Having spent half my life living in Germany, and having a wonderful German family, there are just certain things a German has got to enjoy eating, or at least introducing certain foods into other peoples lives. One of these are Frikadellen, a common dish across Germany which is a meatball usually made out of pork or beef mince, often being a combination of both.
They’re extremely easy to make and follow a very similar recipe to how you would make a homemade burger, but in this instance, I was pretty lazy and bought my Frikadellen from Lidl. 
Whilst there’s a lot going on in this recipe, it’s extremely easy to make and follow, but also for you to adapt and re-imagine. Especially for your vegetables, this is a great way for you to use up any ingredients that are nearing their use-by date.
- 2 frikadellen
- 200g orzo
- 1 green pepper
- 1 red pepper
- 1 carrot
- 1 spring onion
- 1 stale slice of bread
- 2 slices of cheese
- 6 cherry tomatoes
- 50g black eye beans
- 50g runner beans/ mange tout
- 50g frozen sweetcorn
- 1 tbsp of pesto
- Salt/ pepper
- Paprika
- Chilli flakes
- Oregano
- Cut the vegetables into bite size chucks
- Put the orzo onto boil with the black eye beans, carrot, sweetcorn, runner beans, and mange tout
- Cut up the spring onion into thin slices and shallow fry with with tomatoes and both red and green peppers. Season with the salt, pepper, paprika and chilli flakes
- Slice the frikadellen in half and add them into the same pan as the tomatoes and peppers, fry either side until they have more of a golden colour. As these are pre-cooked, you don't need to worry about undercooking them
- Now start making your croutons by cutting your stale bread into small cubes. Fry in a knob of butter and choose a seasoning of your choice for about 5 minutes
- Once the orzo has boiled for 12 minutes, rinse with cold water and tip into a serving bowl
- Season the orzo salad with a pinch of salt and oregano, then mix the pesto well throughout, add more if needed
- Take the vegetables and frikadellen off the heat and recreate its burger shape by putting the two halves back together
- Slide in a slice of cheese in between the two meat halves
- Serve up your cheesy frikadelle with spiced vegetables and orzo pasta salad, garnished with crispy croutons
- To finalise my burger, I added a blob of guacamole on top, and had salsa on the side
- Now it's your turn to enjoy! 🙂
Have you ever tried cooking with a German frikadelle, or if you have any questions about it, just get in touch.
Charlotte xxx
Charlotte Corner
Lifestyle blogger & cat mother
OMG yay! I miss Frikadellen! I love the twist to that tradtitional german dish, i need to try this! Would love to see more German food recipes 🙂 xxx
That orzo with pesto salad looks beyond delicious! A must try for me. xo
Thank you. I love playing around with different seasonsing and sauces with Orzo. Once you cook again with Orzo, let me know, always keen to see what other people add to it 🙂