Indian Style Meatballs

I have mentioned this many times- my daughter loves meatballs. In fact, her birthday is coming up and I already know what she will be asking for her special meal. The great thing is that she comes up with really good ideas for new and different ingredients to add to meatballs.

I have to give her full credit for this recipe. She is the one who suggested I make Indian style meatballs. She loves the Indian style burgers I make quite often- in fact she doesn’t like to eat plain burgers restaurants as she only likes the ones I make at home.

So, I ran with her idea and came up with this delicious recipe. I added the usual suspects including ginger, garlic and a shallot. I also added cilantro, coriander powder and garam masala. All of these ingredients created delicious and flavorful meatballs.

I cooked them in my favorite homemade tomato sauce. You can use your favorite store bought tomato sauce as well but nothing like the homemade variety.

This is a great way to change up your usual meatball recipe and make things a bit more interesting…

• 1 pound ground turkey (dark meat)
• 1 medium shallot, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 inch fresh ginger, chopped
• ½ cup cilantro

Add the shallot, garlic, ginger and cilantro into a food processor and process till smooth.
Take the mixture out into a medium bowl.

• ½ cup panko crumbs
• ¼ cup milk

Soak the breadcrumbs in the milk for 15 minutes.

• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons salt

Add the soaked breadcrumbs, egg, garam masala, coriander, and salt into the shallot mixture. Mix well and add to the ground turkey. Mix with both hands. Keep aside for 2 to 3 hours.

• 3 cups marinara sauce

Heat the sauce in a large saucepan.

In the meantime form meatballs (the mixture makes about 14 meatballs). Drop the meatballs into the simmering sauce as you form them. Once all the meatballs are in the saucepan, simmer covered for 15 minutes. Check for seasonings and serve with spaghetti.