Asian Meat Balls

Pinterest Recipe Review:  * * * * *  (5/ 5 stars)

Picture courtesy of Gimme Some Oven

Ali posted a recipe for saucy Asian meatballs on her blog, Gimme Some Oven. (Posted below.) I recently made 'em and loved 'em! We served them over rice and stir fry veggies and also froze several meatballs for another time. I loved their salty goodness (but not too salty- if you're worried about that be sure to use low sodium soy suace.) I also loved how well they held together! Her recipe calls for hoisin sauce, and I was hesitant to go out and buy some for two reasons. First, I hate buying an ingredient that I will only use in one recipe and will consequently live out its shelf life taking up room, wasting away, in the refrigerator. And second, I doubted I'd find a gluten free version. Google led me to a recipe to use in making my own hoisin sauce though; it was delicious and, when doubled, made just enough!

Hoisin Sauce
4 T soy sauce (Tamari Gluten Free soy sauce)
2 T peanut butter
1 T honey
2 t white vinegar
1/8 t garlic powder
2 t sesame oil
20 drops hot sauce

Asian Meat Balls

• 2 lbs. ground pork or ground beef
• 2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 cup Panko or breadcrumbs (I used crushed rice chex)
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 2 eggs
• 3 tsp. minced garlic
• 1/2 cup thinly-sliced green onions
• optional garnish: toasted sesame seeds   

Asian Sauce Ingredients

• 2/3 cup hoisin sauce
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 Tbsp. soy sauce (again, I used tamari gluten free soy sauce)
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. ground ginger

Method:
Preheat oven to 400.
In a large bowl, mix together meatball ingredients until well-combined.  Shape into balls (I made mine about 1.5 inches, which yielded about 35 meatballs, but 1 inch is probably standard), and place on a greased baking sheet or in a 9×13 baking dish.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until meatballs are golden on the outside and no longer pink on the inside.
While the meatballs are baking, whisk together all of the sauce ingredients until blended.  Once meatballs have finished cooking, you can either dip each meatball individually (using a toothpick) in the sauce mixture.  Or you can pour the sauce over the meatballs and gently stir them until covered.
Serve warm, and sprinkle with additional garnish if desired.

Ali’s Tip:
You can also keep these warm (after cooking) in the crockpot on a low setting!