Curry Meatballs

I attempted making meatballs a few weeks ago and they turned out absolutely terrible.  I think they were too wet and didn’t have enough binding to hold them together.  Plus I tried to make them in the crockpot without browning them first… big mistake.  Since then I have made this curry meatball recipe (originally from Paleomg) twice, once with ground turkey and once with ground beef.  The turkey ones were just ok.  The turkey didn’t hold together very well and resulted in meatballs that fell apart quite a bit.  The beef version was perfect!  I couldn’t believe how well they held together.  I think one thing that helped was making sure the beef was very cold.

If you don’t have a 14” skillet, you will want to halve this recipe.  Two pounds of meat fits about perfectly into a 14” skillet, so if you’re going to use a small skillet, just make 1 lb of meat.  You could still make the same amount of sauce though, because it is delicious!  More sauce would definitely not be a bad thing.  If you enjoy curry, you will definitely love these meatballs!

Curry Meatballs

Originally from Paleomg (ratios adjusted)

Meatballs:

2 lb. grass fed beef

1 onion, diced

2/3 c almond meal

2 eggs

4 tsp curry powder

4 tsp garam masala (or use the recipe below)

1 tsp ginger

Salt and pepper

Coconut oil (1-2 T) or extra virgin olive oil

Sauce:

1 can full fat coconut milk

1 c beef stock (I used giant eagle market district brand)

1 onion, diced

8 tsp curry powder

4 tsp garam masala (or use the recipe below)

2 tsp ground ginger

1. Mix ground beef with all other meatball ingredients.

2. In a small bowl, stir together coconut milk, beef stock, diced onion, curry powder, garam masala and ginger (sauce ingredients) so it’s ready when you need to add it to the meatballs.

3. Shape meatballs into golf ball sized balls.  They should stick together well.

4.  In a 14" skillet (one that can fit all of the meatballs; if you don’t have a skillet this large, brown the meatballs in 2 batches or halve the recipe), add coconut oil then diced onion.  Brown onion for about 1 minute then add meatballs.  Let meatballs brown for a few minutes on the bottom side, then turn them with tongs to let the other side get browned.  This took about 15 minutes for me.  The meatballs don’t need to be cooked all the way through because they will continue to cook once you add the sauce.

5. Pour sauce into the skillet and move meatballs around so they are coated in the sauce.

6. Cover the skillet and let meatballs and sauce thicken until they meatballs are cooked all the way through.  This should take about 5 minutes.

7. This is delicious served with roasted spaghetti squash! Makes about 8 servings. 

Homemade Garam Masala (makes ¼ c- I just split it between the meatballs and the sauce in this recipe)

Mix together:

1 T ground cumin

1 ½ tsp ground coriander

1 ½ tsp ground cardamom

1 ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp cloves

½ tsp nutmeg