moroccan Meatballs are easy to make. The meatballs are juicy and flavorful. This traditional meatball recipe hits the spot and won’t let you down.
5 from 6 votes
Print Rate
Course: Main Meal
Cuisine: Moroccan
Keyword: Moroccan Meatballs
Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes minutes
Servings: 5 People
Calories: 445kcal
Author: Muna Kenny

Ingredients

For the meatballs

  • 400 grams 14oz minced lamb or beef
  • ½ teaspoon paprika
  • Salt to taste
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • ½ teaspoon cumin powder
  • ½ cup chopped parsley. don't like it? Discard it

To fry the meatballs

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil to fry the meatballs

For the sauce

  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 medium tomatoes finely chopped
  • 1 medium onion finely chopped
  • 2 minced garlic cloves
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • ½ teaspoon paprika
  • Salt to taste
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • ½ teaspoon cumin powder
  • ½ cup hot water

Instructions

Making the meatballs

  • In a small mixing bowl, mix all the meatballs ingredients well.
  • Form equal size balls and keep aside covered.
  • Add olive oil and shallow fry the onions in a frying skillet or pan. It will take around 8 minutes to cook the meatballs, depending on their size.

Making the tomato sauce

  • In a pan, add olive oil and onion. Sauté onion until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for a few seconds.
  • Add the tomatoes and stir on medium heat until tomatoes soften and the oil surface.
  • Add the rest of the tomato sauce ingredients to the tomatoes and stir for 2 minutes.
  • Add half a cup of hot water and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
  • Gradually add the meatballs, with their juices, to the sauce, and let it cook for 3 minutes.
  • Break the eggs carefully in the sauce and between the meatballs. Cover the pan and let it cook on medium-low heat for 6 minutes.
  • Garnish the dish with chopped parsley or fresh mint leaves.

Notes

  1. It's best to have some fat in the ground meat you choose to use in this recipe.
  2. Use yellow or red onion. 
  3. Do not over-fry the meatballs, or they will turn dry. Remember that the frying is just to seal the juices within the meatballs; the rest of the cooking will be in the sauce.
  4. This post was originally published in 2012, updated with more information.

Nutrition

Serving: 1 Serving | Calories: 445kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 18g | Fat: 39g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 21g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 170mg | Sodium: 145mg | Potassium: 459mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 874IU | Vitamin C: 10mg | Calcium: 54mg | Iron: 3mg
DID YOU TRY THIS RECIPE?Follow me on Instagram @munatycooking or tag #munatycooking!

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Maureen | Orgasmic Chef

    November 11, 2012 at 4:37 pm

    5 stars
    I haven't been to Morocco either but I'd love to go. My sister went last year and highly recommends a visit. I have several recipes for Moroccan dishes and now I've got another one! I love meatballs and can't wait to give this a try.

    Reply
    • munatycooking

      November 11, 2012 at 7:25 pm

      I have many Moroccan recipes to try, the best part in their cooking is that it's very simple to make 🙂

      Reply
  2. Nami | Just One Cookbook

    November 14, 2012 at 4:52 am

    5 stars
    I'm making breakfast for dinner today (hubby no dinner, yay!), but now I kind of regret eating light breakfast... 😀 I loooove how these meatballs look! I'm still new to Moroccan recipes (I had never eaten out either). Looks absolutely scrumptious!!

    Reply
    • munatycooking

      November 14, 2012 at 6:28 am

      You should try it Nami, Moroccan food is very tasty 😉

      Reply
  3. foodwanderings

    November 15, 2012 at 7:15 am

    Moroccan cuisine is one of my favorites. Love these meatballs and poached eggs. It absolutely looks delicious!

    Reply
    • munatycooking

      November 15, 2012 at 8:31 am

      Thanks girl 🙂

      Reply
  4. Angie@Angie's Recipes

    November 15, 2012 at 8:00 pm

    5 stars
    These meatballs look so good with that saucy gravy!

    Reply
    • munatycooking

      November 15, 2012 at 8:01 pm

      Thanks Angie 🙂

      Reply
  5. torviewtoronto

    November 17, 2012 at 5:58 am

    lovely flavourful combination looks wonderful

    Reply
    • munatycooking

      November 17, 2012 at 6:50 am

      Thanks dear, it tastes great too, hope you try it!

      Reply
  6. Sandra

    November 30, 2012 at 1:54 am

    5 stars
    The looks absolutely delicious, a must try for me, Muna! Thank you...

    Reply
    • munatycooking

      November 30, 2012 at 7:37 am

      Thanks Sandra, the meatballs are very juicy and full of flavor, I'm sure you'll like it 🙂

      Reply
  7. Micheala

    December 06, 2016 at 6:38 pm

    This recipe has been up here for awhile, but I only just discovered it on Pinterest. I am going to making this recipe, but noticed the first step in making the sauce says to add OLIVES and onion to the pan. Did you mean to say Heat olive oil, add onion to the pan? Because I see know olives in the ingredients listed. Thanks for clarification.

    "Making the sauce:
    In a pan, add olives and onion. Sauté onion until translucent."

    Thanks, Micheala

    Reply
    • munatycooking

      December 06, 2016 at 8:51 pm

      Hi, Thanks for bringing this up, I just edited the recipe 😀

      Reply

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Hello there, and welcome! I’m Muna, the writer, food photographer, and videographer at Munaty Cooking. I’m also the mother of a handsome young man. I’m from and reside in Sharjah. Oh, and there are more fun facts about me!

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