This Thai meatball curry is outrageously good. Talk about umami. So flavorful, so rich and so yummy.
These Thai meatballs are made with Thai red curry paste, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, onions, green chilies, spices and Thai basil. After you shallow fry these savory balls of delicious meat, use the same pan to cook your curry. The coconut curry will soak up the leftover brown bits of beef which will give your curry more depth and flavor. This seriously might just be the best Thai meatball curry ever. These meatballs are tasty on their own and they’d definitely make great Thai burgers BUT if this is your first time making this, don’t skip out on the curry. It’s too good.
So, I’m going to take a break from dishing about this dish to tell you about my awesome weekend. This past weekend, Roby and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary. On Friday night, he made dinner and honestly, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. The last time Roby cooked us dinner, he covered two salmon fillets with an entire pack of bacon.
This time, dinner was a little more balanced – and insanely delicious. Roby made scallops and filet mignon with fresh asparagus and mushrooms. He also served salad. Roby even made the salad dressing and steak sauce from scratch! Yep, he’s amazing.
The next day, we ate eggs with my leftover filet mignon (um, best breakfast ever) and then drove to Pittsburgh. I had a surprise activity planned for us. I took Roby to this super cool place called Copper Kettle where you can make craft beer from scratch. It obviously wasn’t a gluten-free experience but I don’t drink beer anyway, so this was solely for him. I love activities though so I had a lot of fun learning about and making beer. The beer needs time to ferment, so we actually have to go back in a few weeks to bottle our beer. When we do, I’ll update you with a picture of our bottles (which will have awesome labels ;)).
After beer making (and beer drinking on Rob’s part), we headed over to our hotel to get ready for the rest of our day/evening. We went downtown, walked around, admired everything and ate dinner at this Mediterranean restaurant. After dinner, Roby had a surprise for me… a show. Not just any show… but a JERRY SEINFELD show. I was sooo excited when I found out. That guy is hilarious. We laughed for like two hours straight. Roby and I love to laugh. I know that sounds strange, I mean – who doesn’t love to laugh, right? Well, we seek laughter. We watch comedy central all the time and we watch a ton of silly animal videos on youtube. So spending two hours sitting and laughing with Roby was kind of amazing.
Okay, back to the Thai meatball curry. If you like Thai food, you should really try this dish; it’s different and delicious. I think you’ll absolutely love it.
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 pound ground meat I like using ground beef
- 4 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 1 inch ginger finely chopped
- 3 Thai bird’s eye chilies minced
- handful of Thai basil chopped
- ½ - 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon coconut sugar
- 3 tablespoons red onion minced (or half a small red onion)
- 1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste
- 2 eggs whisked
- Oil enough to shallow fry (about 2 tablespoons)
Curry
- 1 red onion chopped
- 1 inch ginger minced
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1-2 Thai bird’s eye chilies minced
- 2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste adjust to taste
- 1 can unsweetened full-fat coconut milk
- Salt and pepper adjust to taste
- Lime wedges
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients for the meatballs and form into little balls.
- Heat oil in a pan on medium heat and fry the meatballs until golden. Set aside on a paper towel lined plate.
- Add the onion and a pinch of salt to the same pan so that the onions can soak up the oil/beef fat.
- Once the onions become golden and soft, add ginger, garlic and Thai bird’s eye chilies.
- After a minute, add the curry paste and stir-fry. Then add the coconut milk.
- Put meatballs back in the pan and simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve with lime wedges and enjoy.
Amanda says
I must have done something wrong! 2 eggs for 1 lb of ground meat made it too watery to form into meatballs. So struggling now to figure out how to fix it.
My Heart Beets says
Amanda, aw man I’m sorry that happened! Please add a bit of coconut flour (or another type of flour) to help absorb the extra liquid – that’s a good fix in this type of situation!
Sarah says
This is one of my absolute favorite recipes! So flavorful!
My Heart Beets says
Sarah, I’m so happy to hear that!! Thanks for letting me know how much you like this recipe 🙂
Hayley says
This recipe was great ! I needed inspiration for some ground beef I had and this was it! Admittedly I didn’t have the chills and I added the palm sugar and half a cup of beef stock to the sauce and put the fish sauce in the sauce as opposed to the meatball ss but it was a hit ! I had mine with zoodles and kids had rice and licked the bowl!
