Asian Turkey Meatballs with Dipping Sauce

The World Series game was on and I had not even thought about dinner yet.  I asked if we could order pizza or Chinese food so that I could focus more on the game than the food, but after looking up both options it seemed like dinner would be at least an hour or more away. 

I said, "I have some stuff for meatballs that I can make instead."  And it was decided that meatballs was a much better option (and quicker) than ordering takeout from anywhere in town.  When we started making the meatballs, I told Jacob that they were Asian, to which he came back that the only reason they were Asian was because of the soy sauce and sesame oil (I pulled our ginger out and it had molded pretty bad). 

But these were on the table in about 20 minutes total, and that was including the time that I broke away from the kitchen to see what caused commotion on the TV.


Asian Turkey Meatballs with Dipping Sauce
slightly adapted from Skinnytaste
Ingredients
Meatballs
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1-1/4 pounds ground turkey
1 egg
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 scallions, chopped
1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil

Dipping Sauce
4 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons water
1 chopped fresh scallion

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 500°F.
2) Mix ground turkey, breadcrumbs, egg, salt, scallions, cilantro, soy sauce, and oil and mix with your hands until combined well.
3) Shape 1/4 cup meat mixture into a ball and transfer to a baking dish.  Repeat with remaining mixture.
4) Bake until cooked through, about 15 minutes (Cook to 165).
5) For the dipping sauce mix together lime juice, water, soy sauce, and remaining 2 teaspoons of oil in a bowl. Add scallions.
6) Plate meatballs and stir the sauce.  Drizzle meatballs with 1 tablespoon sauce.

• Serve with rice or an asian salad with mandarin oranges, baby corn, and a vinaigrette.  I served with rice just because I didn't want to miss any more of the game. 

I found a few things that I did wrong with this meal.  I recommend that everything is finely chopped for the meatball mixture.  I left several things kind of chunky, and mostly the cilantro came out of the meatballs in big strings.  I didn't taste the lime as much in the meal as I wanted to, so I'd recommend upping the lime juice amount if you enjoy lime flavors.  We ran out of sauce because I made the recommended amount not knowing that it would be used like salad dressing.  So if you have someone in your house that likes sauces, you may want to make some extra sauce as well.

But I liked these meatballs a lot.  I loved how much color there were in them compared to a normal meatball.  Little pops of green decorated each meatball as they sat on the cookie sheet.  The sauce went well with the meatballs even though there wasn't enough sauce.  I think ginger would completely change this recipe, so if you're interested in adding ginger, the meatballs call for one tablespoon.  This recipe was definitely a great change from the normal meatball.