Momo Meatballs
This is one of my favorite recipes, inspired by a mind-blowingly delicious meal of momos (aka Nepalese pot stickers) I enjoyed one year at the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco. Folding beautiful dumplings is time-consuming and takes a lot of experience, however, so I've instead taken the basic flavors and infused them into turkey meatballs, adding rice to the ground meat for a one-pot meal—less work, similar flavors, and totally satisfying. I like them on their own, on top of zucchini noodles, or served with cauliflower rice on the side.
This is one of my favorite recipes, inspired by a mind-blowingly delicious meal of momos (aka Nepalese pot stickers) I enjoyed one year at the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco. Folding beautiful dumplings is time-consuming and takes a lot of experience, however, so I've instead taken the basic flavors and infused them into turkey meatballs, adding rice to the ground meat for a one-pot meal—less work, similar flavors, and totally satisfying. I like them on their own, on top of zucchini noodles, or served with cauliflower rice on the side.
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 yellow onion (chopped)
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil (or other neutral oil with high smoke
- 1 can crushed tomatoes (28-ounce can, about 3 cups)
- 1 pound ground turkey (93 percent lean)
- 1/2 cup long grain white rice ( or quick-cooking brown ri
- 1 teaspoon ras el hanout spice blend
- 1 bunch cilantro (leaves and stems included)
- 1 large green onion (white and green parts cut into 1/2-i
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper (freshly ground )
- Carbohydrate 0.076072708488457 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0.75647625 g
- Fiber 0.0127416669978327 g
- Protein 0.00691833334016381 g
- Saturated Fat 0.1077225 g
- Serving Size 1 1 meatball (49g)
- Sodium 151.568804167019 mg
- Sugar 0.0633310414906243 g
- Trans Fat 0.03408375 g
- Calories 7 calories
Step-by-step
- Select the Sauté setting on the Instant Pot and heat the oil. Add the onion and sauté for 10 minutes, until softened and beginning to brown.
- Add the tomatoes and water, stir to mix well, and bring to a simmer.
- In a bowl, combine the turkey, rice, ras el hanout, and salt and mix with your hands until all of the ingredients are evenly distributed. Don’t worry about overmixing, as you want the rice and spices to be evenly incorporated into the meat.
- When everything is well combined, shape the mixture into 12 meatballs each slightly larger than a golf ball.
- Place the meatballs in a single layer in the simmering sauce and spoon a little of the sauce over the top of each one.
- Secure the lid and set the Pressure Release to Sealing. Press the Cancel button to reset the cooking program, then select the Poultry setting and set the cooking time for 15 minutes at high pressure.
- While the meatballs are cooking, make the chutney.
- In a mini chopper or in a mortar with a pestle, combine all of the chutney ingredients and process or grind into a rough paste.
- When the timer goes off, you can perform a quick release by moving the Pressure Release to Venting, or you can let the pressure release naturally and leave the meatballs on the Keep Warm setting for up to 10 hours.
- Serve the meatballs in their sauce with a spoonful of chutney on top of each.
Intricate dumpling wrappers require skilled labor and dedicated hours, yet grounding those same regional flavor pairings inside an automated pressure cooker bypasses the traditional rolling pin entirely. Nepalese street food relies on aromatic herbs, warming spice blends, and pungent dipping sauces, elements that translate cleanly into standard ground proteins without losing their distinctive character.
- Brown the onions for a full ten minutes in the multicooker base until golden edges form, creating a deep fond that seasons the canned tomato base.
- Mix the raw white rice directly into the lean turkey mixture by hand; the grains absorb moisture from the meat and swelling starches bind the spheres together during pressure cooking.
- Pulp the cilantro, fresh lemon juice, sesame oil, and cayenne into a coarse paste using a mortar or food processor to replicate traditional achaar condiments.
- Allow fifteen minutes of high pressure cooking time for the poultry and grain combination to tenderize completely inside the simmering liquid.
- Utilize the natural release setting with the keep-warm function engaged for up to ten hours if scheduling requires extended holding periods.
Overpacking the pressure vessel inhibits proper steam circulation and leaves central portions undercooked. Maintaining a single layer of formed spheres prevents structural collapse while submerged in the tomato broth.
