Greek Style Meatballs with Tomato Fennel Stew

I bought a fennel bulb while grocery shopping.  I've never done fennel before, so I scavenged the internet for the perfect recipe.  These meatballs sounded perfect.

Adapted recipe posted below.  It calls for a small eggplant, which is another ingredient I've never used before.  So I had no idea what a "small" was, but I'm really doubting that this fits the bill:

However, it was all I had, so I sliced it up and roasted it with the fennel bulb (400* for 12 minutes)

After sauteing some onions and garlic, I added the fennel along with 2 cans of diced tomatoes and 1/2 a cup of chicken stock to make the stew.

 

In the meantime, I mixed the juice and zest of one lemon, an egg, 2 tbs of fresh mint, the mashed eggplant, and a pound of turkey burger in a bowl.  Apparently the juice was supposed to go in the stew, and it made my meatballs a little...more liquidy.

 

Bake at 400* for 15 minutes.  While they're in the oven, simmer the stew.  The meatballs created a really nice broth to add the stew.

Add the meatballs to the stew and simmer for a few minutes longer, then serve up!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 eggplant
• 1 egg
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 lemons, zested and juiced
• 3 T fresh mint, chopped
• 1 medium fennel bulb
• 2 (14.5 oz) cans crushed, fire-roasted tomatoes
• 1/2 c chicken stock
• S&P

1. Skin the eggplant and slice it the long way.  Slice the fennel bulb thinly and remove the core.  Place both of these on a baking sheet with liberal use of evoo and S&P and bake at 400* for 12 minutes.  Remove the eggplant and put the fennel back in for another ten minutes.  Slice or mash up the eggplant and mix it with the turkey.  Add to the turkey mixture the mint, egg, and lemon zest (ZEST - NOT the juice).

2.  Saute the onion and garlic in a soup pot.  Throw a couple scoops of it in with the turkey.  When the fennel comes out of the oven, add it to the soup pot, along with the lemon juice, cans of tomatoes and chicken stock.

3.  Use the fennel baking sheet and form meatballs.  Bake them for 15 minutes, all the while simmering the stew.  When the meatballs come out of the oven, add them to the stew and simmer for a few more minutes.  Then plate it up and serve with a garnish of fennel greens.