Cilantro Chicken Meatballs in a Mango and Light Coconut Milk Sauce

Another day, another Mango. Mango is prized all throughout South American and also throughout Asia as it grows abundantly. We are lucky to be in Miami as Miami is in the tropics and every summer, we are inundated with mangos all summer long. Since South American and Asia are the mango experts, we try to incorporate those type of cuisines into our cooking. Asian cooks like to try to incorporate 5 different tastes in all their dishes. Those 5 tastes are sweet, sour, salty, spicy and bitter. This dish does it very well. I have used coconut flour here to keep it gluten free. It’s a great meal to make ahead and serve the next day. The meatballs can be made 2 days in advance, the mango sauce can be made a day in advance.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

For The Meatballs:

1 lb ground chicken (or turkey)

1 egg

3 Tbs coconut flour (or ½ cup panko, if your not gluten free)

⅓ cup minced cilantro

¼ cup diced red onion

1 jalapeno, seeded and finely diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp freshly grated ginger

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground tumeric

¼ tsp ground cayenne

½ tsp salt

Fresh ground pepper

3 Tbs sesame or coconut oil

For the Coconut Mango Sauce:

1 15 ounce can light coconut milk

1 ½ cup diced mango

3 Tbs. gluten free soy or coconut amino acids

1 Tbs fresh lime juice

Add-ins:

1 red bell pepper julienned

1 cup peas

To Garnish:

Peanuts, plain or candied

( I used store bought candied cashews here)

Diced green onion

Sliced limes

Fresh cilantro leaves

Directions:

1. Mix all of the ingredients for the meatballs.

2. Heat your oil in a large skillet.

3. Roll the meatball mixture into balls and place in your pan. Do not crowd as they will not brown. If your pan is not large enough then brown the meatballs in batches and remove to a plate as you cook the others. The meatballs will take about 5-7 minutes to brown. Stand over them and turn them as they cook.

4. Make the mango coconut sauce. Add the coconut milk, diced mango, tamari or soy and your lime juice to a blender and puree until very smooth.

5. Place all of the cooked meatballs in your skillet with the julienned red peppers and the peas. Pour the coconut sauce over the meatballs and simmer about 10 minutes.

6. Top with fresh cilantro leaves, green onions and nuts. Serve lime wedges alongside.