Great news! My publishers have given me permission to share several recipes, photos and tips from my soon-to-be-released book! The Hands-on Home is now so close to launch that it’s time to start promotion – which means giving you guys a little taste of what’s inside the book.
These herby, peanuty pork meatballs are one of my favorite options for a light meal. They have a refreshing Thai-ish vibe going on, but – they’re meatballs. Easy peasy, and a kid-favorite.
Like all the food I really love, this recipe is versatile enough to accommodate what’s growing in your garden right now. Play around with the herbs. Add additional vegetables. Steam a pot of rice to serve on the side if you want. If you can’t have peanuts, substitute in a different nut or seed, or leave them out entirely. If you don’t eat pork, try these with ground chicken, turkey or even lamb.
Green Herb & Peanut Pork Meatballs in Lettuce Cups
Over ten years ago, I planted a little four-inch pot of adorable lemon balm in a moist, partially sunny location in my garden. It grew rapidly into a patch of lemon balm that threatened to overtake my garden.
Beyond drying the leaf for tea, I was at a bit of a loss for how to use it all up and how to contain the herbal monster I had created. It took a few years, but eventually I realized that lemon balm is great as a temperate-climate substitute for the lemongrass used throughout Southeast Asian cooking. Now I keep my patch of lemon balm in check using recipes like these Thai-inspired meatballs.
My lemon balm is at its most fresh and lovely in the spring, when the lettuce, mint, and first cilantro of the season are just getting large enough to harvest. Later in the year, I use lemon verbena. Either of these lemony herbs work well here.
Green Herb & Peanut Pork Meatballs in Lettuce Cups
Yield 4 servings
Ingredients
For the meatballs:
- ¼ medium white onion, roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled
- ½ cup unsalted peanuts
- ½ cup lightly packed fresh lemon balm or lemon verbena
- ½ cup lightly packed fresh mint
- ½ cup lightly packed fresh cilantro
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon lightly packed light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon Thai sweet chili sauce
- 1 pound ground pork
For the sauce:
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- Asian-style chili paste or pepper sauce
To assemble
- 2 medium heads butterhead lettuce, separated into leaves
- ½ cup shredded carrot
- ½ cup sliced or shredded radishes
- 1 thinly sliced serrano or jalapeño pepper
- Additional fresh mint and cilantro
Instructions
- Move an oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, combine the onion, garlic, peanuts, lemon balm, mint, cilantro, fish sauce, brown sugar, and chili sauce. Pulse until the mixture resembles a course paste, about the texture of pesto, 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Scrape the herb mixture into a medium bowl, then add the pork and mix together until well combined.
- Use a 1-ounce portion scoop or your clean hands to form the pork mixture into meatballs about the size of golf balls. Evenly space the meatballs on the sheet pan and bake until the meatballs are cooked through and lightly browned, 15 to 20 minutes, turning once halfway through.
- While the meatballs are cooking, prepare the sauce. In a small bowl, add the lime juice, water, fish sauce, and sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add a bit of chili paste or Asian-style hot chili sauce if you like a bit of spice. Set aside.
- Set out the lettuce, carrot, radishes, serrano, and herbs on a tray or large plate.
- When the meatballs are fully cooked, transfer them to a serving plate. Let everyone assemble their own wraps with several leaves of butterhead lettuce, a scattering of fresh vegetables and herbs, a meatball or two, and a drizzle of sauce.
Notes
Lettuce wraps like these can be messy. We serve them outside on a warm spring or summer day when eating with your hands and drippy sauce will just add to the fun. If this is too messy for your house (or your kids!) just turn the components into a lovely, light salad. Tear the lettuce up a bit, top with the herbs and shredded vegetables, finish with the meatballs, and use the sauce as a dressing.
Stuff I’ve learned: For every pre-order of my book Amazon.com recieves, they order 3 copies of the book to have in stock. The more of that inventory they have on-hand, the more likely their algorithm is to promote the book. Bottom line: if you know you want a copy of The Hands-on Home, your pre-order now is literally triple helpful. Thank you!
Hillarious legal stuff: (c)2015 by Erica Strauss. All rights reserved. Excerpted from The Hands-On Home: A Seasonal Guide to Cooking, Preserving, and Natural Homekeeping by permission of Sasquatch Books. Photography by the charming, lovely and uber-talented Charity Burggraaf.
nice! what great flavors…. pinnin’ it….. yay!
Hi Erica, long term fan here! We refer to your site as “that blog that we love”. We are in Australia though, so I was wondering if your book will be released on other sites or just Amazon? The shipping through Amazon is almost always more than the book for us. Will it be released through Book Depository? Thanks in advance. Sally
I checked the Book Depository website and see it listed available for pre-order. Search for it using ISBN 9781570619915 and it will pop right up. 🙂
I got to read an advance copy through my job and I LOVE the book. If any fans are on the fence…go for it. You won’t be disappointed!
