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.
Ingredients
- ½
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 T brown sugar
- ¼ c Thai fish sauce
- ¼ c rice vinegar
- ¼ cup fresh lime juice
- 2 t ground cumin
- 6 green onions, thinly sliced
- ¼ t red chile pepper flakes
- ¼ t kosher salt
- 1 pound ground pork
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- Parchment paper
- 2 heads butter lettuce, leaves cleaned and separated
- 2 small mangos, cut in ½
- 2 Persian cucumbers, diced
- 1 handful cilantro leaves and stems
- 1 handful mint leaves
Directions
- 1Heat 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 1½" meat balls, about the size of golfballs. Set the remaining sauce aside.
- 2Put 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.
- 3Place 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.
- 4Or toss the meatballs, lettuce, mango, cucumbers, mint and cilantro together with the sauce for a salad.
