Paleo Sweet and Sour Meatballs

I like looking at pictures of food.  My pinterest boards are almost exclusively filled with food pictures, and I’m a sucker for a beautiful cooking magazine, not because I follow the recipes, but because they always have such great ideas.  Frequently I’ll see a picture and a recipe title, think “Oooh!  I could make something like this!” and run to the store to buy ingredients, never actually looking at the original recipe again.  Such was the case with tonight’s dinner.

Is arrowroot paleo?  I googled it.  Some say yes.  Some say no.  It’s definitely a better alternative to corn starch, but as it is still a starch, we’ll lable it (in the words of Cookie Monster) a “sometimes food”.

I also took the shortcut of using canned pineapple in this recipe.  If you’re a purist, buy a whole pineapple and cut that sucker up, but try to harvest as much juice as possible.

Paleo Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Ingredients:

1 1/3 pounds ground turkey

1 tablespoon minced garlic (3-4 cloves)

2-3 inches peeled fresh ginger

small handful fresh flatleaf parsley

salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 red bell pepper

1 20-oz can pineapple chunks

1 tablespoon arrowroot starch

1 bunch green onions (scallions) – white and pale green portions

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a small food processor, finely chop garlic, ginger, and parsley.  Transfer to a mixing bowl, and combine with ground turkey, salt, and pepper.  Roll into small meatballs (I made 35) and line on a baking sheet.  Bake for 18 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop red bell pepper into 1-inch slices.  Melt coconut oil in a skillet over medium-high heat, add red bell pepper, and sautee for about 4 minutes or until softened.  Add pineapple with its juice and cook about 5 minutes, until pineapple is heated through and juices are reduced slightly.  In a separate container, mix arrowroot with a small amount of water.  Add arrowroot mixture to the skillet, turn off heat, and stir until liquid is thickened.

When meatballs are done, you can thread them on toothpicks with pepper and pineapple (as shown above) for a fancy party-like look, or just mix everything together in a bowl if you’re in a hurry.  Garnish with chopped green onions.