Gluten Free Thai Meatballs with Nut Free Dipping Sauce
Updated Jul 09, 2018, Published Dec 27, 2016
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Christmas might be over but the entertaining may not be – we still have one or two more celebrations coming up.
If you are planning a New Year’s Eve party, small bites that are easy to prepare (and can be made in advance) are the way to go, in my opinion.
I love these Thai meatballs – they are packed with flavor and you can make them a day ahead, then just reheat them before serving. To make the sauce nut free but still have that lovely “peanut sauce” flavor, I used creamy Sunbutter in this easy dipping sauce.
Personally, I plan to forgo any parties this New Year’s Eve. I am just going to make these meatballs, open up a bottle of Prosecco, and enjoy a quiet evening at home – my favorite place to be sometimes.
I hope you have fun this New Year’s, whatever you decide to do!
Gluten Free Thai Meatballs with Nut Free Dipping Sauce
Ingredients
Sauce
- ½ cup creamy Sunbutter
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons tamari or gluten free soy sauce
- Juice of 2 limes
- 1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce, more or less to taste
- 1/3-1/2 cup coconut milk
Meatballs
- 1 ½ pounds ground beef
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
- 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded, deveined, and minced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 green onions, minced
- ¼ cup minced fresh basil leaves, Thai basil if you can find it
- ¼ cup minced fresh mint leaves
- 3 tablespoons coconut cream, remove the cream from the top of a can of full-fat coconut milk
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher or fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- Finely grated zest of 2 limes
- Gluten free non-stick cooking spray
Instructions
Prepare the sauce:
- Combine all the ingredients except the coconut milk in a saucepan. Add 1/3 cup coconut milk and heat over low heat just until all the ingredients are fully combined. Thin out the sauce with a little more coconut milk, if needed. Cover and refrigerate until serving. Can be made 2 – 3 days ahead.
Make the meatballs:
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all the meatball ingredients except the cooking spray.
- Preheat the broiler and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spray the parchment with cooking spray.
- Roll tablespoonfuls of meatball mixture into balls and place on the prepared baking sheet. Spray with cooking spray and broil 8 – 10 minutes or until browned and cooked through but still juicy.
- Can be made 1 – 2 days ahead and reheated.
- Serve with the dipping sauce.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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These meatballs were fantastic and devoured by my guests. I made the sauce with natural peanut butter since that is what I had in the house and it was great as well. One thing I like about this blog is that the recipes are tested – at least, all of the ones I have done have worked out well, so I assume that Carol and her team really do their homework. Thank you so much.
Hi Laura,
Thank you so much for the kind words. I’m glad to hear that you are enjoying my recipes. :)
Happy New Year!
Carol