What I love about Pumpkin Coconut Curry Chicken Meatballs
This has to be one of my absolute favourite dinner recipes! You know how much I love curry and I love pumpkin too, so this is perfect. Pumpkin is unique in that it goes well with both sweet and savoury dishes. These Pumpkin Coconut Curry Chicken Meatballs are so delicious and just bursting with flavour.
First of all, it’s a warm, comforting meal that is tasty and satisfying; perfect for those cooler fall days. The meatballs contain a unique and flavourful blend of spices. These include coriander, cumin, cinnamon, and turmeric. These spices are all known for having a warming effect on the body. Plus. this recipe is dairy-free, gluten-free and grain-free and low carb (if you do cauliflower rice). What’s more? It has no added sugars and it is made with simple, wholesome ingredients to fill you up.
Everything comes together all in one pan which makes for quick and easy clean-up after cooking. I love to serve it hot over warm basmati rice or cauliflower rice. I top it with a little cracked black pepper and fresh cilantro too. It’s so good! If you don’t have ground chicken, you can fry up diced, boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs with the spices. It would be equally as good. Ground turkey would work too!
What you will need to make Pumpkin Coconut Curry Chicken Meatballs
Here’s a list of ingredients that you will need:
- Ground chicken – Look for organic ground chicken if you can find it! It’s best to consume chicken that is free-range, organic grain-fed and not given antibiotics. If I can’t find organic ground chicken, I’ll cut up some organic chicken breasts and spin them in the food processor to make it ground. If you can’t find ground chicken altogether, ground turkey works as well.
- Spices – You will need coriander, cumin, turmeric, salt, pepper, cayenne and curry powder for this recipe.
- White onion – You can use white or yellow onion or shallots here.
- Garlic – I love garlic, especially in curry dishes so don’t be shy here! 6 cloves might seem like a lot but it’s actually perfect!
- Ginger – You will need 1 knob of ginger about 4 inches long to make 4 tbsp fresh grated ginger.
- Coconut milk – I recommend using full-fat coconut milk for the best, creamiest results!
- Pumpkin puree – Check the label on the can. Confirm that it says pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling. It can be easy to mix these two up.
- Tomato paste – You only need 2 tbsp of tomato paste for this recipe. I recommend buying tomato paste in a tube so that it can be saved in the fridge for later! It’s always a pain to have to open a can of tomato paste only to use 1/4 of it.
For serving:
- Organic basmati rice
- Fresh cilantro
- Juice of lemon or lime
Pumpkin Coconut Curry Chicken Meatballs
Ingredients
For the chicken meatballs:
- 2 lbs organic ground chicken
- 2 tsp each coriander, cumin, turmeric
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp each ground cinnamon, black pepper, ceyenne
For the pumpkin curry sauce:
- 1 tbsp coconut oil for cooking
- 1 white onion diced
- 2 tbsp fresh ginger peeled and grated
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 3 tsp curry powder
- 2 400ml cans full-fat coconut milk
- 1 1/4 cups pure pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- cooked basmati rice for serving
- fresh cilantro for serving
- juice of lemon or lime for serving
Instructions
For the meatballs:
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, add the ground chicken, coriander, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, cayenne, black pepper and salt and mix with your hands until combined. Wash your hands thoroughly.
- Heat a large, deep cast iron pan over medium heat and add the coconut oil.
- Once the coconut oil has melted, use a small cookie scoop to scoop the meatballs into the pan. Fry them on all sides for about 5 minutes or until crispy and browned.
- Remove the meatballs from the pan and set aside on a plate. They don't need to be fully cooked at this point.
For the pumpkin curry sauce:
- To the same pan, add the onions, ginger and garlic and fry until softened. Add the curry powder and sauté for another minute.
- Add the coconut milk, pumpkin puree and tomato paste and simmer for 10 minutes until thickened.
- Add the meatballs back into the pan and cook for a further 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
- Serve hot with basmati rice, fresh cilantro and a squeeze of lemon or lime.
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