Spicy Meatballs With Chickpeas Recipe (2024)

Wow! Delicious!! Uses mostly pantry ingredients, which, in a time of COVID-19, is very helpful. I couldn't make six cups of cooked chickpeas with what I have on hand, so I paired it with another recipe that uses mostly pantry ingredients - Martha Rose Schulman's recipe for Chickpeas and Baby Spinach. These two recipes go together like Ella Fitzgerald and Louie Armstrong.

Heat a dry pan on medium flame and add whole cumin seeds. Roast (mixing with a wooden spoon or toss) until fragrant. Seeds will begin to smoke but don't allow to blacken--3-4 minutes. Pour the lot into a mortar and grind to desired consistency.

I added the chickpeas to the gravy at the end and served this on couscous and then also topped it with a dollup of greek yogurt sprinkled with Zatar

here is 'the tool' for toasting cumin seeds and seeds/nuts of every kind! https://www.colbrookkitchen.com/rsvp-endurance-vintage-nut-seed-toasting-pan.html

I'd say YES ... we made it last night, used raw white rice, not arborio .... and some of the rice was still kinda crunchy. Not a spoiler -- next time I'll adjust. : )

Thanks to the NYT for providing a steady supply of recipes that don’t require shopping, during our time of national confinement. This was good, easy, warm and comforting. I substituted turmeric for saffron and dried parsley for fresh, because that’s what I had in my bunker.

Made with ground beef and our very last jar of last year's black plum tomatoes (which were quite piquant). With less acidic tomatoes I may have added a splash of vinegar or squeeze of lemon to brighten it up. Unusually for me, I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out delicious. Also made the chickpeas from scratch, which I highly recommend, and used the leftover bean broth in place of chicken broth. Served with Turkish pide bread to sop up the gravy, & honestly can't wait for leftovers.

This was a real keeper! Made some modifications as usual. Meatballs: used leftover cooked rice instead of raw. Gravy: used canned chickpeas (3 cans with juice) and added directly to the tomatoes. Also added some cumin. And at the end threw in spinach, juice of half a lemon, and ground pepper. Served with good bread. Delicious and easy!

DELICIOUS! Skipped the chickpeas and served with polenta and swiss chard. Loved this recipe.

I also added the chickpeas to the sauce.I have made this twice both times to rave reviews.

Made this with Impossible Meat (ground), followed the recipe almost exactly (I took the Za'atar recommendation, and added the chickpeas to the sauce) and it was delicious. Served with naan bread and rice. Totally possible to make this meat free and still worth it.

A one ounce meatball is about the size of a golf ball. Maybe everybody knows this already; I had to weigh it.

You can toast cumin or any dry herb to enhance it’s flavor, by heating ideally, a small clean and dry cast iron skillet or any pan really on low-ish heat until it gives off it’s fragrance. Then, take it off the heat immediately and tada! There you have it!

I loved this recipe. Never used raw rice in meatballs before and was skeptical but it worked perfectly. (And all I had was Uncle Bens!). Baking the meatballs reduced the oil typically absorbed from frying, as well as all the spattering. They came out perfectly, and were nice and browned. I threw the chickpeas into the gravy at the end (vs sautéing and serving separately) and also added some baby spinach to up the green factor. Will definitely make again!

I'm Lebanese and this recipe is a take on one my Beirut-born great grandmother and grandmother made but in meatloaf form. I just made this recipe with two additions, based on my relatives' recipe: during the last 10-12 minutes of cooking the gravy with the meatballs, add a cup of thawed green peas (preferably baby, but either is fine) and 1-2 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley. All else in the recipe remains the same (don't sweat it if you don't have the saffron). You'll thank me later!

Easy, tasty. Used 1 lb of lamb and made all the gravy. Made 20 meatballs and served half to 3 people on night one, with some pan-fried chickpeas and mixed them with chopped spinach and garlic. Second night (for two people), with no tomato sauce left, finished remaining meatballs in a cup of chicken broth (to complete the cooking of the rice and rewarm) and served on warm chickpea puree, couscous on the side. I did parboil the rice a few minutes.

I loved this dish! 1 lb. Beef1 lb. PorkToast cumin and coriander seeds, then grindThinly shredded lacinato kale and add to meatballs after taking off the heat to cook in residual heatCooked 1 lb. Dried chickpeas in instapot (Amy Jack website)Topped chickpeas with preserved lemon

I’ve been making this recipe for a couple of years, from this source, but just found another version in my Ozark Mountains cookbook called “Mrs. Winnie Thornton’s Porcupines.” The reasoning behind the name? “Though porcupines don’t live in the Ozarks and probably never did, this recipe has been here a long time and the meat balls on it do indeed look like miniature porcupines rolled in a ball for the day’s sleep.” Of course the old Ozarks version doesn’t have spices like saffron and cumin. :)

Such a simple recipe but also very tasty. Warming the cumin really does something to turn these meatballs into comfort food. I recommend adding the liquid from canned chickpeas if using those. I also add an additional 15oz can of drained diced tomatoes and increase the spice amounts to make a bit more gravy/sauce as I sometimes run out of I don’t. The meatballs freeze well too.

Used 2 lbs ground chicken thighs/pork. Panko instead of rice and added 2 eggs and a splash of milk. Added chick peas to sauce before serving. Everything else as written although adjusted spices for increased meat. Super Delicious and easy! oh, didn't have saffron but I can't imagine it making that much of a difference.

Yummy. Maybe soak the rice more so that it is softer. Agree with adding spinach to the sautéed rice.

Delicious! The rice gave the meatballs such a good texture. Used canned diced tomatoes instead of whole since that what I had and didn't have any chickpeas. Served with simple sauteed cabbage.

This was really tasty. I made it with pork and honestly I was a bit anxious because I wasn't sure the roce would cook but it did. Made it as instructed.

David made this 4/23/2023

1 lb lamb, less than half a cup rice, extra seasoning

I love all of the spices in this. The sauce smells and tastes great. The meatballs were problematic for me. I have made meatballs with uncooked rice before to great success, but for some reason these meatballs were very dense and would not allow for the rice to cook properly. I had to cook them almost 2 hours and add quite a bit of extra liquid. In the end they were still quite dense but at least the rice was cooked. Next time I will use at least 1/2 ground beef for some extra fat.

This was great! I used 1lb dark turkey and .5lb lamb, which was the perfect amount of lamb for my house. I used 2 cans of chickpeas and augmented with some broccoli.

This was good but next time I may use something other than turkey. Maybe beef and I don't care for lamb. The meatballs were a little dense perhaps I over mixed it or maybe it needed some breadcrumbs to lighten it up. It's a recipe worth playing around with though. I really liked the sauce and the combination of chickpeas on the side. I'll make this again with a few tweaks

For Europeans, it seems like two cans of tomatoes are adequate since apparently European cans are smaller than American. ;)

Very tasty! Used leftover cooked brown short grain rice. Added an egg to the meatball mix.