Indian Spiced Meatballs
Low Fat and Easy!
Can meatballs be healthy, lean, and not dry? 100%!
The trick to keeping lean meats like ground turkey, chicken, or sirloin moist without adding in fat is... mushrooms! They're full of water, so even after being sauteed they keep the meat from drying out. Plus, they add extra protein to these easy spice-filled meatballs that come together in minutes.
For the sauce, my Easy Tikka Masala is the only way to go. It's a great Make Ahead recipe I always keep in my freezer. You can make it a few days in advance and keep it refrigerated, or make it months ahead and freeze it.
Of course you can serve this over pasta, but I love the smokey flavor of charred green beans as a lower carb option. Shirataki or heart-of-palm noodles would work as well.
Ooo! Or you could wrap them in a naan or roti! (Even a tortilla would work!)
Food is about experimentation, so have fun with it!
Ingredients:
Mushrooms:
2 tsp oil
8 oz sliced mushrooms,
1 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp salt
Meatballs:
1 lb ground sirloin (90%-10% ground beef)
1/2 tsp salt
1/8-1/4 tsp tsp cayenne
2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp Ginger garlic paste
3 tbsp cilantro, rough chopped
2 tbsp panko
2 egg whites
(Optional) 1/2 tsp nigella seeds
2 tsps oil
1 recipe of my Tikka Masala Sauce
Method:
Mushrooms:
Heat a pan with the 2 tsp of oil over medium high heat. Sautee the mushrooms with the 1 tsp garam masala and 1/4 tsp salt until soft. Move to a plate and allow to cool for 10 mins. (You don't want them to be so hot they cook the raw meat before you roll out the balls.)
Meatballs:
(Preheat oven to 350°)
Combine mushrooms, sirloin and next 10 ingredients (through egg white or nigella seeds, if using). Divide into 24 balls. (I'm a little obsessive from my pastry training, so I weigh the total amount of mixture, then divide by 24, weighing each one out. But you can just divide the mixture into 4 portions, then divide each of those into roughly 6 meatballs.)
Heat the same pan you used for the mushrooms with the remaining 2 tsps of oil over medium-high heat. (See video below.) Fry the meatballs making sure to brown all sides. Don't worry about cooking them through, you just want to get color around them. A cardinal cooking rule: Color equals flavor!
Move the meatballs to a sheet pan lined with foil. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until an instant read thermometer reads around 160°.
Serve smothered in my Tikka Masala Sauce which can be made far in advance and frozen. That's what I do!
Sauce Recipe : Easy Tikka Masala
