Life is good: A tasty meatball dish from Chelsea’s Good Life Eatery cookbook
Words Shirin Kouros & Yasmine Larizadeh
Warm Buddha Bowl
Makes about 24 meatballs
INGREDIENTS:
Meatballs: 500g minced beef fillet• 25g mint leaves, finely chopped• 40g parsley, leaves and stems finely chopped• ½ red onion (about 50g), peeled and finely chopped• 1 egg• finely grated zest of 1 lemon• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed or finely chopped• salt and freshly ground black pepper• 2 tbsp olive oil, for frying• 1 quantity Tomato Sauce• 4–6 tbsp Greek yogurt, to serve
Brown rice: 300g brown rice • a generous pinch of salt
To serve: 4–6 tbsp Greek yogurt
METHOD:
1. For the meatballs, put all the ingredients, except the oil, into a large bowl and mix together well until combined. Using clean, damp hands, roll the mixture into 30g balls, about the size of a golf ball.
2. Make or heat the Tomato Sauce in a large saucepan over a low medium heat.
3.Heat a large frying pan with a splash of olive oil over a medium heat. When hot, add the meatballs and cook for 10–12 minutes until they are lightly browned all over.
4. Put the cooked meatballs into the tomato sauce and leave to simmer gently for 20–30 minutes while you prepare the rice.
5. To cook the brown rice, put it into a large saucepan, add enough water and a generous pinch of salt and bring to the boil.
6. Cover with a lid, reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes, or until rice is tender. This is a super-simple brown rice and doesn’t need much flavour as everything else has lots of flavour.
7. To serve, put a large spoonful of brown rice into a bowl.Top with 4–6 meatballs per person, some tomato sauce and a tablespoon of Greek yogurt. Garnish with the remaining parsley.
Recipe taken from The Good Life Eatery Cookbook by Shirin Kouros and Yasmine Larizadeh, published by Ebury Press, £20
