Crunchy Beef and Mango Meatballs
These beef meatballs are coated in crunchy Bulgur wheat and filled with mango chutney.
Children and adults love them because the crunchy coating goes so well with the soft mango centre. We serve them with a very simple tomato sauce that has added red peppers and green beans.
Bulgur wheat is readily available from the major supermarkets even though it is not an everyday ingredient. Bulgur wheat is whole wheat grains which are cracked open. The grains are then part cooked or steamed and ground into smaller particles. It is rich in nutrients and high in fibre.
When used to coat the meatballs in this recipe it gives a very crunchy, tasty and satisfying flavour.
Mango chutney may not be in your store cupboard right now but is available in almost all major supermarkets. After using it in this recipe it keeps for a long time and can be used as a superior version of other chutneys and most pickles.
We rarely recommend a particular brand of of an ingredient but in this particular case we strongly recommend that you use Sharwoods Mango Chutney. Certainly, when compared to supermarket own brands of mango, Sharwoods comes out head and shoulders above all the others, both in taste and texture, that we have tasted.
450g / 1lb Lean minced beef
110g / 4oz Bulgur wheat
4 tablespoons Mango chutney
1 Garlic clove
1 medium egg
1 handful parsley
About ½ litre / 1 pint vegetable oil
Sauce
400g / 14oz Chopped tomatoes
1 medium onion
1 Garlic clove
125g / 4oz green beans
1 Red pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Prepared ingredients for Crunchy Beef and Mango Meatballs
Soak cracked wheat in cold water (at start of recipe)
Finely chop both garlic cloves
Peel and chop the onion
Finely chop the parsley
Chop the beans (see picture above)
Remove pith and seeds from red pepper and slice (see picture above)
First, place the Bulgur wheat in a bowl of cold water to soak.
Add the olive oil then start frying the chopped onions in the frying pan on a low heat. Don't brown them, cook for about 15 minutes. At the same time, put the sliced green beans in a pan of just boiling water.
Fry onions
Put the minced beef, 1 chopped garlic clove and salt and pepper in a bowl. Mix well with your hands.
Put the mango chutney and chopped parsley (save a couple of sprigs for use as garnish later) in another bowl and mix well.
Mix ingredients for Crunchy Beef and Mango Meatballs
Make ping pong sized (4cm) balls from the minced beef mixture (about 15 balls).
For each meatball, flatten it gently in to about the size of a beef burger. Place a small teaspoon of the mango chutney mixture in the middle of the meat and draw up the sides of the meat to re-form a ping pong sized ball.
Form Crunchy Beef and Mango Meatballs
The onions and beans should be cooked now (about 15 minutes). Drain the beans of water, add the cooked onions, tomatoes, sliced red pepper, garlic and salt and pepper to taste.
Cook the sauce mixture on a low heat whilst completing the rest of the recipe.
Cooking sauce for Crunchy Beef and Mango Meatballs
Drain the Bulgur wheat using a sieve and force out some more of the water from the wheat by pressing with a spoon.
Break the egg into a bowl and lightly mix it up with a fork. If you are cooking rice, start it off now.
STEP 6Pour the vegetable oil into the frying pan and turn the heat up to high.
Dip each of the meatballs in the egg and then roll it in the Bulgur wheat to get a thick coating.
Put the coated meatballs in the hot vegetable oil and cook for six minutes turning them each minute.
Coat meatballs in Bulgur Wheat mixture
Place the cooked meatballs on warm plates and pour the sauce next to them on the plate.
Add the rice (if wanted) and garnish the meatballs with a few of sprigs of parsley. About three to four meatballs for each adult.
Crunchy Beef and Mango Meatballs