We’re onto part two of the Valentine’s meal! Yesterday there were these Lettuce Boats with Sweet Potato, Grapefruit and Paprika Mayo now we’ve got some stellar sticky meatballs with a quinoa pilaf. This is ridonc good. Like so good that I froze the extra veggie ‘meatballs’ and ate them for a week for lunch.
(Also a quick note that I was invited to speak to the lovely Celine of Pure Green Mag on their podcast – if you want you can take a listen here!)
You can either make the meatballs with ground beef (or I think probably ground lamb would work well, but I hate the flavour of lamb sooo that didn’t happen) or a gluten-free veggie version using cannellini beans. I personally prefer the latter 
In fact the photographs on this post are of the veggie ones, if you can believe it!
Both versions are baked and then glazed with a sticky, sweet pomegranate molasses glaze – if you can’t get hold of the pomegranate molasses just get pomegranate juice and reduce that down by half (e.g. 4 tbsp reduced to 2 tbsp) or use store-bought balsamic glaze in place of the molasses.
I’ve served them here with a pilaf consisting of a mixture of quinoa and ‘riced’ cauliflower (wow omg so much health) but you can go ahead and use all quinoa, all cauliflower or another grain like farro or just the usual rice.
Notes:
- Instructions for prepping ahead of time are in the recipes.
- If you can safely consume wheat:
- you can use breadcrumbs in place of the buckwheat flour in either of the recipes for meatballs.
- you can replace the quinoa in the pilaf with couscous.
- No pomegranate molasses? Use pomegranate juice instead and reduce by half OR use store-bought balsamic glaze
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 F), line a baking tray with foil. In a large bowl, stir together all the ingredients (except for the pomegranate glaze) with your hands. Form into about 15 golf-sized balls and arrange on the foil lined tray. Place into the oven for 15 minutes. Remove and brush with some of the pomegranate glaze using a pastry brush. Bake again for 5-10 minutes. Set aside until you've made the pilaf (or in the fridge overnight if you're making this a day ahead).
Once the pilaf has been made, preheat your oven's grill/broiler at the highest setting and place the rack in the top third of the oven. Brush the meatballs with more glaze and place under the grill/broiler. Let them cook so that the glaze gets slightly bubbly (this only takes a few minutes) then remove from the oven, brush with the glaze (the last time!) and serve with the pilaf.
http://www.topwithcinnamon.com/2015/02/valentines-main-sticky-glazed-meatballs-cauliflower-quinoa-pilaf-gf-vegetarian-variation.html
Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F), line a baking tray with foil and grease with vegetable oil.
In a food processor or blender: place the onion, garlic, bell pepper and coriander into the food processor or blender. Blitz until as fine as possible. Add the beans, egg, flour, spices, salt and lemon juice and pulse until mostly smooth with some chunks.
By hand: In a large bowl, mash the beans using a vegetable masher. Finely chop the onion and red pepper, mince the garlic. Add these to the large bowl along with the flour, spices, salt and lemon juice then stir together.
Divide the mixture into 15 or 16 balls - I like using a mechanical ice cream scoop for this or just two tablespoons - onto the lined tray, bake for 15 minutes. Remove and brush with some of the pomegranate glaze using a pastry brush. Bake again for 5 minutes. Set aside until you've made the pilaf (or in the fridge overnight if you're making this a day ahead).
Once the pilaf has been made, preheat your oven's grill/broiler at the highest setting and place the rack in the top third of the oven. Brush the meatballs with more glaze and place under the grill/broiler. Let them cook so that the glaze gets slightly bubbly (this only takes a few minutes) then remove from the oven, brush with the glaze (the last time!) and serve with the pilaf.
http://www.topwithcinnamon.com/2015/02/valentines-main-sticky-glazed-meatballs-cauliflower-quinoa-pilaf-gf-vegetarian-variation.html
Stir all the ingredients together in a small bowl.
http://www.topwithcinnamon.com/2015/02/valentines-main-sticky-glazed-meatballs-cauliflower-quinoa-pilaf-gf-vegetarian-variation.html
Place the quinoa into a sieve and rinse well under cold running water. Place into a pan with the water, bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer. Cover and leave to cook for 7 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave for at least 5 minutes or until you need it.
As the quinoa cooks: Using the coarse side of a box grater, grate the cauliflower chunks into a rice like texture. Alternatively if you have a food processor you can place the cauliflower chunks into it and pulse until mealy. Set aside.
In a large bowl combine the cranberries, chopped coriander and mint, lemon juice and salt.
In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil. Add the mealy cauliflower to the frying pan and stir over a high heat until softened and it looks slightly browned. You don't want to crowd the pan so if there's too much cauliflower for the pan then you may need to cook it in two batches. Pour the cauliflower into the large bowl along with the cooked quinoa. Stir together well and cover with a tea towel and large plate to keep it warm for serving for about 10 minutes.
http://www.topwithcinnamon.com/2015/02/valentines-main-sticky-glazed-meatballs-cauliflower-quinoa-pilaf-gf-vegetarian-variation.html
The post Valentines Main: Sticky Glazed Meatballs with Cauliflower Quinoa Pilaf (GF with Vegetarian Variation) appeared first on Top With Cinnamon.