Easy Vietnamese Meatballs

I have always dedicated my blog to presenting many quick, easy, healthy recipes. I believe that Asian recipes are healthier choices than Westerner recipes because Asian recipes don’t use cheeses and a lot of fat. Lately, coconut oil has become a healthy choice for cooking and baking. So this meatballs recipe will keep my blog’s promise. We always want to be smart and happy, so choosing a good food is a stepping stone to guide us there. Taking a few extra minutes in the morning to have a good breakfast with enough nutrients to start the day and also finding some time to prepare a good dinner is a must for the whole family. Most of my recipes are very simple to prepare with easy-to-find ingredients to find and, most importantly, produce very healthy dishes.

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground chicken or pork
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 shallots, minced
1 tbs finely chopped white onion
Marinade ingredients:
1 tbs baking powder
1 tbs fish sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs sugar
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tbs cornstarch
2 tbs water

10 bamboo skewers, about 8 inches long, soaked in water

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, combine ground chicken, garlic, shallots, and minced white onion.
In a small bowl, combine all the marinade ingredients and mix well. Add the marinade ingredients to the meat mixture. Mix together until mixture becomes sticky. Cover and refrigerate overnight or 6 hours.

Remove from the refrigerator and divide the meat into approximately 30 or more portions and form the meat into small meatballs.

Line a baking sheet with coconut oil and place the meatballs on the baking sheet. Preheat oven to 450° and bake the meatballs until halfway done (about 15 minutes). Let cool and then skewer the meatballs with the soaked bamboo sticks.

Heat a grill pan. Add a little more coconut oil and char-grill the meatballs until both sides appear brown (you can omit this part of cooking and instead let the meatballs bake in the oven until the meatballs brown on both sides).

Serve this dish with steamed rice or rice noodles with lettuce, cucumbers, and Vietnamese dipping sauce. This dish also can be rolled inside rice paper to make good fresh spring rolls, called "nem cuon".