Day 11 – Nacho “Meat”ball Bake
This is a fairly flexible recipe, inspired by this one. The original recipe produces a hors-d’ouvre, but I wanted something more substantial, so I mixed it up a bit.
You will need:
1 Tbs olive or vegetable oil.
Meatballs – I used a bag of Quorn meatballs (see pic) but you could use real meat just as easily, or even replace them with sausages. A great way to use up leftovers after a BBQ.
Zucchini, chopped – I used about 1/3 of a medium one.
Cheese – I used a big handful of pre-shredded tasty
Pickled Jalapeños – I used about 6 or 7.
Salsa – you could use jarred or homemade. I made my own using 5 chopped cherry tomatoes, 1/4 of an onion, diced, 2 cloves garlic, minced, 1 Tbs chopped coriander leaves, the juice of half a lemon, a dash of the brine from the jalapenos and a few shakes of salt and pepper. Mix all the ingredients and set aside for as long as possible. You could even make it the night before and leave it in the fridge overnight. I ended up with about 1/2 a cup.
Sour cream – a couple of Tbs
Coriander leaves – about a Tbs
All the above measures are estimated and flexible – feel free to have fun and sub in different vegetables, cheeses etc and adjust according to your own tastes.
Preheat the oven to 180’C.
Heat the oil in a frying pan and sauté the meatballs according to the instructions on the packet or your usual practice. Add the zucchini and cook until softened. Transfer to an ovenproof dish.
Spoon the salsa over the meatballs and zucchini, add the jalapeños. Put into the oven and cook until you can smell the garlic and tomatoes. Top with cheese and return to the oven until the cheese begins to bubble.
Serve topped with sour cream and coriander leaves. This was another winner – it took serious willpower to only eat half. I just polished off the other half for lunch and am already planning to make this again as soon as this challenge is over.
