Sweet and Sour Turkey Meatballs

  Sweet and sour. Yum.

Made these meatballs for dinner, but I think they’d actually work better as an appetizer.

Just stick a fancy-looking toothpick in each one and call it a day.

The Asian-inspired meatball recipe was adapted from here. It made approx 24-30 small meatballs (didn’t really count).

• 1/4 C panko crumbs
• 1/4 C quick oats
• 2 lbs lean ground turkey
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tbsp ground garlic
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 2 1/2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper

Sauce (original recipe here)

• 1/3 C cider vinegar
• 1/2 C ketchup
• 1/4 C water
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce

1. Mix together all ingredients for meatballs. Refrigerate for at least half an hour to allow flavours to blend.
2. Shape mixture into meatballs using a 1 inch scooper then fry in a large pot (Dutch oven). Add a little water/ oil if necessary.
3. Once meat is completely cooked, allow meatballs to simmer for 5-10 minutes. Drain excess fat.
4. In a large liquid measure, mix together all ingredients for the sauce and add to meatballs
5. Once sauce begins to bubble, turn heat to low and allow to simmer for 10 minutes

The turkey stayed moist and the sauce worked really well with the meat – great combination. The only downside with this cooking method was that it took a while to carefully shape and cook all the meatballs.

Baking them was another option, which would have probably saved some time… but just wasn’t sure if they’d become dry or not. Ideas or thoughts?