Chipotle Meatballs

Meatballs and pasta has long been a favourite. Much requested, and often cooked on a weekly basis until someone says: not again. And there’s always the followup…but I love meatballs! So, what to do. You can remove it from the menu for a month of so; change what the meatballs are served with; or come up with a different way of doing essentially the same thing.

Meatballs with a twist…add in some chipotle chilli in adobo sauce, feta and mint, and the humble meatball takes on a whole new meaning (flavour). Couple of things: fresh bread crumbs are essential (throw a couple of slices of bread in a food processor, whizz for a bit, and you’re done). If you end up with more than you need, pop them in a ziplock bag and freeze them for next time. Also, you can’t count on the intensity of the chillies being the same every time. Sometimes the chillies in the tin are massive, so you only need one, or they might be small, you’ll need two. To make sure the level of spice works for you, remove the seeds from the chilli before you chop it up. Keep them on the side of the board, and if when you try the flavour you find you want more spice, you can add them in.

Meatballs

• 600 g beef mince
• 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
• 2 eggs
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon sauce from the chipotle chillies
• 1 tablespoon mint, finely chopped
• 40 g feta, crumbled
• pinch of salt

Sauce

• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 chipotle chilli in adobo sauce, finely chopped (removing the seeds if you don’t want them too spicy)
• 2 tins tomatoes
• 1 cup stock
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• salt to taste

Topping

• 20 g feta, crumbled
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped mint

brown rice, to serve

To make the meatballs, place the mince, breadcrumbs, crushed garlic, eggs, adobo sauce, mint, feta and salt in a large bowl, and mix together until well combined. Make into small balls.

In a large frying pan, heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and heat. Fry the meatballs until brown, then turn them over and cook the other side. Once both sides are brown, but not cooked through, remove them from the pan. Put a pot of water on for the rice while your waiting.

Next make the sauce. Lightly fry the garlic and the chopped chipotle chilli, until fragrant. Add the tinned tomatoes, stock, salt and cumin. Stir to combine, mushing up the tomatoes so they aren’t whole.

Add the meatballs, and simmer until the meatballs are cooked through and the sauce is slightly thickened, 20 – 30 minutes. (Usually, as long as it takes to cook the rice.)

While you’re waiting for it to cook, combine the crumbled feta and chopped mint.

Serve with brown rice. Sprinkle over the topping to give it even more flavour.