Teriyaki Ginger Meatballs Recipe

I love when my recipe experiments turn into successes! Like when I made Mac n' Goat Cheese, Baileys Oreo Truffles, or Roasted Vegetable soup to name a few.  These meatballs definitely fit into the category of a successful creation.  Every Sunday morning as I prepare my weekly grocery shopping list, I run through the recipes that will be made for the upcoming week.  Sometimes this list gets pretty redundant and to be honest, a little boring.  So I decided that I want to try a new spin on meatballs!

These meatballs hit all of the flavors I wanted to achieve, plus my husband LOVES them!  He now requests them for dinner on a regular basis.  The trick to these meatballs is using slices of bread soaked in milk to keep the meatballs nice and moist.  Then, layering in different Asian inspired flavors to differentiate them from your ordinary meatball.  These are perfect for a meal if you roll them a bit larger.  I am excited to make these for my next gathering in an appetizer size and maybe serve with a dipping sauce!

This recipe made more meatballs than Bill and I could eat in one night {although if we didn't stop ourselves I am sure we could have eaten a lot more}, so we froze the extras in hopes for another tasty meal later.  When we craved them again, I took them out of the freezer and placed them in a skillet with a little water, and then put the lid on to allow them to steam through to retain their moist consistency. They were just as good as we remembered the second time!  Enjoy!

Teriyaki Ginger Meatballs Recipe

Makes 15-17 large meatballs or

Makes 30-35 cocktail meatballs

2 slices of whole wheat bread

2 tablespoons skim milk
2 pounds ground pork

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon garlic, minced

3 tablespoons teriyaki sauce

1 egg

2 scallions, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large bowl, tear up bread and cover with milk.  Wait for all milk to be absorbed by the bread and break down the bread further.

Add remaining ingredients into the bowl with the bread.  Mix well with your hands to incorporate everything together.  Roll 3-4 tablespoon sized meatballs and place on a broil pan. 

Bake meatballs for 25-30 minutes until cooked through.  Serve over sautéed spinach.

Tips:

1)  If you want to make them cocktail size, make them 1-2 tablespoons in size and cook for 15-20 minutes

2)  The pork make these fabulous, but if you only  have ground turkey or chicken on hand, that would work.