Chinese Pork Meatballs is a delicious budget friendly full of flavours, textures and colour. This main dish takes 25 minutes to make and that includes cooking the spaghetti. While still an Italian dish, this recipe uses hoisin sauce hence the Chinese element. Add the hoisin gives such a lovely taste to the meatballs and sauce. Despite most peoples beliefs, you can have gorgeous meal at reasonable prices.
Serve as a main dish all year round, just vary the seasonal vegetables that you can include. Over the years, I have included mange tout, asparagus, broccoli, mini corn cob, green beans and scallions. This is just a few of what can be included and is a perfect dish to use up the leftover vegetables in your fridge.
When making Chinese Pork Meatballs I love to add a red chilli into the meatballs instead of the sauce. That way every mouth full has a little heat. I find that one chilli with seeds normally gives a lovely balance to the soy and hoisin sauce but the quantity is up to you. I normally use this recipe during the week when I’ve been rushing around, the children are hungry and it’s getting late. You can make the meatballs in advance and pop them in the fridge under clingfilm/shrink wrap until needed.
Chinese Pork Meatballs
Ingredients
- 500 g pork mince 5% fat is best
- 300 g noodles See note
- 1 large red chilli finely sliced
- 1 medium onion peel/diced
- 1 medium red bell pepper dice
- 2 cloves garlic peel/mince
- 8 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tsp olive oil
- salt to taste
- ground black pepper to taste
- 8 sprigs basil garnish
- 50 g cheddar finely grated
Instructions
- Add the mince into a large mixing bowl together with a pinch of salt and black pepper. Also add the finely sliced red chilli and thoroughly mix.500 g pork mince, salt, ground black pepper, 1 large red chilli
- Divide the seasoned pork into 12-16 meatballs depending on how big you make them.
- Add the olive oil to a frying pan and when hot add the meatballs. Gently brown the meatballs all over which normally takes about 10 minutes but depends on size. Pierce one of the meatballs and if the juices are clear then its cooked fully, if not then leave for 2 minutes and try again.2 tsp olive oil
- Remove the meatballs from the pan and place on kitchen paper to dry any excess oil.
- Place the pan back on the heat and add the onion and bell peppers and fry until they have softened. Then add the garlic.1 medium onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1 medium red bell pepper
- Add any vegetables you are going to include here, mange tout, broccoli, green beans etc and stir fry until everything is nicely cooked.
- Add the noodles, the hoisin sauce, soy sauce and 4 tablespoons of water to the pan and fry for 1 minute.300 g noodles, 8 tbsp hoisin sauce, 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
- Add the meatballs to reheat and when lovely and hot, serve immediately in prewarmed bowls.
- Sprinkle a little cheese and a few basil leaves for the finishing touch.8 sprigs basil, 50 g cheddar
![By Greg Ma (originally posted to Flickr as Chupe de Camarones) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://i0.wp.com/therecipe.website/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Cuban-Shrimp-Soup-Sopa-de-Camarones.jpg?resize=145%2C100&ssl=1)
