Recipe: Spinach & Feta Rice Balls

These cute, scrumptious morsels can be used for an appetizer, a snack, or a meal-that-keeps-on-giving for those of us on a tight budget. The traditional recipe for Greek rice balls calls for each ball to be covered in bread crumbs, but because I have never really developed a fondness for bread crumbs, I decided to go a slightly different route.

INGREDIENTS
2 pounds fresh spinach - remove large stems and wash thoroughly
1 cup chopped scallions (about 7 scallions, I'd say)
2 teaspoons olive oil
2.5 cups cooked brown rice (only 2 cups if you decide on using bread crumbs)
2 teaspoons dill weed (or 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill, if you're feeling fancy)
1.5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (will probably take 2 lemons to create)
1 cup of crumbled feta cheese
salt and ground black pepper to taste
OPTIONAL - 1 cup bread crumbs

INSTRUCTIONS
After washing the spinach, place it directly into a very large pot and cover it. Steam for about three minutes, and remove from heat once the leaves begin to wilt. Drain and chop the spinach, and then put it into a large bowl. Place the large bowl to your left. Or right. Or on a different counter. Don't take those last three sentences too seriously.

Combine the olive oil and the chopped scallions into a pan and sauté until lightly browned (about 5 minutes). At this point, you should preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bring back the large bowl with the spinach and add the scallions, rice, dill weed, feta and lemon juice. Sprinkle in some salt and pepper. Stir well with a large spoon until the mixture begins to hold together.

Get out a large baking sheet and spray with cooking spray. Run your hands under water for a bit, and then begin the fun: taking handfuls of rice mixture and rolling it up into snowball-like creations. They should be about the size of a ping pong. I highly recommend washing your hands clean of rice mixture every once in a while so that the process remains easy. If you have decided to use bread crumbs for the recipe, roll the ball in the bread cups before placing it on the baking sheet. This is what the rice balls look like without bread crumbs, before being cooked:


Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Even if there are no bread crumbs on the surface, the rice balls should turn out crisp on the outside. Recipe makes about 24 rice balls. Bon appetit. Or kali órexi, as they say in Greece (I think).