This is a dish I’ve been making for years and am kinda surprised I haven’t ever written about it on Stonesoup. About time! It’s a brilliant example of how using spices can transform a boring old dish (Italian meatballs) into something exotic and super tasty.
Moroccan Meatball Tajine
Ingredients
- 450 g ground (minced) beef
- 125 g almond meal (almond flour)
- 2 teaspoons ras el hanout baharat or ground coriander
- 1 cup tomato passata / puree
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 bunch coriander (cilantro) cilantro, leaves picked
- cauliflower rice baby spinach or cooked couscous to serve
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 250C (480F). Combine beef and almond meal and your chosen spice in a large bowl. Season generously with salt. Roll teaspoonfuls of the mixture into balls and place in an ovenproof dish.
- Pour over the tomato passata or puree and top with butter. Bake uncovered for 15 minutes or longer until the meatballs are browned on top and cooked through.
- Serve meatballs on a bed of cauliflower rice, baby spinach or couscous with coriander leaves on top.
Variations
to serve with couscous/more substantial – cook couscous according to the packet but add some extra butter.
to serve with cauli rice – grate 1/2 small cauliflower using your food processor or a box grater and serve meatballs on top. No need to cook or warm it.
different accompaniments – great wrapped in lebanese bread, tortillas or other flat bread. Could be served with your favourite pasta.
short on time – Simmer the tajine on the stovetop until the meatballs are just cooked through – about 15 minutes.. You might also like to skip the meatball rolling and just cook the meat more like a bolognese sauce. A third option is to bake meatballs at 250C (480F). Will take about 20 minutes.
different meat – beef is a favourite but lamb is also great. Pork, chicken, turkey or buffalo could all be used.
vegetarian – try adding the spice above some eggplant or to these lentil balls.
more veg – add carrots and peppers to the sauce.
nut-free – replace almond meal with soft bread crumbs or cooked quinoa.
dairy-free – replace butter with lots of extra virgin olive oil.
more substantial (low carb) – serve more meatballs!
different herbs – mint, basil, parsley or baby spinach are all great.
italian meatballs – just skip the spice and serve with basil instead of the coriander.
indian meatballs – use garam masala as your spice and serve with a dollop of natural yoghurt.
Waste Avoidance Strategy
onion – will keep in the pantry for months. Best if in a dark corner in a brown paper bag.
minced (ground) beef – freeze it.
almond meal / ras el hanout, baharat or ground coriander / tomato passata or puree / couscous – keep them in the pantry.
butter – keeps in the fridge for months.
coriander (cilantro) – freeze it in a plastic bag.
cauliflower – ungrated cauli will keep for weeks in a plastic bag in the fridge. Can be frozen but the texture isn’t as good when defrosted.
Prep Ahead
Yes. Just cook as per the recipe but keep the cauliflower rice, baby spinach or cooked couscous separate. Leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or can be frozen. To serve, warm on the oven and then serve with your preferred side.
Add to my Old Favourite Recipes
Made this per the winter meal plan for this week. I subbed cashew flour for the almond flour and serve with couscous and salad greens. I also subbed parsley for the cilantro. Very delicious, flavorful recipe!
Good to know that cashew flour works well here Claire!
This recipe is intriguing, except for one thing: I HATE canned tomatoes in any form (I got thoroughly sick of them several years ago on a cruise). Any ideas for a substitute? Thank you.
I enjoyed these using baharat and thought the leftovers were equally, if not more flavorful. After reading the linked info on ras el hanout, have plans to order and try also.
Yes definitely get some ral el hanout Melanie – it’s so good!
Tried it this evening with ras el hanout, Jules. It’s even better than with the baharat…who knew meatballs could be so decadent!
I put some ras el hanout in a carrot salad last night Melanie – and it was soo good!
I actually thought about you when I was grabbing my spice box. Great minds 🙂
I didn’t have ras el hanout or baharat, so went for half smoked paprika and half cumin, which was very tasty. I only had 300g of mince, but that was more than enough. My only problem was that, even after I squashed them together in my hands, the meatballs turned out rather crumbly. Why don’t you add eggs to yours? Quite good.
