Recipe: Turkey Meatballs with Tomato Chipolte Sauce

I will apologise in advance for:

1. The lack of posts as I have broken my elbow so have had to learn to type one handed, which is not very productive!
2. Spelling errors (see above)
3. The quality of the photos are not great as I took them on my phone, one handed. Lesson learnt & the camera will be brought out for all future pictures!

Turkey Meatballs with Tomato Chipolte Sauce

• Servings: 3-4
• Time: Preparation: 10 mins / Cooking: 25 mins
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

• 500g Turkey Mince
• Breadcrumbs of 2 slices of bread
• 2 red onions
• 1 thinly sliced Orange or Yellow Pepper
• Small bunch of coriander
• 2 garlic cloves (crushed)
• Small packet of passata (400ml / 500g)
• Chipoltes in adobo (you can buy from delis) or store bought chipolte paste

Macros	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein
Per serving, based on 4 servings	315	12	17	28

 

First up is assembling the meatballs. To do this, you need to finely chop the top part of the coriander, leaving the bulk of the stems aside. I used my food processor for this but you can easily use a knife. In terms of how fine, it’s a personal thing as I don’t mind the leaves not being too fine which is how I left them. You will also need to finely chop 1/4 of an onion but I would recommend making this as fine as you can.

Throw together the coriander, onion. turkey mince, breadcrumbs & egg into a large bowl. Using your hands mush together so that it’s all combined.

Once combined, it’s time to roll! Depending on how big you want your meatballs & how many mouths you are feeding, roll the meatballs into even sized balls. The recipe can generate about 16 meatballs, although as you can see on the picture, ours were on the large size!

Using either a little oil or oil spray, brown the meatballs in a frying pan. Set aside once browned.

Put the meatballs aside, finely chop the coriander stalks & finely slice the red onions. Cook these along with the garlic & peppers for 5 minutes.

The next part depends on whether you are using paste or chipoltes and your spice preference. If you’re not a big fan of heat, add a tablespoon of paste or the adobo sauce. If, like us, you like heat, add more. We used chipoltes in adobo & whizzed up 2 of them, along with some sauce to use. Add this along with the passata to the pot.

Add in 100ml of water to the sauce & simmer for 10 minutes.

Throw in the meatballs (not literally or they will break) & make sure they are coated in the sauce. Leave to cook for 5 minutes.

You can serve the meatballs with spaghetti, rice or since they are so full of flavour, you can eat them on their own!

Review: Five Guys

If you’ve been following me on social media you’ll know I have been eagerly awaiting the opening of Glasgow’s first Five Guys restaurant. My love affair with Five Guys started in 2010 when I was living in New York whilst working & it was hands down the best burger I’ve ever eaten in my life at that time. When they moved across the pond to London last year, it was only natural that we popped in when briefly visiting after our mini-moon.

Fast forward to December 2014 & I was eager to visit Five Guys despite the over-saturation of burger outlets in Glasgow. I mean 4 within a block of each other, is there really much need? Because of the time of year, we didn’t get a chance to pop in until the Christmas holidays. The first thing I did notice was the lack of queue, which was surprising given both times I’d been to the London branch, I’d had to queue before being served. I guess it’s more than likely in part to so many burger choices nearby.

If you haven’t been to Five Guys, the best way I can describe it is the best fast food burger you’ll ever have. They offer burgers & hot dogs (I’ve never tried the latter) & their selling point is that toppings are free. Yes, you heard right, FREE! This includes an array of sauces, onions (two ways), chillies & a few other salad choices. If you’re stuck for choice, you can opt for “All The Way” where you get all toppings in black on your burger.

The restaurant itself is a typical fast food joint – tables dotted around, food served on a tray & clear your own table type affair. For soft drinks, Five Guys provide self-service Coca Cola company machines that provide 100s of different options for soft drinks such as coke, fanta & sprite in various flavours. Thanks to the array of choice, I had to queue for a soft drink for 10 minutes which I’d never done in any other branch.
When you order, you’re given a ticket & once your order is ready, you collect once your ticket is shouted.

I opted for a cheeseburger with hot sauce, mayo, mustard, jalapenos & grilled onions. Each burger comes wrapped in foil & has 2 patties as default. As soon as I sank my teeth into it, I was transported back to that first burger I’d had by Five Guys. It was as juicy & full of flavour as I had remembered, with more kudos that the jalapenos were fresh which gave it an added bite. I will admit, however, that it did taste very similar to the Cali Burger I’d had from Bread Meats Bread earlier in the year.

Another cherished memory I’d had of Five Guys was their cajun fries, which are fried in low fat peanut oil to give them a distinct flavour. Previously, the fries I’d had were served in a brown paper bag & had soaked through the bag, making them more tempting. On this occasion, I wasn’t overly impressed as the fries were a bit soggy & not as moreish as I’d had in previous branches (apologies for the rubbish pic above).

A final point to make about our experience was that, for 2 cheeseburgers, a regular fries (they come in 2 sizes – small, regular & large), a soft drink & a corona, it came to over £26. Some people have commented that you are paying restaurant prices for a fast food joint. I agree with this to some extent in that it does seems a bit more compared to other burger joints nearby but for me, the taste & quality of the burger reminds me why I’m happy to pay that bit more.

Plus Points – Tasty burger, no queue to get served, novelty soft drinks dispenser
Not so Plus Points – a tad expensive for fast food, queueing for soft drinks