Thai Salad with Peanut Meatballs
Peanut butter in a Thai salad usually means the dressing. Here it is hiding somewhere else: a teaspoon worked into lean beef with soy sauce, rolled small, and browned in the pan until nutty.
Underneath sits the raw crunch. Ribboned carrot, strips of bell pepper, cucumber, and a handful of salad leaves, all tossed in olive oil whisked with soy, lime, and crushed garlic. And that olive oil is not only there for taste. The color in carrots and peppers is locked inside pigments that only cross into your body when they are dissolved in fat, so the dressing you pour on is what actually carries them across.
Fifteen minutes, 27g of protein, and a slice of toasted whole wheat alongside.
Peanut butter in a Thai salad usually means the dressing. Here it is hiding somewhere else: a teaspoon worked into lean beef with soy sauce, rolled small, and browned in the pan until nutty.
Underneath sits the raw crunch. Ribboned carrot, strips of bell pepper, cucumber, and a handful of salad leaves, all tossed in olive oil whisked with soy, lime, and crushed garlic. And that olive oil is not only there for taste. The color in carrots and peppers is locked inside pigments that only cross into your body when they are dissolved in fat, so the dressing you pour on is what actually carries them across.
Fifteen minutes, 27g of protein, and a slice of toasted whole wheat alongside.
Ingredients
- 96% lean ground beef 3 ounce
- soy sauce 1 tablespoon
- peanut butter 1 teaspoon
- olive oil 1.5 tablespoon
- cucumber 0.5
- carrot 1
- bell pepper 1
- garlic 1 clove
- lime juice 1 squeeze
- mixed salad 1 handful
- bread, whole wheat 1 slice
Method
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Place the ground beef, half of the soy sauce and the peanut butter in a bowl. Mix it with your hands and shape into small meatballs.
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Heat half of the oil in a frying pan and cook the meatballs for 5 minutes until they're browned and cooked through.
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Halve the cucumber lengthwise and slice into half circles. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the carrot lengthwise into strips. Cut the bell pepper into thin strips. Crush the garlic clove.
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Prepare a dressing using the remaining oil, the rest of the soy sauce, the lime juice and garlic.
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Place the mixed salad along with the cucumber, carrot and bell pepper in a bowl. Pour the dressing over and toss together.
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Serve the Thai salad with the meatballs. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve with (toasted) bread.
The peanut butter earns its place before it ever touches your tongue. 96% lean beef has almost no fat of its own, so it cooks up dry and tight. Working a single teaspoon of peanut butter into the raw mince drops in a little fat and protein that keeps the meatballs tender, while the soy sauce seasons them from the inside. Brown them hard on one side before turning, so you get a proper crust without overcooking the middle.
Why This Works
Behind this recipe
Why put the peanut butter in the meatballs instead of the dressing?
Two reasons, and neither is tradition. Very lean beef has almost no fat to keep it moist, so a teaspoon of peanut butter worked into the mince adds just enough fat and protein to stop the meatballs drying out. It also seasons them from the inside, giving a rounder, nuttier flavor than salt and pepper alone. The dressing gets its Thai character from soy, lime, and garlic instead.
Can I skip the oil in the dressing to make it lighter?
You can, but the raw carrot and bell pepper pay the price. Their color sits in fat-soluble pigments, and research on raw-vegetable salads found that a fat-free dressing left absorption close to zero, while adding oil raised it sharply. The dressing oil here is doing real nutritional work, not just adding calories.
Read the full evidence reviewIs 27g of protein enough for one meal?
It sits well inside the range researchers have looked at. The old idea that the body can only use 20 to 30g of protein per sitting has been challenged, and the 27g here from the beef, bread, and peanut butter is a solid, normal amount for one plate.
Read the full evidence review