I don’t like the texture of egg in meatballs – if overcooked they go rubbery. And the salt is enough to get the meat to stick together.
It didn’t for me. I’ll try some egg next time.
It’s weird they were crumbly for you Mark – yes egg will work but I’d love to figure out why. Did you use the almond meal? I know you’re not a fan 😉
Yes I did, a bit more than called for in fact, 100g rather than the 85g for the 2/3 amount of the mince that I had.
ooh I wonder if there was too much almond meal – and that’s why they were crumbly?
I’m going to try a high almond meal version next time I make meatballs.
I made this with Cajun seasoning, as my local Supabarn had neither of the suggested spice blends, and attempted lentil balls which once again failed to stay together in the tomato sauce. If I ever try this again, I’ll just lay down the lentil mix as a crust on the bottom of a lined dish. I also added a tin of kidney beans, as suggested in the notes but not the recipe proper. Still tasted good.
Glad it still tasted good Mark 🙂
I made this with chicken, panko (had almond flour, not meal, unfortunately) coriander, diced roasted tomatoes, and olive oil and sorry to say, it wasn’t great. Not sure exactly what did it, but the flavor combination just wasn’t very good – perhaps I strayed from the recipe too much by using panko and the almonds add flavor. I was surprised – I’ve made the tuna ragu several times, and it’s always been fab, so I’m guessing it’s me, not the recipe, in this case.
Hi MK!
So glad you reported back on your disappointing result.
First almond flour and almond meal are practically the same thing so you could have used almond flour.
I think you hit the nail on the head with the panko as being the problem. It’s very different in texture and much less flavoursome than the almond meal. And much less fat so I can imagine your meatballs would have been very dry.
Also using chicken instead of beef or lamb would have also meant less flavour.
If you’re willing to risk another go with almond meal I think you’ll find a huge difference!
And remember to add salt – that is huge for getting the flavour right.
Keep experimenting!
Jx
Thanks for responding, Jules! Good to know that almond flour can be subbed for almond meal – when I tried Googling to see if that were possible, everything I read told me the opposite – that almond meal can be subbed for almond flour, so I wasn’t sure enough to try using almond flour. Wasn’t sure if that would give the necessary texture, so I fell back on panko. Will try again!
Oh excellent MK!
In all my recipes they’re definitely interchangeable 🙂
And please keep me posted if you have any other less than ideal outcomes – I’m here to help you
This was delicious! We had it for dinner yesterday, using baharat. My partner- who isn’t necessarily a fan of almond- loved it. He had it with rice, I had it with cauliflower mash & some fresh baby spinach. Thanks Jules, this is a gorgeous recipe, I had the leftovers for lunch today too.
oh yum Maria! So glad you both enjoyed it 🙂
In fact I’m making it again next week
I made this for lunch today accompanied with your spiced cabbage with feta. Beautiful! I love how the meatballs have a crunchy crusty top, yet bake moist and tasty in the sauce. I added a bay leaf to the passata. So good how such simple recipes can be so tasty & satisfying. Thank you again for sharing these, Jules! 🙂
LOVE the ideas of serving these with cabbage Amrita!
And I haven’t forgotten about your chicken 🙂
Have I missed something when do you put in the onion in the recipe, you mention it in ‘short on time’
Sorry to be confusing Denise!
The original recipe had you soften a diced onion and add it to the meatball mixture. But I updated the recipe to make it more simple (you don’t really need the onion). But forgot to update the variations.
Thanks for spotting the error!
Jx
I used couscous instead of the cauliflower rice, and a box of stuffing mix instead of the bread crumbs instead of the almond meal (almonds are sooooo expensive, and I’m not even sure where I can get almond meal at). It tastes yummy, but I feel awful about how unhealthy I made the meal 🙁
I get my almond meal from the health food store because they sell it in 1kg bags and it’s cheaper but you can also get it in the nut section of the supermarket
Don’t feel bad… It was still much healthier than something processed!
Jx