Lion’s Head Meatballs

This meatball recipe happened because I found two recipes that I loved, and I couldn’t decide which one to make.  So I combined them!

And when Jim said with the utmost conviction, “This is cool, you can make it again soon!” I knew I had a keeper of a recipe that needed to be documented and shared.  Plus, it’s meatballs, so I get another meatball prep day out of it!  You guys must know by now how much I love making meatballs (see Baked Meatballs, Moroccan Meatballs, Swedish Meatballs) so I was thrilled to get another reason to enjoy the therapy that comes with rolling up some orbs of yumminess!

Both Sonia from Salt n Pepper Here and ChihYu from I Heart Umami have posted the most amazing Asian dish: Lion’s Head Meatballs.  They looked so fluffy and delicious, and they are simmered in a flavourful broth with bok choy and cabbage, that I knew this would be something for us.  We both love cabbage of all sorts, and the idea that we could eat this as a low carb meal was also intriguing.  Of course they do allow for serving these meatballs over rice, and I have served them with Korean japchae (sweet potato starch noodles), but I have now also just enjoyed this meal as a soup.

Here is why they are called Lion’s Head Meatballs, according to Sonia:

This is a family recipe passed down from my Shanghai-nese grandmother. The big fluffy meatball represents a lion’s head and the surrounding leafy greens, its mane.  Don’t you love the fanciful name?  Just as much to love is the dish itself, a mainstay comfort meal to be certain.  …the meatballs don’t require bread or bread crumbs like most meatball recipes, making them gluten free too.  I love eating this atop a bowl of steamed rice, so the flavorful brothy-ness soaks all the way down into the rice. Yum! I hope you give this delicious dish a try.

The meatballs come together so easily.  Ground pork is combined with finely chopped scallions, ginger and shallot, toasted sesame seed oil, coconut aminos (tamari or soy sauce) arrowroot powder, simple seasonings, and an egg.  Use your hands to gently stir the mixture around in a bowl till mixed.  You don’t want to over mix these, as they will turn tough when cooking. 

My Favourite Meatball or Meatloaf Tip

As usual, before you take all that time to form the meatballs, take enough to make a small patty (no bigger than the size of a quarter) and sauté till cooked through.  Taste it and see if you like the flavours.  If not, now is the time to adjust.  Then what I do is pat the mixture down into the bowl so that the top is even.  Use your hand to ‘score’ create four equal quadrants of the mixture.  You want to get twelve meatballs out of the mixture.  This way you know that they will all be the same size.  Each quadrant should make three large meatballs.  I spread them out onto a parchment or wax paper lined baking sheet. 

From here, decide how many you want to use right away (Jim and I each about two (maybe three) for one meal.  But if you have a hungry man, three to four may be needed.  The rest can go into the freezer on the baking sheet.  Once frozen, they can be popped into a labelled freezer bag for another meal.  They freeze and thaw wonderfully.  Yes, I have made them enough now that I have already used my freezer stash!  And they still turn out amazingly fluffy and tender.  If you find them dry as you are mixing it all up, ChihYu suggests having a bit of broth or water on hand.  This is a great time to pull out my Faux Chicken Bouillon Powder.  It is perfect for making small amounts of water taste totally like chicken broth!  The liquid can be added to the mixture, or even just to wet your hands between rolling.

The second part of the recipe involves sautéing the meatballs and then simmering them in broth with the bok choy and cabbage.  To prepare them for the skillet, dust the meatballs with arrowroot starch (to keep it paleo; you can also use cornstarch) Then gently roll them in your hands to ensure that the meatballs are evenly coated in the starch.  This will give them a lovely exterior that will hold up to the lengthy simmer they will go through afterwards.  You’ll brown them on all sides till perfectly caramel shaded.  Set them on a plate.

Now the broth gets started.  Ginger, scallions, garlic are quickly sautéed in the same pot, and then the bok choy and stem portions of the cabbage you are using get layered on the bottom of the pot.  The meatballs get nestled over this, and the final more delicate cabbage leaves are added on top, to cover the meatballs.  Combine the stock with sesame oil and coconut aminos and then pour this over everything.  Once it has come to a boil, cover and reduce to a gently simmer. In about 45 minutes you will have fluffy lion’s head meatballs, tasty and tender cabbage leaves or fluffy lion’s mane, and a fragrant and flavourful broth.

So, I’ve already described portions of both recipes that appealed to me.  I combined some of the flavours from both recipes into the final ultimate recipe! What else did I do to make it my own?  I added some heat.  Just a little.  A red (or green) chilli pepper is sliced and the veins and seeds are removed.  Finely mince one half and add it to the meatball mixture.  Add the other half to the ginger, scallions and garlic to get gently sautéed.  If you don’t have a red chilli pepper sitting around, chilli flakes or even chilli oil would work just fine.  Sonia uses only bok choy.  ChihYu leans more towards the cabbage.  We like both.  So they are both here.  But you could easily choose the one you like and run with it.

One of my favourite lines from Sonia’s recipe is this: “Cover and braise for about 1 hour, until meatballs are cooked through and greens are rather wilty.  I like it even better the next day when everything is reheated and the bok choy is almost ‘dissolving’ into the broth.”  I have now experienced this flavour and texture sensation, and it is incredible!  However my initial cooking time is less than hers.  I like just a bit of texture to the greens.  Adjust as you see fit.

