Delicious sweet chili pork meatball bowls served over rice with mango, burst tomatoes, cucumber, carrot and fresh herbs. Perfect for a weeknight meal.
Summer is almost coming to an end. It’s hard to believe that my youngest son will be back to school already next week! Yes, it’s that time of year when you are trying to wrangle your young ones back to bed at decent hours so that you can have them up early and out the door. That should be quite an adjustment for my boy as he has become quite the night owl this summer and likes to sleep half the day away. Ahhhh teenagers right!
These pork meatball bowls, dressed with a sweet chili dressing are a great weeknight meal. I personally love a good bowl and these definitely hit the spot!
I had purchased a rather large (like HUGE) package of ground pork this week and instead of splitting it into packages to freeze, I decided to blaze through it over the last few days and see what I could make with it. We managed to make this Easy Chinese Bolognese and some delicious pork dumplings which my kids inhaled and today I figured I had better use up the rest of the pork so I decided to make kind of Vietnamese inspired Pork Meatballs and serve them in bowls with some burst tomatoes, fresh mango, finely sliced cucumber, shaved carrot, mint, basil and a Vietnamese/Thai inspired dressing that I made with sweet chili sauce, fish sauce, lime juice, garlic, ginger, serrano pepper and a bit of water to thin it out.
These turned out great! Don’t be afraid of the fish sauce. It smells terrible but mixed in the dressing it is quite yummy. If you are allergic to fish, or just don’t like the fish sauce you could omit from the dressing, but it adds a nice flavor if you are able to add.
I should note that if you do have lemongrass for the meatballs, it would be a nice addition. I was wishing I had some but I’m trying to limit my trips to the grocery store these days and just work with what I have on hand.
This would be a great weeknight meal as by the time your rice is ready everything else will be ready to roll. I should note that if you don’t have a rice cooker, this may be a worthy investment for your kitchen. I really love it because I can throw the rice and water in and just forget about it while I prep and get the rest of the supper ready. We use ours all the time.
Pork Meatball Bowls with Sweet Chili Dressing
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
- 1 tbsp ginger, minced fine
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 serrano chili seeds, stems removed, chopped fine other chili can be use (birds eye would be good)
- 1/4 cup sugar this is to roll the meatballs in before baking
Sweet Chili Dressing
- 1/2 cup Thai sweet red chili sauce
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 1/2 tbsp fresh lime juice (from about 1 lime)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp ginger, chopped fine
- 1/4 cup water
To serve
- cooked rice
- 1 quart cherry tomatoes
- sliced mango
- finely sliced cucumber
- finely chopped chili optional
- shaved carrots
- fresh mint
- fresh basil
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425F
- Place all your meatball ingredients into a bowl except for the sugar and mix well.
- Form into meatballs and roll in sugar. Place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper
- Bake for about 10 minutes and then turn the broiler on and broil for a couple minutes until browned.
- While these are baking, dump your cherry tomatoes whole into a dry pan. Let cook over medium turning every once and awhile until charred a little and burst (you will hear them popping). Set aside
- Serve the meatballs over hot rice with mango, tomatoes, cucumber, carrot, basil, mint, chili and drizzle dressing over to taste.
- Serve immediately.
