Grilled Meatballs Variation 2 - Lentil Collard Meatballs

So last week we brought you the grill variant of Brooklyn Farm Girl's Baked Lettuce Soy Sauce Meatballs, but you know that I never make just one recipe at a time. So here's another variation on the grilled meatballs idea. As you can see from my garden box, I have lots of lettuce, but I also have lots of collards. Could they also be incorporated into meatballs?

Pictured, top to bottom: beets, collards, kale, lettuce

I think I'm trying to see how far from meatballs I can take this and still call it meatballs. Certainly meat is not the main ingredient here. It adds some nice flavor and holds things together.

These come out a bit blander and a bit drier than last week's variant - not unpleasantly so by any means, but they're less conducive to just popping in your mouth. These I would serve with some sort of sauce - maybe a garlicky yogurt-based one, maybe a chutney. Alternatively, you could just cut down the proportion of lentils and collards to meat.

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground meat (I used beef, you can use whatever you like)
• 2 cups cooked lentils
• 2 cups cooked collards
• 2 eggs
• 3 cloves garlic
• splash of oil
• splash of soy sauce
• seasonings (I used about a tablespoon of creole seasoning mix)

Instructions

Wash your collards and slice them finely. You can wrap your bunch of collards to form a tight roll and cut thin slices right through it; that'll give you about the size you need. Depending on how big and tough your collards are, you can also include the stems if you cut them finely enough. If they're particularly robust, though, tear out the stems.

Heat the oil in a large skillet, saute your garlic, dump the collards in and start cooking them down, stirring frequently. You may need to add a splash of water to help them cook down. Add a splash of soy sauce, at least two tablespoons worth. You want the greens to be thoroughly wilted. They won't lose as much volume as the lettuce you cooked last week, but they will shrink a bit.

Cook your lentils, if you haven't already. Actually, if you're not starting with cooked lentils, you'd better do that as the first step. Lentils don't take as long as other dried beans, but they'll take you at least half an hour.

Mix all ingredients - meat, lentils, collards, eggs, seasonings - together. If you want to, blend everything in a food processor. I didn't, in this case, but I would next time. It's a pain to clean and sanitize a food processor after having meat in it, but it does give a very fine even texture to the mixture.







Form the mixture into golf ball sized meatballs, and place them on a greased cookie tray.

Cook in a 350 oven or a medium grill for 30-45 minutes or until cooked through.