I have made this recipe three times in just over a week.  And Jim is still totally enthralled with it.  He wants it regularly.  If there is no other proof that this recipe is worth trying, I don’t know what is.  He is rather picky!  Thank you Sonia and ChihYu.  You have made dinner just a little more easy and a lot more tasty  with these fantastic tender lion’s head meatballs and healthy cabbage!!

Love Jen

5 from 1 vote

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Lion's Head Meatballs

Fluffy, tender, flavourful pork meatballs are nestled into a delicious broth, bok choy and cabbage to simmer until tender.  Serve as is or over rice or noodles, and you will have made many bellies very happy!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Chinese

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

Meatballs

• 1.5 lbs ground pork 80% lean, 20% fat / 70% lean, 30% fat
• 4 bulbs scallions, chopped small
• 1 tbsp ginger grated or minced
• 1 ½ tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 2 tbsp coconut aminos or soy sauce or tamari
• 1 tsp white pepper
• ½ tsp coarse sea salt if using kosher salt increase it to 3/4 tsp
• 1 large shallot finely chopped
• 1 red chilli pepper halved with veins and seeds removed
• 2-3 tsp arrowroot powder + more for dusting
• 1 egg
• 1-3 tbsp water or chicken/veggie stock

Braising mix:

• 3 thin slices ginger
• 3 scallions root and dead green ends removed, diced to large sections (about 2-3 inch)
• the other half of the red chilli pepper see above
• 3 cloves of garlic skins removed and crushed
• 4-5 halved baby bok choy
• 1/4 one whole napa cabbage or half of one whole savoy cabbage separate the stems from leaves, cut into largish pieces.
• 1 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 2 tbsp coconut aminos
• 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
• Coarse sea salt lightly sprinkle over cabbage
• Avocado oil/ghee to pan-fry the meatballs (to keep it paleo)

Instructions

Meatballs

1. Add all the meatball ingredients together in a large bowl, with the exception of the chilli pepper and the liquid.

2. Take one half of the red chilli pepper and finely mince it. Add it to the mixture.
3. Use your hands to gently mix and press the ground meat in circular motion until the ground pork becomes almost like a soft paste-ish texture.
4. Optional, add 1 tbsp water/stock at a time to the mixture to keep it moist during mixing. Use up to 3 tbsp per 1.5 lbs ground meat.
5. Before making your meatballs, take a small section (a pattie about the size of a quarter) and sauté it. Taste it. You like the way it tastes? Great, move on to making the meatballs. If not, add more salt or pepper etc.

6. Form about 12 2-inch size meatballs. I ensure that they are all the same size by gently patting down the mixture in the bowl so that the top is level. Then use the side of your hand to score it into four equal sections. Then you know that each quarter section will make three meatballs. I find that periodically wetting my palms helps the meatballs from sticking to my hands.

7. Place them all onto a parchment or wax paper lined baking sheet.
8. Using a small sieve, lightly dust each meatball with a bit more arrowroot powder. Use both hands to gently toss the meatballs from one hand to the other again so that the arrowroot powder will coherent well and spread evenly with the meatballs.
9. Heat 1 ½ tbsp avocado/ghee (or grapeseed oil) in a heavy bottomed dutch oven or wok over medium-high heat, when hot, lower the heat to medium. Carefully sear the meatballs on all sides, until the surface is golden brown but not cooked through. Do this in batches so not to overcrowd the skillet. Set aside. If needed, add more oil for the remaining batches.

Braising Liquid

1. In the same dutch oven or wok (cleaning out any burnt bits) add 1 tbsp more oil.

2. Sauté 3 thin slices ginger, scallions, remaining half of the chilli pepper, and the crushed garlic over medium-high heat with a bit salt until fragrant (about 10 seconds).

3. Place the bok choy, all over the sautéed aromatics, as well as any stem pieces of the napa cabbage.  You can also save some of the smaller bok choy leaves (the ones with less heavy stem) for the next step.  This will keep them from wilting too much.

   At first it may look like there is too much room being taken up by the bok choy, how on earth will the meatballs fit?  Don't worry.

   Stir the greens till they just start to wilt.  They will cook down just enough to make room for the meatballs.

4. Add meatballs on top of the greens. Add the remaining cabbage pieces around and over the meatballs.  Some of the bok choy leaves can be added here as well.

5. Pour the remaining braising mix (chicken stock/coconut aminos/sesame oil) over everything, and season with a pinch of coarse sea salt over cabbage. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to low to a gentle simmer. Close with a lid. Check occasionally to ensure that a gentle simmer is happening.

6. Half braise and half steam the meatballs and cabbage until the meatballs are completely cooked through and the cabbage turns soft. This should take between 40 and 45 minutes, depending on the thickness of cabbage stems.

7. Serve by placing some meatballs and bok choy and cabbage in a bowl. Drizzle the braising broth over this. You can also serve rice or noodles with it.
8. Drizzle the braising broth over meatballs and cabbage. Serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

I say that this feeds four.  It could easily feed six, depending on how hungry ones are.

If you want to freeze some of these, keep the ones you want to cook with right away off the baking sheet. Place the remaining meatballs on the baking sheet into the freezer. Once frozen, transfer the meatballs to a freezer bag and label. These will keep in the freezer for a couple of months.

You could replace the cabbage with more bok choy.  It doesn't have to be baby bok choy.  A variety is fun.  Just make sure that you have enough for the bottom and to cover the meatballs.  More is better than too little.  They will wilt and taste amazing.  The ones on top will wilt less, so make sure they don't have thick stems attached- use those pieces for the bottom layer.

Recipe inspired by 'Salt n Pepper Here' as well as 'I Heart Umami'  Links above in blog.