What's for dinner: Saucy Asian Meatballs

Being pregnant I have been SO hungry but haven't had a taste for any of the usual food. So I've been looking for new and different recopies to try on Pinterest.  These Saucy Asian Meatballs turned out really good. I actually premade them yesterday and planned on baking them for dinner but we were busy getting things done in the kids room I did a simple dinner instead. These are definitely worth giving a try, you definitely need to love   sesame oil, garlic and Hoisin sauce to enjoy this.  I made my meatballs about 1 1/2" so they took about 15 minutes to cook.  These would be perfect for appetizers at a party if you make them smaller and put toothpicks in them.

Saucy Asian Meatballs Recipe

Ingredients:

Meatball Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. ground pork or ground beef
• 2 tsp. sesame oil 
• 1 cup Panko or breadcrumbs
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 2 eggs
• 3 tsp. minced garlic
• 1/2 cup thinly-sliced green onions
• optional garnish: toasted sesame seeds, sliced scallions

Asian Sauce Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup hoisin sauce
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. ground ginger

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400.

In a large bowl, mix together meatball ingredients until well-combined.  

Shape into balls (I made mine about 1.5 inches, which yielded about 28 meatballs, but 1 inch is probably standard), and place on a greased baking sheet or in a 9×13 baking dish.  

Bake for 15 minutes, (~12 mins for 1" meatballs) or until meatballs are golden on the outside and no longer pink on the inside.

While the meatballs are baking, whisk together all of the sauce ingredients until blended. 

Once meatballs have finished cooking, you can either dip each meatball individually in the sauce mixture Or you can pour the sauce over the meatballs laid out on a plate.

Serve warm, and sprinkle with additional garnish if desired.

You can also keep these warm (after cooking) in the crock pot on a low setting!

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I also made some teriyaki zucchini to go with the meatballs. Brayden has always loved it and he literally ate a whole zucchini to himself.  I just sliced the zucchini (on med heat) and cooked it on my pancake flat pan with teriyaki sauce till it was tender. Make sure to flip the zucchini half way through so both sides cook in the sauce. I usually have to add a little more teriyaki half way through cooking . It's so simple and so good!