Braised Pork Ginger Meatballs in Coconut Broth

Such weird times right now.
Everyone's home, everyone's self isolating... trying to get a handle on the Covid-19 pandemic. We're bored, we're stressed, we have to cook our own dinner...

The first time I made this was for our daughter and her boyfriend (now husband!). Everyone was instantly saying YUM!  Spicy, tangy, healthy and satisfying.  This hearty meatball soup is so comforting and warm... like a nice hug that you can't have right now.
This is a quick and easy recipe that comes together in under 30 minutes.

If you didn't have ground pork,  you could use ground chicken or turkey too.  I haven't tried it with beef, but heck, why not?

I was inspired by this recipe on Smitten Kitchen.

Serves 2-3 
Ingredients:

Meatballs:

1 pounds ground pork

1 large eggs

1 tablespoon finely chopped peeled fresh ginger

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tablespoon fish sauce

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Broth:

One 13 1/2-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk

2 cups chicken stock 

1/4 cup thinly sliced peeled fresh ginger

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

2 fresh red chiles or jalapeno, thinly sliced, plus extra for serving 

1 cup fresh mushrooms, quartered
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced 

Finely grated zest and juice of 1/2 lime

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar (optional)
1-2 tsp of garlic red pepper paste (optional)

A handful of fresh cilantro sprigs

1 teaspoon kosher salt

A few handfuls of baby spinach

I mixed all the ingredients together for the meatballs and used a small cookie scoop to make meat balls... they look a bit like meat "splats", but I was in a hurry. You could definitely take the time to roll them into round balls.  Use a small scoop... these were a bit big when eating the soup and maybe half this size would have been better.  I think next time about 1" meatballs, bite size!

Cook meatballs at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. Go ahead and start the broth while the meatballs cook.

I prepped all the veggies (below).  You can use a different selection of veggies.... if you don't like mushrooms, you could use asparagus, zucchini or more bell peppers. Use what you have.... Got it? Cook it!

While the meat balls are cooking, go ahead and combine all the ingredients for the broth.

Add the meatballs and bring to a quick boil. Serve at once with more lime, as desired.

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