Nutmeg Meatballs with Tahini Roux and Pomegranate Sauce

These meatballs are fun and exciting and will keep you talking for days. Nutmeg brings out the sweetness in beef, tahini makes it warm and inviting, and cilantro keeps it fresh.

This dish is simpler than it sounds and special enough to impress. It’s pretty hands off, so makes it perfect for a party dish. Make sure you make the sauce because no one has time to eat dry meatballs. 

Nutmeg Meatball Ingredients
24 ounce ground beef
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
1 tsp Aleppo pepper
2 ½ tsp allspice
½ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp garlic (have 2 cloves on hand)
¾ c of chopped onion (have at least ½ of a medium onion on hand
2/3 c cilantro
1 egg

Garnish options: cilantro, sunflower seeds, pomegranate seeds

Nutmeg Meatball Directions
Preheat the oven to 400.

Take a large mixing bowl (not plastic) and place 24 ounces ground beef in the bottom. Gently “pick” at it to spread the meat out over the bottom of the bowl.

In a small saucer, mix evenly 1 tsp salt, ½ tsp black pepper, 1 tsp Aleppo pepper, 2 ½ tsp allspice, ½ tsp nutmeg, and 1 tsp turmeric. Pinch the spice between two fingers and sprinkle high above the meat. Use all of the mixture. It seems like an unnecessary step to mix it first, but it will save you time sprinkling the spices one by one and makes it easy to have even distribution.

Slice off the dry end. of garlic. Lay your knife flat on the clove of garlic and hit it with the exterior of your first. The skin should pop off. Thinly slice the garlic, turn it crossways, and slice it again. Rock the knife back and forth to get a fine mince. Sprinkle 2 tsp of minced garlic over the spice mixture

Cut off both ends of the onion. Cut it in half pole to pole. Lay one side cut side down. Thinly slice it pole to pole. Turn it 90 degrees and slice it across to form a dice. Add ¾ c of onion evenly on top of the meat.

Take cilantro and slice off the bottom of the stems (the dry part). Stack it in a pile and slice. Turn it 90 degrees and repeat. Make sure you use a sharp knife and apply enough pressure to slice the leaves. You want to slice it, not smash it. Sprinkle 2/3 c (medium packed) cilantro on top of the onion.

Crack an egg in the saucer that you used to mix the spices. Take the prongs of the fork and pierce the yolk. Lay the fork flat and quickly whip it side to side to mix the egg. You don’t need to make it airy. Just make sure the yolk and white become one. Pour it on top of the cilantro.

Take out a large Pyrex or sheet pan to put the meatballs on while cooking them. Do this before your hands get meaty so cane yourself one round of hand washing.

Time to dig in! Take your hands and run your hands on the inside of the bowl and gently fold the meat over. Repeat until the meat is evenly mixed. You want to be as gentle and mix as little as possible. It will help to keep your meat tender.

Take a wad of meat and roll it gently between the palms of your hands to create a ball. I like to have the raw balls be about 2” in diameter. I make all the balls to be about equal in size to the first ball – if you always try to match the most recent one, you’ll end up with less uniformed meatballs. It makes about 12 – 2” meatballs.

Place the meatballs in the oven and bake 20-25 minutes until they’re dark brown. Flip them about ¾ of the way done.

Tahini Roux and Pomegranate Sauce Ingredients
¾ c tahini
1 tsp garlic (about 1 clove)
¼ tsp salt
2 tsp agave
2 Tbl pomegranate molasses
5 Tbl red wine vinegar
1 c milk

Tahini Roux and Pomegranate Sauce Directions
Put ¾ c of tahini in a small frying pan on medium heat. Stir it constantly. A silicone spatula works great. You’ll start to smell a nutty aroma similar to a flour roux. Keep stirring until it darkens in color to about 1 shade darker than peanut butter. Don’t go too crazy on darkening it. Tahini has bitter undertones and will accentuate them as it cooks.

Take the garlic and slice off the dry end. Lay your knife flat on the clove of garlic and hit it with the exterior of your first. The skin should pop off. Thinly slice the garlic, turn it crossways, and slice it again. Rock the knife back and forth to get a fine mince. Add 1 tsp of minced garlic to the tahini.

Add ¼ tsp salt and 2 tsp agave to the tahini and stir. Add 5 Tbl red wine vinegar and 2 Tbl pomegranate molasses and stir. The mixture will seize. It’s crazy how that works.

Pour in ¼ c of milk and stir. Keep stirring while pouring another ¼ c of milk. Repeat until all of the milk is gone. First thing you’ll do is check consistency. It should be thick. It should slowly spread on a plate. If you need to thin it out, add a little more milk. Once the consistency is good, taste it. Add more salt if needed.

Assemble
Put tahini sauce on the bottom of a plate and put the meatballs on top of the sauce. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and pomegranate and sunflower seeds.

Notes
You can use jarred minced garlic if you must. I won’t fight you in this application.

Use parsley if you don’t like cilantro.

I don’t typically add sugar to sauces, but you’ll need it in the tahini sauce. While it develops an incredibly rich flavor, we need to balance out the bitterness.

Use a vinegar of your choosing.

It makes enough sauce for meatballs and roasted vegetables.

When you reheat the sauce, you might need to stir in a little milk.