North African Turkey Meatballs with Brown Date Rice

For us, eating healthy at home isn't extremely difficult, mostly because we just don't buy or keep things around that would make for temptation. {Except for all those leftover Christmas cookies that we STILL have... good grief, someone come save me from myself!}

The real challenge is making healthy eating exciting. I mean, I want to get giddy about dinner every night as though Homemade Mac & Cheese, pizza, or Honey-Coriander Chicken Wings were on the menu.

But a lot of times what happens is we buy the healthy stuff and -- due to lack of energy, creativity, time, what have you -- the preparation turns out a little lackluster. Boo.

At times like these, I understand why some folks find healthy eating so "blah".

So, yesterday when I was standing in front of the fridge surveying the culinary landscape {and finding that, once again, we didn't do our grocery shopping over the weekend like we should have...}, I picked up a container of ground turkey meat that needed to be used and thought, "I refuse to do something boring with this."

After a little Googling, I stumbled upon a Food Network recipe for these North African Meatballs. Bingo.

I'm lucky that both hubby and I don't mind trying new flavors and cuisines {and that hubby will eat just about anything you tell him is healthy and edible} because it opens up the possibility to try so many new things we don't normally think to make on a regular basis. With a little recipe tweaking, I came out with this amazingly flavorful and hearty dish that fits our lifestyle perfectly.

To suit my own taste, I swapped out the ground beef for ground turkey {since I'm not a red meat eater}, simultaneously making it an overall leaner dish. For hubby {who tries to stay away from gluten, especially Mon - Fri}, I changed the suggestion for a side dish of Couscous to a simple, but jazzed up Brown Date Rice, and used gluten free rolled oats instead of the regular kind for the meatballs. {Which, by the way, was definitely a "whaaat?" moment when I saw them listed as an ingredient. Just go with it!}

The spices used in this dish {coriander, cumin, cinnamon} lend a unique, rich flavor profile that made both the sauce and turkey meatballs stand out from any I've ever made before. And the meatballs themselves? SO incredibly tender from simmering away in the sauce that you won't even know you're eating a leaner meat!

Before you throw in the towel on your healthy New Years resolutions, let your taste buds do a little bit of world travel* and try some new flavors that will get you excited about dinner again. Variety is the spice of life... so get to sprinkling! 😉

*I have no idea how "authentic" this dish is to North African cooking... if you happen to know if this type of thing is common, please let me know! 🙂

North African Meatballs with Brown Date Rice
Adapted from Melissa D'Arabian, Food Network

For Rice:

1-2 tablespoons oil
1 cup brown rice
½ cups chicken stock
¾ cups water
¼ cup dried dates, finely chopped

1. In a medium pot, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add brown rice and saute lightly until fragrant.

2. Add chicken stock and water and bring to a boil over high. Stir, cover and reduce heat to medium. Simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed.

3. Stir well and reduce heat to low. Cover and let cook until tender, about 20-25 minutes.

4. When rice is tender, stir in chopped dates. Keep warm until ready to serve.


For Sauce:

2 tablespoons olive oil
½ a small onion, diced
1 large garlic clove, grated
¼ cup olives, pitted & finely chopped {I used black Greek olives, but you could use green as well}
Zest of 1 lemon
½ cup white wine {or chicken stock}
1 can diced tomatoes
1 cup chicken stock
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Pinch of cinnamon
Salt & pepper to taste

1. In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add diced onion and garlic and saute until softened and translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Add olives and lemon zest and cook for another 2 minutes.

2. Add white wine or broth, scraping the bottom of the pan, and simmer until slightly reduced, about 2 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, lightly pulse diced tomatoes in blender until desired consistency is reached. {You can skip this step if you'd rather have chunkier sauce.} Stir in blended tomatoes, chicken stock, brown sugar, cayenne, and cinnamon. Cook for 8-10 minutes until sauce is slightly thickened and it has deepened in color.

4. Taste & season with salt and pepper if desired.

For Meatballs:

2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
Pinch of cinnamon
1 pound ground turkey
⅓ cup rolled oats {I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Oats to keep it GF}, finely ground*
Salt to taste
1-2 tablespoons oil {canola or olive}

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together tomato paste and egg until well mixed. Add coriander, cumin, grated ginger, and cinnamon and whisk until well combined.

2. Add ground turkey, rolled oats, and salt, and mix together until just incorporated.

3. Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat. Using a small cookie scoop {or your hands}, make meatballs about 1 inch in diameter, rolling with wet hands.

4. Place meatballs in pan and brown on all sides. When meatballs are browned, place them in the pan with sauce.

5. Simmer meatballs in sauce to finish cooking for about 20-25 minutes or until sauce is thickened* and meatballs are cooked through and tender.

* To grind oats, pulse oats in a food processor until finely ground.
**If sauce becomes too thick, add a little chicken stock at a time until the right amount of "sauciness" is achieved.

To Serve: Serve with Date Rice. Spoon extra sauce over meatballs and rice. Serve hot.