My Heart Beets says
Hayley, so great to hear!! Glad you and your kids liked it!!
Esme says
Didn’t have ground beef, had ground lamb; only had green Thai curry powder from Mountain Rose Herbs. No curry paste, fish sauce or chilies. Used Hatch green and red chilies. It turned out great! Even my husband liked it! Planning to have your salmon curry tonight. So pleased to find your blog! I can’t eat at Thai, Indian, or Chinese restaurant. I have a sulfite allergy and it’s just too risky. The few times I have eaten at such restaurants, the food was not nearly as good as what you offer. Thank you!
My Heart Beets says
Glad to hear that you both liked it! Hope you love the salmon curry too! Let me know how other recipes you try turn out for you 🙂
Cindy says
Made these on Sunday without the chilis to keep the heat down for my husband. So easy and such a flavorful curry sauce! We had them over steamed zoodles (and froze the other half of the recipe for a fast weeknight meal another night). This will be in our regular rotation of things to do with ground beef that are easy and delicious. Thank you, Ashley!
My Heart Beets says
Cindy, so glad you liked the dish!! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out 🙂
Mimi says
Omg i just made these and they start amazing !! I added Serrano vs Thai and I added chili garlic sauce from a Thai restaurant about one table spoon it is incredibly good!!
My Heart Beets says
That’s awesome, Mimi! So glad you liked the dish 🙂
Melissa R says
Where have you been all of my life? I have been eating paleo for about 2 years now, and just discovered your blog a few weeks ago. My husband and I have made half a dozen of your recipes, and are in LOVE with all of them! Your recipes are my favorite of all the paleo blogs I use. These meatballs are amazing! When are you coming out with a cookbook??
My Heart Beets says
Melissa, thank you!! I’m so glad you found my blog and that you and your hubby have made so many recipes! I’m not sure about a cookbook, but I am coming out with an eBook very soon 🙂 Thanks for the support!
Colette Marceau says
Hi Ashley!
I’m making this tonight as a special dinner for my brother. He just found out that he is CANCER FREE! Can you think of anything better to celebrate!? He requested your Carrot Cake. Thank you so much for helping to make our celebration delicious (and healthy).
Colette
My Heart Beets says
Colette, that is SO wonderful!! I’m so happy for you, him and for your family! I hope you all had a great time celebrating last night 🙂
Sarah says
This recipe rocked my world. It’s a staple in this house. Kids don’t care for it, but more for me. I do a quick version and just brown ground beef with onion and fresh ginger and then add your curry sauce. I can only imagine how awesome it would be if I followed the meatball part. Thanks. You’re a genius.
My Heart Beets says
Sarah, that’s awesome! I’m glad you like the recipe 🙂
Jen says
Made this tonight and it was amazing! I didn’t even have all of the ingredients (hope you are not horrified by my substitutions : )- I used jalapeño pepper in place of the thai chilies, coconut nectar in place of coconut sugar, lowfat coconut milk instead of full fat coconut milk, and I know, the most horrific substitution was garlic powder instead of fresh garlic (couldn’t believe I was out!). I also made one addition- I added a small shredded cabbage to the mixture when the recipe called for placing the meatballs back into the pot. The whole family loved this recipe (so glad because I doubled it)! I can’t wait to make it next time when I have all of the ingredients!
My Heart Beets says
Jen, I love that you made so many substitutions! Before starting my blog, I never followed a recipe exactly. Changing things up makes it yours 🙂 (and, I hate running out of garlic too!).
Julia says
This dish was amazingly good! I love Thai food but I have never cooked any Thai dishes at home. This recipe was very easy to follow so I will definitely be trying more of your recipes. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe.
My Heart Beets says
Julia, thanks so much for letting me know how this turned out for you! 🙂 So happy you liked it!
Sharee says
I’ve never cooked with those thai bird’s eye chilis… are those the ones you just throw in whole and then are careful not to eat when they are plated with the curry? I LOVE thai food and I can’t wait to make this!!!
My Heart Beets says
Sharee, I would finely chop the thai bird chilis – you wouldn’t want to accidentally eat one whole! If you can’t find thai bird chilis, then you can always use serrano pepper 🙂 I hope you love this recipe – it really is delicious!
linda ranieri says
How much coconut milk?
My Heart Beets says
Hi Linda, you’ll need one can of full fat coconut milk. Let me know what you think of the recipe!