Thai meatball salad

Thai meatballs!

These have very few ingredients but heavenly flavors.

You can serve them as a rice bowl w broccoli. Or on the side of a stir fry. Or like I did, on top of a salad.

With so much lettuce from the CSA, I had tons of options for this salad. I decided to go with a mix of red and green leaf, plus mizuna and frisee. Use whatever is available to you though!

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For the meatballs, I used a combo of ground pork and ground beef, then I added fresh herbs, fresh ginger, fish sauce, sesame seeds, salt and pepper. See? Not too many ingredients.

Depending on the size you make them, this will yield 22-25 meatballs. All four of us got plenty and then we had enough for one serving as leftovers.

Thai meatball salad

Ingredients:

For the meatballs:

• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tsp fresh ginger (I grated ~1 inch knob)
• 2 tsp sesame seeds
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/4 cup cilantro
• 1/4 cup basil, julienned

For the salad:

• 4-5 cups lettuce (any combo you desire)
• roasted almonds (or cashews/peanuts/sunflower seeds)
• fresh herbs (basil, cilantro, mint)
• orange miso dressing (see below)

For the dressing:

• 1/3 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp mellow white miso
• 1 tsp fresh grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, combine ground beef and pork. Add the fish sauce, ginger, sesame seeds, salt, pepper, and herbs and mix until everything is well combined.

Roll into balls and heat a pan with 1-2 tbsp oil.

Once the pan is hot, add the meatballs and cook for several minutes per side, turning as needed to cook all over, but still allowing them to sear in the pan to get a nice browning. Do this on high heat, covering with a splatter guard if needed. Once all sides are nicely seared, you can put the lid on the pan and leave it until the meatballs are cooked through.

Do this in rounds, so you don’t crowd them in the pan. I had a huge pan, so it only took two times, but you may need to do it in three or more steps.

Once they are all done, remove them from the pan and add some water (~1/4 cup) to deglaze the pan, scrapping up all the cooked bits that have stuck to the pan. Reduce the liquid until it is a concentrated broth. If you want to make it a syrupy sauce, add 1 tbsp sugar and let it cook down even more. Then pour it over the meatballs.

While the meatballs are cooking, make the dressing by combining everything in a mason jar and shaking until it’s all mixed. You may consider doubling the recipe (I did) because it’s a great dressing to have on hand for other Asian recipes.

To serve, toss the lettuce in the orange miso dressing, top with nuts and fresh herbs, and then the meatballs.

The leftovers were just as delicious the next day!! This time I had them with sautéed greens and roasted broccoli.

Enjoy!