Lamb Meatballs With Moroccan Inspired Tomato Sauce
September 29th is our anniversary and this year my husband planned a weekend trip to Chicago to celebrate our sixth anniversary. As expected we had a fabulously delicious food filled weekend. Breakfast at a French farm-to-table, La Pain Quotidien. Dinner at The Kitchen, an upscale but relaxed atmosphere that serves food from local farms.
At The Kitchen we shared an appetizer, lamb meatballs with an moroccan inspired sauce. This was my husband’s favorite dish that we had for our sunday night dinner. Therefore I decided to recreate it at home for a sunday funday dinner. The meatballs were pretty simply flavored, but the sauce was bursting was various flavors. The chicken broth slightly lightened the strong flavor of the tomato sauce which only helped to enhance the flavors of cinnamon and freshly squeezed orange juice with a small amount of orange zest. The spanish smoky paprika and cayenne pepper fit perfectly with all the other flavors of the sauce.
At the restaurant this dish was served as an appetizer but I served it over roasted spaghetti squash for a complete meal. For this Sunday night dinner, I also made Brazilian cheese bread and the recipe I used is found on the blog @againstallgrain. Which I have found to be an excellent blog for many gluten free, but deliciously healthy recipes.
Well friends & family this certainly turned out to be one of my most favorite recipe creations. I hope you enjoy it as much as my husband & I did. As always THANKS for the visit. CHEERS TO A HAPPY & HEALTHY DAY!
Lamb Meatballs With Moroccan Inspired Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
TOMATO SAUCE
- 1/2 Cup Onions Diced
- 2 Cloves of Garlic Minced
- 2 Cups Tomato Sauce
- 1/2 Cup Chicken Broth
- 1 tsp Smoked Spanish Paprika
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/4 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 1 TBSP Orange Juice
- 1 tsp Orange zest
- 1/4 tsp Black pepper
- Salt to taste
LAMB MEATBALLS
- 1 LB Ground Lamb
- 1/2 Cup Arrowroot Flour or Almond Flour My favorite flour to use it arrowroot flour
- 1 small onion Finely Diced
- 1 tsp Oregano dried or 1 TBSP Fresh Oregano
- 1 tsp Parsley Dried or 1 TBSP Fresh Parsley
- 1/2 tsp Black pepper
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 Egg Beaten
Instructions
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE TOMATO SAUCE
- In a small sauce pan saute the onions with olive oil till onions are soft. Add minced garlic and saute for another 1-2 minutes. Next add the broth to the onions and scrap off any brown bits at the bottom of the pan. Than add tomato sauce and the rest of the sauce ingredients: onions, spices, orange juice & zest & bay leaf. Simmer for approximately 30 minutes.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE LAMB MEATBALLS
- While the sauce is simmering, put together the lamb meatballs. In a small bowl mix the arrowroot or almond flour with the herbs and diced onion. In another bowl beat the egg with a whisk and mix with dry ingredients.
- Using your hands mix the meat with the flour/egg mixture.
- I used a medium sized ice cream scoop and made meatballs the size of golfballs. Roll each meatball between your hands to form a nice round meatball. It made 10 meatballs, but if you use a pan with a bigger base you could make the meatballs smaller.
- Brown the meatballs for approximately 5 minutes on each side. After browning the meatballs add the tomato sauce.
- Continue cooking on low-medium heat until meatballs are fully cooked. An easy way to know if the meat is fully cooked is by using a meat thermometer. Ground meats including lamb should be cooked to 160 degrees.
- When I made this dish last weekend, I served it with spaghetti squash but it could be served on it's own with other veggie dishes or a salad. Of course it's also delicious with Brazilian cheese bread, a recipe I got from the blog @againstallgrain.
