Posted on March 06, 2018 by Jenny Cromack
Ok, I will admit, when it comes to food I am creature of habit – I am so boring. I cycle through 4 or 5 meals throughout the week. I will have chicken and veg, a frittata (variety of veggies and meats), soup and sometimes I’ll have a carbohydrate meal, if I have had a conditioning heavy day/week. So potato based or rice with tomato based sauce and protein. But once a week I do try and branch out cook something a little different.
Last week I went for spicy meatballs! Not complex, but bloody tasty, with a baked sweet potato and good pile of peas. This spicy meatball recipe was a lovely, warming meal, especially in the snowy Wintery weather!
Here is how I made my healthy spicy meatball recipe….
Ingredients
1 eggs
500g lean mince (ideally around 5% if you can get it)
150g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 onion
Garlic clove, finely chopped
10g chopped flat-leaf parsley
Spices ( I went for chilli flakes, paprika, oregano and I think cardamon)
Tin of chopped tomatoes
Method
1. Place a frying pan on a medium/low heat with some oil in and leave to heat up ready for the meal balls.
2. In a big mixing bowl throw in the mince, eggs, onion, garlic, parmesan and all the spices you require.
3. Roll up your sleeves and get mixing, you can use a food processor, but I find its more fun and more effective to use your hands. Carry on until all the ingredient and well mixed in.
4. This part is all a bit of an estimate, I did it and lucky it worked out well. Get roughly golf ball sized handfuls of the mixture and roll well into a ball and set aside ready to cook. I managed to get 16 even(ish) meatballs.
5. Place the balls into the hot ball and leave to sizzle away, roughly you need rotate the balls every 2 mins until the ball is thoroughly sealed.
6. Once all the balls looked sealed, add the chopped tomatoes. All the flavour from the meatballs will combine with the tomatoes and make a lovely flavoursome sauce. Give it gentle yet constant stir.
7. I roasted a sweet potato and very simply boiled some peas to go with the meat balls – it was delicious…
What a colourful plate of food!!!! This spicy meatball recipe is a great post workout meal as it’s full of healthy proteins and slow release carbohydrates, if you’re not a fan of spicy food then just reduce the amount of spice added and add some basil instead for a more Italian style meal.