Mostly greens, meal-prep meatballs
Wow: 1 base recipe, 1 pot, 3 dinners
Here at 40 Ingredients Forever, recipes are abundant in joy yet streamlined in process—because they’re all made of the same 40 ingredients.
Hello! A few weeks ago, I helped my friend Maryam cook Persian New Year for her family and friends. The most important dish, to her, is the kuku sabzi, a fun hat trick in which an actual bed of herbs cooks down to three 9-inch rounds just barely held together with eggs.
It made me think about other dishes that could take more greens, that could even be pushed so far as to be mostly greens. Meatballs, for one, can handle it. Today’s building-block recipe is green in flavor and color from 3 cups of chopped kale, scallions, and parsley. A pound of ground meat will then get you 24 meatballs, which can expedite three meals throughout the week.
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The meatballs can be eaten however you like meatballs, or use them in the recipes that follow.
Meal #1: 10-minute tomato sauce & meatballs
That is a homemade sauce that takes 10 minutes to make (but jarred marinara works, too).
Meal #2: Meatball & feta salad
Crunchy fennel and juicy tomatoes quick-pickle in vinegar, then get topped with salty feta and just-warm meatballs.
Meal #3: Italian wedding soup
Classic Italian wedding soup is swimming with pasta, greens, and meatballs — but since the greens are already in the meatballs, all you have to do is boil some pasta in broth.
Behind the paywall, there is a grocery list and the four recipes, plus swaps and riffs. Wow!