Danish meatballs with kefir sumac dip
I have been making Danish meat balls for years and recently started putting potato starch and kefir in them to make them more gut friendly with the result that they taste even yummier than before. These are delicious freshly-cooked, or eaten at room temperature from a lunch box the next day with a bagged salad or with a kefir dip on the side. They also freeze well in batches, so if you need easy-access satiating protein with a powerhouse of brain-boosting vitamins, minerals and amino acid (B12, folate, zinc, magnesium, folate, and tryptophan plus more) cooked in delicious gut-friendly polyphenol-rich olive oil, these are ideal.
I use potato starch, a prebiotic fibre to feed good bacteria in the gut, to make these stick together, and fermented milk kefir to make the meat really tender and delicious.
The meatballs:
Makes enough for 6-8 servings
500g minced pork
500g minced veal (or you could use another 500g of minced pork if you prefer, though mixing with veal gives a lighter texture)
1 small onion, peeled and grated
2 eggs
1 tbs potato starch
60ml of fermented milk kefir (about quarter of an American cup)
Half a teaspoon of sea salt
Sprinkling of ground black pepper
4 tbs extra virgin olive oil
Optional extra: grate half a courgette into the mixture too.
Mix everything together in a large bowl.
Taking 2 dessert spoons: use one to pick up a spoonful of the meat mixture, and another to press the meat into shape on top.
Put the olive oil in a frying pan, and heat to a medium heat, put the shaped meat balls into the oil and brown on both sides (takes about 10 minutes).
Transfer the meat balls to a baking dish and put in the over on 200degrees C (about 400 degrees F) for 15 minutes till cooked all the way through.
Another serving suggestion: Serve with purple cabbage sauerkraut or gherkins (both can be bought in the fridge section of health food stores for the probiotics in them) and potato salad containing cold potatoes with resistant starch to feed good bacteria in the gut (see The Gut Makeover Recipe book for potato salad recipes).
Kefir and sumac dip
An American cup of fermented milk kefir (240ml)
1 or half a clove of garlic peeled and crushed into small pieces
Half a lemon squeezed
3 tbs of extra virgin olive oil
A pinch of sea salt
A tsp of sumac (this is a wonderful Middle Eastern limey flavoured spice available in many regular supermarkets)
Put all the ingredients in a bowl and stir, and serve alongside the meatballs to use as a dip for the meat and salad.
Jeannette Hyde Nutritional Therapist
Jeannette Hyde is a leading central London-based gut-health nutritionist, writer, and educator. She is author of The Gut Makeover and writes a weekly Substack of the same name.
