Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Dutch Style Meatballs Recipe- Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free Bitterballen

Dutch meatballs, mustard, gluten free pasta, and veggie salad with
homemade sweet and sour dressing
I don't know about you, but when I see pictures of food on the internet, it often inspires me to want to make it and have it at home, even if I've never tasted it before, and have no idea what it would taste like.
I saw this "quiz", saying "How many different Dutch foods have you eaten?" and one of the foods listed was bitterballen. Until that point, I had never heard of bitterballen, let alone eaten them, but the picture made me do some googling, and I discovered that bitterballen are meatballs made out of either lamb or beef, seasoned with nutmeg, and breaded, then eaten with mustard.
They usually are made with a roux, which contains gluten and dairy, both of which I don't eat... so I decided to make mock bitterballen, just plain meatballs inspired by the bitterballen, but not quite that. I used ground turkey for mine, but you can also use ground beef for them. I baked mine instead of deep frying them... They were quite good, even if they aren't exactly bitterballen.
These are kind of similar in taste to Swedish meatballs, but are different and unique. I really liked them... I used homemade gluten free breadcrumbs made out of stale homemade gluten free flat bread, but you can make them out of any stale bread, gluten or not, flat or not.
These are good for people that are nightshade free, so long as you make sure that your gluten free breadcrumbs are made without any nightshades.

Dutch Style Meatballs Recipe- Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free Bitterballen

Ingredients:
1 medium onion
2 cups ground turkey or beef (about 1 lb)
3/4 cup bread crumbs (gluten free) plus 1/2 cup
1/2 cup ground flax seeds
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
Oil for deep frying (optional)

Instructions:
1. Grate the onion.

2. Mix the ground meat with 3/4 cups bread crumbs, flax seeds, garlic powder, nutmeg, salt, and the grated onion.

3. Form into balls, roughly the size of a super ball, then roll around in the 1/2 cup of bread crumbs until completely coated.

4. Either line a baking pan with baking paper and put all the meatballs on the tray, and bake until browned on the bottom, or deep fry until brown.

5. Serve with dijon mustard.

Enjoy!

Ever eaten bitterballen? Homemade, or store bought? If homemade, how did you make yours? Does this look like a recipe you'd try out?
Do you also get inspired to try random foods you've never eaten before just by reading a bit about them on the internet, the way I did with bitterballen?

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