Stranger Foods

Pork, juniper & pink peppercorn meatballs with leeks & puy lentils

Serves 2-3 | Prep 10 mins | Cook 30 mins

These are some of the nicest meatballs I’ve ever had and it’s well worth looking at the spice section in the supermarket for the slightly more unusual juniper berries and pink peppercorns (they won’t go to waste, as you’ll definitely want to make these again). Use good-quality sausages, as the texture works really well here and you’ll need the added seasoning from them.

Source: The Quick Roasting Tin

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

x0.5

3 leeks, halved and cut into 1 cm half-moons
1x 250 g vac pack of cooked Puy lentils
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sea salt flakes
1 tbsp juniper berries
1 tbsp pink peppercorns
1 lemon, zest and juice
1 free-range egg, beaten
6 free-range pork sausages
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
handful fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped

Instructions

°C

°F

Show amounts inline

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Tip the leeks and Puy lentils into a roasting tin with the olive oil and sea salt and mix well.
Grind the juniper and pink peppercorns to a rough powder, then add them to a bowl with the lemon zest and egg.
Squeeze the sausagemeat from the sausage casings into the bowl and mix well with your hands until everything is evenly incorporated. Take walnut-sized balls of the mixture (this is easier with wet hands) and form into meatballs, popping them into the roasting tin as you go. You should have about 18 meatballs by the end.
Transfer the tin to the oven and bake for , until the meatballs are golden and crisp on top.
Whisk the lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of sea salt together and dress the meatballs and lentils with it. Scatter with the parsley and a pinch more of the pink peppercorns if you like and serve hot.

Similar recipes

Photograph of Lemon-scented pork meatballs with fennel & white wine.

Lemon-scented pork meatballs with fennel & white wine Photograph of Bean & pasta meatball stew.

Bean & pasta meatball stew Photograph of Meatball pasta bake.

Meatball pasta bake Photograph of Italian meatballs.

Italian meatballs