Thai-style meatballs in lettuce cups
These easy gluten-free meatballs are packaged in lettuce cups with a Thai-inspired sauce, mangos, cilantro and mint. They can be served as an appetizer, a main course, or reconfigured as a salad.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 15 meatballs 1x
Ingredients
Scale
- 1/2” finger of ginger, minced
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 T brown sugar
- 1/4 c Thai fish sauce
- 1/4 c rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
- 2 t ground cumin
- 6 green onions, thinly sliced
- 1/4 t red chile pepper flakes
- 1/4 t kosher salt
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- Parchment paper
- 2 heads butter lettuce, leaves cleaned and separated
- 2 small mangos, cut in 1/2″ cubes
- 2 Persian cucumbers, diced
- 1 handful cilantro leaves and stems
- 1 handful mint leaves
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400 degrees. Combine the first 10 ingredients in a small bowl to make sauce. Remove half the sauce and combine it with the ground pork. Shape the pork mixture into 1 1/2″ meat balls, about the size of golfballs. Set the remaining sauce aside.
- Put sugar in a small bowl or plate and dip each meatball into the sugar to coat. Put a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet and arrange the meatballs on the paper at least an inch apart. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes. Turn up the heat to 425 and bake an additional 5 minutes to caramelize the meatballs.
- Place butter lettuce leaves side-by-side on a serving platter. In each leaf put one meatball, a couple pieces each of mango and cucumber and a sprig of cilantro and mint. Top each meatball with a teaspoon of sauce.
- Or toss the meatballs, lettuce, mango, cucumbers, mint and cilantro together with the sauce for a salad.