Smoky turkish meatballs with pomegranate sauce

Pomegranate and Turkish cuisine go hand in hand. This colourful sweet and sour fruit brings a lot of vivacity to various Turkish dishes, ranging from salads to the tastiest sauces. The Turkish meatballs we make here get a lacquer based on this delicious fruit. Have fun!

Gang Appetizer, Main Course

Keuken Turkish

Trefwoord Alabama white sauce, bbq, BBQ rub, classic II, Kamado Joe, kamado recipes, meatballs, Middle eastern, pomegranate, Smoky, soapstone

Voorbereidingstijd 10

Bereidingstijd 1 10

Totale tijd 1 20

Equipment

Soapstone (optional)
BBQ with lid
Smokewood chunks (here apple)
Saucepan

Ingrediënten

600 grams of mixed minced meat see description below for a link to homemade mince
chopped nuts and cranberries finishing optional

For the Pomegranate sauce

400 ml pomegranate juice
2 tbsp mint lemon syrup
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp ketchup

For the Rub

1 part mint
1 part oregano
1 part ground fennel seed
1 part ground cumin seed
1 part cinnamon
Pepper and salt optional if you're going to make your own mince

Instructies

For the sauce

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Allow to reduce to desired thickness and slightly sticky.

For the Turkish herbs rub

Mix all ingredients by hand.

For the meatballs

Mix the herbs to taste under the minced meat. For this recipe I used 5 tl. of the herb mixture with mixed minced meat from the butcher.
Form balls of the minced meat and place them in the fridge for an hour so they can become firm again.
In the meantime, prepare your BBQ for an indirect session at low temperature (+- 100°C). When using the kamado joe with soapstone (optional) place it on the BBQ so it can heat up.
Add a few cubes of smoke wood between the coals (in this case Apple Smoke Chunks) and wait until the smoke becomes thin and turns light blue.
Place the balls on the soapstone (this way they can also colour while smoking) or on the grill. When using the soapstone, it can be useful to rotate the balls once every ten minutes so that all sides colour evenly.
Smoke the balls for +- 1 hour at a low temperature (+- 100°C). (depending on the size, here slightly larger than a ping-pong ball).
Increase the temperature in your BBQ to 150°C and in the meantime roll the balls through the sauce so that they have an even layer of sauce everywhere and place them for five minutes on top directly so that the sauce can caramelize.