This delicious recipe for Thai style turkey meatballs by Nigella is not – she openly wrote this in this recipe’s original cookbook Simply Nigella – by any means a traditional Thai dish, after all turkeys don’t live in Thailand. However the Thai green curry paste, coconut milk and flavours in the meatballs are a tantalising trip for your taste buds. This recipe can be cooked up from, for the most part, store cupboard ingredients, meaning that it is edible almost any time of the year. We opted to eat these Thai style turkey meatballs this weekend given the drab May bank holiday weather in the UK to provide a vibrant boost to the day, and that they did.

Whilst Nigella suggests you can make 30 meatballs out of the turkey mixture, we only managed 25, which was still more than sufficient. The recipe comfortably serves four people and can be eaten as is, or with some flatbread to mop up the excess juices.

Preparation time: 25 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 4 courgettes
• 500g turkey mince
• 3 spring onions – finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic – grated
• 2cm piece of fresh ginger – grated
• fresh coriander – finely chopped
• 1 tsp dried chili flakes
• 1 lime – zest and juice
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 3 tbsp Thai green curry paste
• 1 can (400ml) coconut milk
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 500ml chicken stock
• 350g sugar snaps

Recipe:

1. First prepare the turkey meatballs. For this, peel one of the courgettes and coarsely grate. Squeeze out as much excess liquid as possible then put in a large bowl with the turkey mince, the whites of the spring onion – reserve the green parts, grated ginger, garlic, chill flakes and zest of the lime. Add seasoning and mix together by hand until combined. 
2. Roll into 25 equally sized meatballs, 30 if you can manage it, using a teaspoon of mixture as guidance and set aside. 
3. Next, add the remaining green parts of the spring onion to a large pan with a couple of glugs of a flavourless oil and fry briefly.
4. Add the Thai green curry paste, the cream from the top of the coconut milk and whisk together in the pan, before adding the rest of the coconut milk, fish sauce and chicken stock. 
5. Whilst you’re letting the mixture come to a gentle boil, peel the remaining courgettes, quarter each lengthways and then chop into 1cm pieces.
6. Add the courgette pieces of the bubbling broth and then carefully place the turkey meatballs in the pan as well, being careful not to break them up. Once the pan has just started bubbling again, turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes with the lid on. 
7. Check the meatballs are cooked through, then add the juice from the zested lime and sugar snaps – we used a mixture of dwarf beans and sugar snaps as these were leftover in our fridge. Check the flavour and add seasoning as required.
8. Cook for a couple more minutes then take off the heat. Serve with a bit more chopped coriander and lime wedges for extra spritzing.