Hello, have you tried growing lemon grass? It’s super easy. I bought some from the grocery store, placed it in a mason jar with water and within a week or so, roots started to grow. Then I planted it in my hugel bed and it has taken off. I live in the central/northern part of Vancouver Island – a very similar climate to you. I also hope to grow lots of lemon balm and mint for the bees and as a chop’n drop around my brassicas.
When were you able, Marcie, to pull up stalks? Does one ever just chop up the leaves and use them? I have a full plant which probably needs transplanting, but it does not look as though I could pull up stalks. Also, I’m not sure whether I have lemon balm or lemon something else growing. My plant has long skinny pointed leaves……
Hello Ginger
Hello Ginger, as the lemon grass plant grew, it also grew outwards from the base with more and more individual stalks growing, kind of like celery does. So as I needed some I would either try to forcefully
rip out a piece from the ground, which results in also hauling out part of the root system, (very easy to share with friends) or I would take a small knife out and try to cut a section as close to the bottom as possible. By doing this, I’ve been able to harvest pieces of lemon grass while still leaving the majority of the plant in the ground to continue growing. I think it would be easy enough to dig up your huge plant, with the root system attached, break it apart, and re-plant the smaller pieces as long as they still have roots. Also, I gave a stalk without roots to a friend and she put it in water and it started to grow roots.
Hi Marcie,
I also live on Vancouver Island and would love to try this! Does it last through the winter, or is it more of an annual summer crop here? I’m going to buy some lemon grass today!
Thank you!
Alyssa
Hello Alyssa, this is my first summer growing it. I will dig some of it up this fall and put it in the green house. If you planted it in a hugel bed or compost pile, where it will receive some heat from the bottom, it might have a better chance of getting through the winter or at least the root system may survive and regrow again next year. Just a thought. I also planted some of my turmeric root that sprouted. It has grown leaves but I haven’t checked to see if anything has grown underground. Best of luck.
Alyssa, I live in Bellingham. I grow my lemongrass in a pot. In the Winter I put it in a sun room where it does well. If it gets really cold I cover it and we put a heater in the room (along with a bunch of other herbs). We have had some long overnight freezes the last 2-3 years so we have had to use a heater to keep plants alive during those times.
Thanks Marcie re info about lemon grass. Will give your ideas a try. And turmeric root! You must be quite the gardener. I use lots of turmeric in my cooking as I think it makes my joints feel bette, but I have never tried to grow it.
Thanks, Ginger and Marcie! I can’t wait to try this!
Fans, you’ll see this book is listed as the #1 new release at Amazon – BOO RAH!
Thank you, Erica (and your publisher)…now i have something to do with my lemon balm other than drying it for the tea I never drink and then feel guilty about. I’ll have to leave out the cilantro because hubby is one of those people genetically pre-set to hate it. Should I try something else as a sub? I’ll be looking forward to any future little tidbits from the book. So happy that my pre-order is all done and glad to know that it helps your book.
Molly, In the Vietnamese restaurants they use .mint and Thai basil (or any basil would work).
Thanks Ginger! I’ve got a glut of basil right now–perfect!
The lettuce pork balls would be delicious with a bed of rice vermicelli beneath with the same sauce on it as for the dis. This is similar to the Vietnamese dish I usually order at our favorite Pho restaurant. This also reminds me of what I think is a Chinese dish we had in London in the 1970s-dark poultry meat with spicy sauce wrapped into lettuce leaves-one of my all time favorites. Will definitely be making your version! Love your site and look forward to reading your book. It will be so great to have as a constant reference! Thanks so much.
Gorgeous food photography too. And a great inspiration to use up some of my Thai curry sauce in the freezer.
What perfect timing this recipe was – we just received two pounds of pastured ground pork in our meat CSA. I doubled the recipe, used lemongrass instead of lemon balm, ran out of fish sauce making the meatballs so didn’t have enough for sauce, but just mixed a little lime juice with sriracham which was fine – and we had them as a meatball sandwich. Delicious! Tomorrow I’ll put leftovers on a salad for lunch. I like the idea of putting them over a vermicelli salad like Vietnamese Bun. Flavors were really good, and I was able to use up mint and cilantro from my garden. Thanks!
I love your idea of using lemon balm and lemon verbena as a substitute for lemon grass! I have both growing abundantly in my garden, but all I was using them for was tea and nice greenery in my garden!
Ah, lemon balm. 9 million batches of these yummy looking delicacies would not be enough to use up my “little” plants gone wild. Can’t wait to get my copies of your book!