Quick Easy Cilantro Meatballs in 15 minutes
These cilantro meatballs are tender, juicy and full of flavor. Made with fresh cilantro leaves, a touch of ginger and garlic add a nice kick, a squeeze of lemon adds some zest while turmeric adds a golden sheen. These make perfect appetizers or sides but can be easily transformed into a curry to make the main course when served with rice.
Quick and Easy Cilantro Meatballs, Meatballs with Cilantro, Meatball recipe, Beef meatballs
I am a huge fan of cilantro!! Being Indian by origin I grew up with cilantro in almost all my dishes. I love it so much I find it hard to believe there are many who can’t stand the sight or smell of cilantro too! Ah well, If you here you probably like it too.
Cilantro has that smell of freshness don’t you think? and when cooked it has this rich thick texture that really adds to the sauce. I love the combination of cilantro and coconut as well as cilantro with tomatoes.
My kids have grown up eating Cilantro since they were babies but for Ziv, it was new in the beginning. He has over time begun to like and enjoy it too!
Quick and Easy Cilantro Meatballs in 15 minutes, beef meatball recipe, cilantro meatball
My Aadi and Rhea are huge fans of meatballs. In fact, one way to get my Rhea to eat meat is meatballs. Her dietitian highly recommends she eats meats but she herself is a very veggie kinda person. Her favorite is my Mongolian Meatballs. Aadi’s favorite is the Turkey Meatballs Pasta. As a family, we all love the Meatball Curry very much.
So let’s talk Ingredients and Substitutes (Save/Pin)
- Cilantro – Now this is the star of the show so yes, please use fresh cilantro. Having said that if you prefer you can also use fresh Parsley. Depending on how you like your herbs you can go a little less or more. If you reduce the number of herbs you will just have less thickness in the sauce. But the taste will still be good.
- Ginger and garlic – Garlic makes all things better – doesn’t it? Well, ginger adds that earthy pungent flavor that there but not so as strong either.
- Semolina or Bread Crumbs – This adds body and helps keep the meatballs nice and juicy making sure you bite into a juicy piece of meat.
- Turmeric – You can omit the turmeric but I think it not just enhances the green color and is also a great antioxidant.
I’m a mortar and Pestle kinda girl and do a lot of my blending in this little baby but you can use the food processor or blender as well.
Quick and Easy Cilantro Meatballs in 15 minutes, Beef Meatballs, Cilantro Meatball
Recipe – Quick and Easy Cilantro Meatballs (Save/Pin)
Ingredients
- Beef mince – 250 grams (1/2 lbs)
- Garlic – 1 large
- Ginger – 1/4 inch
- Cilantro – 1/2 cup chopped
- Semolina or dry bread crumbs – 2 tbsp
- Oil – 2 tbsp
- Coriander – 1 tsp
- Turmeric – 1/4 tsp
- Lemon – 1 tbsp
- Salt & pepper to taste
Method
Grind the Marinade/Sauce
- Place the cilantro, ginger, garlic in a blender (or mortar and Pestle) and blend until smooth
Quick and Easy Cilantro Meatballs, Cilantro Meatballs, 15-minute meals, Beef meatballs
Season the Meatballs
- Add the semolina or breadcrumbs to the meat
- Followed by just 1 tbsp of the cilantro marinade
- Season with salt and pepper
- Divide the meat and foam balls. Do not squish the meat too much and the meatballs will be dense.
Quick and Easy Cilantro Meatballs, cilantro meatball recipe, beef meatballs, 15-minute meatballs
Cook the Sauce
- Add oil to a saute pan or fry pan
- Followed by the cilantro marinade/sauce
- Cook on medium for 3 to 4 minutes – until fragrant.
- Add the turmeric and coriander
- Season with salt and pepper
- Add lemon juice and 1/4 cup water
- Let come to a slight boil reduce heat.
- Carefully distribute the meatballs in the pan so they are not touching each other.
- Shake the pan slightly so the balls sink into the marinade.
- Turn the heat down to a medium low
- Let cook for 10 minutes turning once or twice so they cook evenly.
- If necessary add a few tbsp of water to help cook.
- Do not cover the pan as you will lose the pretty green color of the cilantro.
- Once the meatballs are cooked thru (about 10 to 12 minutes) remove from heat
- Garnish with more fresh chopped cilantro and serve.
Quick and Easy Meatball Cilantro
Want to transform this into a main course with gravy over rice?
- When the meatballs are almost done
- Mix 1/2 cup coconut milk, or 1/2 cup plain yogurt with 1/2 cup water – stir well so there are no lumps
- Add to the meatballs and bring to a boil once more.
- Adjust seasoning – add salt or pepper as needed.
- Garnish and serve over steaming hot rice.
Don’t forget to save this recipe on Pinterest for later.
You can find a collection of my tutorials and recipes here on Pinterest.
