Thai chicken meat ball salad with zesty coriander satay dressing

I am trying to collect as many low carb, high veg, high protein recipes as I can and last week I picked up an old Food & Home magazine (September 2007) and found a recipe I simply had to make - thai chicken meat ball salad. 

I made a few minor changes, like baking the meat balls and not frying them and tweaking the ingredients here and there due to what I had available. The end result was absolutely delicious. Seriously tasty while being super low in fat, high in lean protein and loads of raw veggies. 

Am sure this will be a super recipe for summer entertaining. 


Thai chicken meat ball salad

Serves 4 light main meal portions

Meat balls

500g of chicken mince

60ml of fresh coriander leaves, picked and chopped

125ml of spring onion, finely chopped

1 tsp of garlic, finely chopped

2 tsp of fresh ginger, finely chopped

1 tsp of chilli, seeded and finely chopped

1 tsp of lemon zest, finely grated

½ tsp of salt

¼ tsp of ground black pepper

1 large egg

Dressing

125ml coconut milk

2 Tbsp of peanut butter

4 tsp of fish sauce

1 Tbsp of the juice from the pickled sushi ginger

1 Tbsp of lemon juice

2 Tbsp of coriander leaves, washed and picked

2 Tbsp of desiccated coconut

Salad

6 baby cucumbers (or ¼ of regular cucumber), shaved into ribbons

2 medium carrots, shaved into ribbons

2 handfuls of watercress (or baby salad leaves of choice)

1 baby red cabbage (or an 1/8 of a regular red cabbage), finely shredded

½ tsp of salt

½ a cup of roasted peanuts

1 Tbsp of pickled sushi ginger, roughly chopped

Pre heat the oven to 220°C and place the rack in the middle of the oven. Line a large baking tray with foil or baking paper.

Combine all the meat ball ingredients and shape into walnut sized balls. I used two soup spoons to do this as the paste was really sticky. Arrange them on the baking tray and bake for 15 minutes. If they are not golden on top switch on the grill and grill them for a few more minutes until golden brown.

While the meat balls are baking blend all the dressing ingredients in a blender until fine and set aside in the fridge until ready for use.

Toss all the salad ingredients with the salt in a mixing bowl. Arrange on a platter or on individual plates, garnish with the peanuts, sushi ginger and extra coriander.

Arrange the warm meat balls on the side and drizzle liberally with the dressing.