Since this pandemic has had us sheltering at home, most of us are doing a lot more cooking than usual.  And, if you’re like me, you keep trying to come up with new dishes to break the monotony.  Unless, of course, monotony is what you actually prefer.  I do know people who could easily survive on pizza or burgers or Mac and cheese as a steady diet. Yesterday I had a pound of ground pork thawed and was trying to think of something different to make for dinner.  I was talking to my daughter and she shared this recipe which they had recently made.  Based on what was available in my fridge and pantry I modified the recipe a bit, and I’m sharing my own take.  This was a quick and easy dish to prepare and packed a lot of flavor.  We devoured all but 4-5 meatballs!

Meatball Ingredients:

1 pound of ground pork

2-3 green onions finely sliced

1 inch of fresh ginger grated

1-2 cloves of garlic grated

3/4 cup of fresh bread crumbs

Add all of the ingredients to the pork.

Before you start mixing the meatball ingredients, cover a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.  Mix well and shape into 12-14 meatballs.  Place the meatballs on one end of the baking sheet.

Cut vegetables of your choosing into bite size pieces.  A generous 2 to 3 cups.  I used broccoli florets, sweet peppers, mushrooms, and pea pods.

Toss the vegetables in a tablespoon of toasted sesame oil or olive oil and put them on the other end of the baking sheet.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  While the oven is preheating prepare your sauce.

Sauce Ingredients:

1 T toasted sesame oil

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup orange juice

3 T hoisin sauce

3 T honey

2 T rice vinegar

1 tsp crushed red pepper (more or less based on personal preference)

Measure out all of your ingredients in a medium size heavy saucepan.

Bring the sauce to a boil over medium heat and keep it at a slow boil for 8-10 minutes until it is reduced by about a third.   Remove from the heat.

While your sauce is cooking, put the meatballs and vegetables in the oven and cook for about 15 minutes or until the meatballs are cooked through.  At this point, ladle about a third to half of the sauce over the meatballs and return them to the oven for another 3-4 minutes.

Serve the meatballs, vegetables and sauce over rice.  I used brown rice with quinoa, but use your favorite rice.  I garnished ours with thin sliced radishes, green onion, and cilantro.

NOTE:  The original recipe called for ground chicken or turkey but I really liked the ground pork.  I think that beef might be too heavy for this dish but, as with all recipes, it’s all about personal preference.

You can use vegetables of your choosing; zucchini or summer squash, onion, green beans.  I did not have low sodium soy sauce so I did not add any additional salt and none was necessary.

Use garnishes of your choice including sesame seeds or a little fresh basil.  It all makes a beautiful plate of food.  Enjoy.