Recipe: Nigella Lawson’s Thai Turkey Meatballs (2024)

• 4

  zucchini (approximately 1 1/2 pounds)

• 1 pound

  ground turkey

• 3

  scallions

• 1 clove

  garlic, peeled and finely grated or minced

• 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated (1 1/2 teaspoons)

• Small bunch

  fresh cilantro, chopped

• 1 teaspoon

  crushed red pepper flakes

• Zest and juice of 1 lime, preferably unwaxed

• 1 teaspoon

  sea salt flakes or kosher salt, plus more to taste

• 2 teaspoons

  vegetable oil

• 3 tablespoons

  Thai green curry paste, or to taste

• 1

  (14-ounce) can coconut milk

• 2 cups

  chicken broth

• 3 tablespoons

  fish sauce

• 12 ounces

  sugar snap peas

To serve:

• Small handful

  Thai basil leaves

• 2 to 3

  limes, cut into wedges

1. To make the meatballs, take one of the zucchini (approximately 6 ounces) and trim the ends. Using a vegetable peeler, remove some of the skin in stripes, and then coarsely grate the zucchini onto a piece of paper towel: I recommend you use a coarse box cheese grater here; if the grater's too fine, the zucchini will just turn to mush. Press as much water as you can out of the grated zucchini.

2. Put the grated zucchini, and any excess liquid now squeezed out of it, into a big bowl, and add the ground turkey, breaking it up as you tip it in.

3. Trim the scallions and halve lengthways, then finely chop them, putting the white part in with your turkey and reserving the green part for later.

4. Add the garlic and ginger, then add 2 tablespoons of the chopped cilantro, along with the crushed red pepper flakes, lime zest, and salt.

5. Using a fork or your hands (the latter being my preference), mix the meatball mixture thoroughly but lightly. If you handle it too much, you will make heavy, dense meatballs, which you don't want. Once the mixture's gently combined, shape into small meatballs, using a heaping teaspoonful as a guide. You should get about 30 meatballs, provided you don't start making ever bigger ones as you go, which is easily done.

6. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or pan (with a lid), and fry the chopped green part of the scallion briefly, just turning it in the hot pan. Now add the Thai green curry paste, and then use the cream from the top of the coconut milk, whisking it into the paste over the heat.

7. Pour in the rest of the coconut milk, along with the chicken broth and fish sauce, and let it come to a boil.

8. Peel the rest of the zucchini in stripes as before, then halve them lengthways, quarter them in the same way, and slice into (roughly) 1/2-inch pieces. Add these to the bubbling pan, then gently drop in the meatballs, letting them fall in circles as you work around the pan from the outer edge inward, and leaving them unprodded, as they will be very tender and easy to break up.

9. Wait for the pan to come to a bubble again, then clamp on the lid, turn down the heat, and leave to simmer for 20 minutes. Check that the zucchini are tender and the meatballs are cooked through, before stirring in the sugar snap peas and the juice of the zested lime. Check the seasoning, and adjust as you wish.

10. Take off the heat and scatter with Thai basil (if you have some) or just sprinkle with a little more of the chopped cilantro. And I like to chop some limes into wedges and bring to the table for people to spritz over as they eat.