With cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, scallions, ginger and garlic, plus sesame oil and soy sauce, these pork meatballs don’t scrimp on flavor. A sweet yet spicy mix of hoisin and Sriracha does double duty as glaze and dipping sauce, while Boston lettuce makes them easy—and fun—to eat.
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr 15 min |
| Prep: | 45 min |
| Cook: | 30 min |
| Yield: | 6 to 8 servings (about 18 meatballs) |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 cups thinly sliced green cabbage (about 1/4 head)
- Kosher salt
- 8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, caps thinly sliced
- Freshly ground white pepper
- 2 large eggs plus 1 egg white
- 1 1/2 pounds ground pork
- 4 scallions, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- One 2-inch piece ginger, peeled and finely grated (about 1 tablespoon)
- 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1/2 cup hoisin sauce
- 2 teaspoons Sriracha chile sauce
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3 tablespoons sesame seeds
- 1 head Boston lettuce, leaves separated
Instructions
- Make the meatballs: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the cabbage and season with 1/4 teaspoon salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 4 minutes. Transfer the cabbage to a plate to cool. Wipe out the pan, then add the remaining 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and the mushrooms. Season with 1/4 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer the mushrooms to the plate with the cabbage to cool.
- Lightly beat the eggs and egg white in a large bowl. Add the pork, scallions, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar and cornstarch. Add the cabbage, mushrooms and a few grinds of pepper and mix with your hands until just combined (do not overmix). Dampen your hands and shape the meat mixture into 18 balls (about 2 inches each); arrange on the prepared baking sheet.
- Make the sauce: Mix the hoisin sauce, Sriracha, vinegar, sugar and 1 tablespoon water in a bowl; set aside 1/2 cup for serving. Brush the meatballs with the remaining sauce and sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Bake until cooked through, 18 to 22 minutes. Serve in lettuce leaves with the reserved sauce.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 8 servings |
| Calories | 384 |
| Total Fat | 27 g |
| Saturated Fat | 8 g |
| Carbohydrates | 17 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Sugar | 9 g |
| Protein | 19 g |
| Cholesterol | 108 mg |
| Sodium | 563 mg |
Reviews
These meatballs are delicious! Great taste! I made them smaller , cocktail size and couldn’t stop eating them.
These are absolutely fantastic. The only thing I did a little differently was substituting shallots for green onions, I skipped the cabbage and I sauteed the shallots and garlic with the shiitake. I also thought it would work better to mince the shiitake mushrooms instead of just slicing to have them more evenly distributed in the meatballs. They were outrageously good! Little umami bombs!
These were amazing!!! I will definitely make them again!
Made these recently for a family get-together and they were a huge hit. I did however, make a couple small changes. I used a cookie scoop to measure out the meatballs making them bite size. Instead of brushing with the sauce (which I doubled), I baked them right away “naked”. I heated the sauce in a saucepan and when the meatballs came out of the oven, I added them to the sauce to coat. I then served them in a chafing dish to keep them warm with fancy toothpicks on the side. Didn’t bother with the lettuce at all. I also used only one egg and added about 1/2 cup panko based on comments that it was too wet. I ended up with about 3 dozen meatballs.
Excellent!!!
This recipe is excellent. I did change up a few things- used 1lb of pork AND 1lb of ground chicken. I found even with two pounds of meat, the mixture was still too wet, so I added between 1/4-1/2 cup of panko breadcrumbs. Made them slightly larger, so they baked for 25min. I skipped the sauce and instead serves this over cold vermicelli and greens with Nuoc Cham and Sriracha.
the cornstarch works as the binder
Really delicious. The lettuce though is too big. I used brussel sprout leaves..made little bite size meatballs. Much better presentation
Great recipe even though I had to make my own hoisin sauce (Thanks to Google!) and coldn’t find any lettuce cups for a more elegant presentaion.
The book club thought at first they were looking at dessert with lettuce on the side.!
Anyway, I see that many cooks mentioned the wetness/stickiness of the mixture. My solution: I chilled it overnight. I didn’t even need to wet my hands; I used a 1/4 cup scoop and shaped them in my hands with no difficulty.
Was so amazing.. I did it with ground chicken & added breadcrumbs to thicken up