Quick and Easy Cilantro Meatballs, Meatballs Recipe, Cilantro Meatballs in 15 mins
Quick and Easy Cilantro Meatballs in 15 mins
Print Pin RateDescription
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 250 grams (0.55 lb) Beef mince
- 1 (1 ) Garlic large
- 1/4 inch (0.25 inch) Ginger
- 1/2 cup (0.5 cup) Cilantro chopped
- 2 tbsp (2 tbsp) Semolina or dry bread crumbs
- 2 tbsp (2 tbsp) Oil
- 1 tsp (1 tsp) Coriander
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) Turmeric
- 1 tbsp (1 tbsp) Lemon
- Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
Grind the Marinade/Sauce
- Place the cilantro, ginger, garlic in a blender (or mortar and Pestle) and blend until smooth
Season the Meatballs
- Add the semolina or breadcrumbs to the meat
- Followed by just 1 tbsp of the cilantro marinade
- Season with salt and pepper
- Divide the meat and foam balls. Do not squish the meat too much and the meatballs will be dense.
Cook the Sauce
- Add oil to a saute pan or fry pan
- Followed by the cilantro marinade/sauce
- Cook on medium for 3 to 4 minutes - until fragrant.
- Add the turmeric and coriander
- Season with salt and pepper
- Add lemon juice and 1/4 cup water
- Let come to a slight boil reduce heat.
- Carefully distribute the meatballs in the pan so they are not touching each other.
- Shake the pan slightly so the balls sink into the marinade.
- Turn the heat down to a medium low
- Let cook for 10 minutes turning once or twice so they cook evenly.
- If necessary add a few tbsp of water to help cook.
- Do not cover the pan as you will lose the pretty green color of the cilantro.
- Once the meatballs are cooked thru (about 10 to 12 minutes) remove from heat
- Garnish with more fresh chopped cilantro and serve.
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Do you love Indian Food?
Well then you must check out some of my other Indian recipes from slow-cooked curries to quick and easy as well as Indian Biryani and desserts
A Collection of Modern Indian Recipes by Veena Azmanov
Madeline
Made this last week.. Yum! Thanks
Veena Azmanov
Thank you, Madeline. So happy you have success with this recipe and loved it. Thanks for coming back to leave this feedback. Have a wonderful week.
Daliah Mueller
Shalom Veena,
I’ve tried several of your recipes already, am a big fan of your lamb masala and your kidney bean curry, just to name a few. Today we tried these meatballs and the kidney bean patties- both delicious as well! But unfortunately there was hardly any sauce with the meatballs even though I exactly followed your recipe. No idea, what went wrong…. Flavor with all the spices and cilantro was great though! Quickly mixed together some joghurt with lemon juice and dried nana to have a dip for the patties and balls.
Do you have any suggestions what I might improve next time to have more sauce?
Shavua tov from Germany,
Daliah
Veena Azmanov
Hey Daliah,
So happy to hear you are enjoying my recipe. We love the lamb masala very much too. And my favorite is the kidney beans.
yes, as you can see from the pictures, this is actually a side dish so the gravy or sauce is not much. But, you can add more water, coconut milk or sour cream to make a thick gravy at the end and give it one last boil. This will give a nice creamy sauce as well as add a lighter flavor to the sauce which will work great with rice or bread.
I have edited the post so you should see an option to make it with gravy.
Thank you so much for the feedback. Have a wonderful week.
Swathi
That green chutney meat balls looks delicious. I too like to use cilantro some time even in space of parsley. These perfect recipe even we can make ahead.
Veena Azmanov
You said it Swathi. Green Chutney minus the coconut it is. Love cilantro more than parsley for sure.
Marlynn | UrbanBlissLife
These meatballs sound so tasty! I love the spices you use, and I’m a big fan of cilantro, so I know I would love this!
Veena Azmanov
They are sure very tasty Marlynn..
Christine
These sound AMAZING and perfect for a weeknight dinner! My husband would really love them!
Veena Azmanov
Thanks Christine. Absolutely they come together so easily they are perfect any time. Happy to hear your hubby likes cilantro too.
Joanna @ Everyday Made Fresh
I love cilantro and all the other flavors in your sauce. I know that my family would love these. I’ve never thought of adding ginger to cilantro before, but I imagine it’s good.
Veena Azmanov
Thank you Joanna. Happy to hear that. I love Cilantro and I think ginger makes a great combination too!
Gloria @ Homemade & Yummy
Isn’t it funny…you either LOVE cilantro or HATE it…there is NO in between. Unfortunately I don’t like it, but I DO like meatballs. I would have no problem using another herb…in fact I just posted some jerk meatballs on my blog this week.
Veena Azmanov
I know so true Gloria.. no worries. I so understand that cause I’m not a big fan of parsley myself. Don’t hate it but use it very sparingly. You can use parsley instead of cilantro just as well. I saw those and they look awesome too
Alicia Taylor
I love cilantro. I can eat it on just about anything. I love that you added tumeric. It’s a great antioxidant, yes, but it has so many awesome health benefits. I use it for inflammation
Veena Azmanov
That is so true Alicia.. Turmeric has lots of other benefits apart from being a good antioxidant. I love Cilantro too!
Noel Lizotte
I love cilantro! Can’t wait to try this recipe, my husband is always asking for new foods – this will fit the bill.
He loves meatballs, I love cilantro. We can’t lose!
Veena Azmanov
I love Cilantro too! Such an awesome fresh herb. I bet he will love this.