End-of-summer meal
The start of September reminds us that the end of summer is soon approaching.
With this in mind, I thought I would share a meal that I love- hearty chicken meatballs cooked in a tomato and okra sauce with an herbed rice served with a crisp and fresh green salad.
This meal uses only seasonal produce and is healthy, simple and easy to put together. This is the ultimate end-of-summer meal, which could be served as lunch or dinner and can be made in advance.
(Serves 4)
Hearty chicken meatballs cooked in tomato and okra sauce
For the meatballs:
0.5 lbs ground chicken breast (you can also use turkey )
1 medium onion, finely grated
1 peeled small potato, finely grated
3 tbsp dill, finely chopped
1 egg
Salt and pepper
- Mix all of the ingredients together in a glass bowl, cover and place in fridge to chill, while you make the tomato sauce.
For the tomato and okra sauce:
1 can whole plum tomatoes
2 garlic cloves - crushed
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1.5 cup okra (frozen or fresh)
2 tsp oregano (fresh or dried)
Salt and pepper to taste
- In a medium depth saucepan, on low heat, heat the olive oil and add the freshly crushed garlic. Saute.
- Add the canned tomatoes, okra, salt, pepper and oregano. Bring to simmer and cover with a lid.
- While the tomato sauce is simmering, start shaping the meatballs.
- Use a tablespoon in order to keep the meatballs the same size.
- Drop the meatballs carefully into the simmering sauce. Once you have used up all the meat, cover the sauce with a lid and allow to cook for about 45mins or until the meat is cooked.
- While this is cooking you can prepare the herbed rice.
For the herbed rice:
1.5 cups round rice (almost like risoto rice or any rice you fancy), rinse well to remove the starch, this will prevent the rice from being sticky
3 cups water
1 cup flat leaf parsely, chopped
1 cup dill, copped
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp nutmeg
0.5 tsp tumeric
Salt and pepper
- Add all of the above ingredients to a saucepan, bring to a boil and then turn down the heat to low, cover and allow to cook for about 20-30 minutes (or follow instructions on the rice package)
Crisp and fresh green salad with garlicy vinegar dressing
2 heads Romaine or cos lettuce – washed and torn roughly
1 medium purple onion- sliced
1 -2 small cucmbers- sliced
1 green pepper – sliced
For the dressing:
1 garlic clove- chopped
1 tsp sugar
0.5 cup white wine vinegar
3 tbsp sunflower seed oil
1 tsp salt
- if you prefer to remove the fresh garlic you can do so by using a sieve when you pour the dressing over the salad.