Recipe Review: General Tso’s Meatballs

Recently I was looking for a recipe to use up some ground pork and stumbled across this one for what the author calls “General Tso’s Meatballs.” I was intrigued by the ingredient list, so I made it. Both The Hub and The Son really liked it, and I liked it, too, but I would not make it again without further tweaking.

The meatballs themselves are really good; they get a lovely kick from lots of scallions and fresh ginger. The only tweak I made here is that I left out the oats and the red pepper flakes. I didn’t have the pepper flakes on hand and the oats seemed like an unnecessary addition. (I substituted minced, seeded jalapeño for the flakes.)

The sauce–tangy and yummy as it is–is what needs work. It calls for *way* too much sugar and that is even after I decided not to add nearly as much as it called for. I’d use 1 tablespoon–max!

So next time I make this I’m going to use red pepper flakes (because I think they’ll work better than jalapeño here) and I will cut way down on the sugar.

That being said, the bones of this recipe are solid, I definitely plan on adding it the rotation, and it’s a great way to used up ground pork (or turkey!).