Middle Eastern Meatballs

Spices

Never be afraid to season your food.  The more you practise the more you will learn how to balance flavours.  I adapted the spices of this dish to the original recipe becuase while I was making the meatballs I could just smell... very little.  I like my food to be flavoursome.  Salt and pepper for a Caribbean girl sometimes just isn't enough.  However, a good tip for spicing up your food is remembering that you can always add, but never take away.  So never go over the top or you might just end up insulting your taste buds.

This recipe was adapted from 'Asda Magazine' (Publicis Blueprint Ltd, 2012)

Ingredients:

1 slice of soya and linseed bread (crusts removed), 450g turkey mince, 2 salad onions (trimmed and chopped to small bits), 1tsp ground cinnamon, 2tsps cumin, 1tsp coriander, 3tsps chilli podwer, 1tsp paprika, grated zest of an unwaxed lemon, 1 medium egg (beaten), olive oil for frying, 1 chicken stock cube. To serve: 1 carrot, 1/2 courgette, wholewheat spaghetti pasta.

Method:

1. Make bread crumbs.  (You can whizz in a food processor but I just use my hands.)
2. Put in a large bowl.
3. Add turkey mince, onions, spices, zest and egg.
4. Mix with your hands and season some more.
5. Shape the mix into 12 balls.
6. Heat oil in a pan (not too much, just enough to fry.)  This is not deep fat frying!
7. Fry a few meat balls at a time, fry until the turkey mince is cooked all the way through.
(If you are making pasta start cooking it now.)
8. Meanwhile dissolve stock in 500ml hot water, and clean the frying pan or get another one.
9. When meatballs are done put into a saucepan.
10.  Cover the meatballs in the saucepan with the stock.
11. While the meatballs are simmering fry carrots in a clean frying pan, after 5 minutes add the courgettes.
12. Mix the veg with the drained pasta.
13. Place meatballs on top of the pasta and drizzle some stock over it.

Saffy's Top Suggestions:

1. Try the meatballs with wild rice.
2. Put the meatballs in homemade pitta bread, with lots of sauces to make a meatball slider.