Indian Spiced Lamb Meatballs with Ratatouille

A warming stew of lamb meatballs and vegetables braised in coconut milk and fragrant Indian spices. Everything you want for dinner in one pot!

This colorful stew of lamb meatballs and ratatouille has enough vegetables to make you feel healthy........and enough meat to make you feel like you're indulging in comfort food.

Beautifully spiced lamb meatballs and veggies, braised in creamy coconut milk broth with lots of ginger, garlic and fragrant spices, give you excitement in every bite!

HOW TO MAKE INDIAN SPICED LAMB MEATBALLS WITH RATATOUILLE

This recipe has three steps: First brown the lamb meatballs, next sauté the vegetables, finally braise the meatballs and veggies together with coconut milk in the oven.

1. Make the Lamb Meatballs: The flavor in these meatballs comes from garam masala, a wonderfully complex spice mix that's popular in Indian cooking. They also contain bread crumbs, eggs, garlic and salt. Mix the ground lamb with garam masala, bread crumbs, eggs, garlic and salt and sauté them until they're nicely browned. 
2. Start the Ratatouille: Next, you'll want to sauté all the vegetables: eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers, scallions, jalapeños, plus lots of fresh garlic, and ginger.
3. Braise The Stew: The final step is to braise the meatballs, veggies and spiced together with coconut milk, in the oven. 

BROWN THE LAMB MEATBALLS

SAUTé the vegetables and aromatics

COMBINE WITH COCONUT MILK AND BRAISE IN THE OVEN

HOW TO SERVE IT

As there's quite a lot of sauce in this luscious lamb meatball stew, I like to serve it in bowls over steamed basmati rice, to soak up all that deliciousness. Crusty bread works well too.

Don't skip the garnishes of lemon juice and zest, cilantro and extra garam masala. These add such wonderful fresh flavors to the dish.

WHAT IS GARAM MASALA?

Garam masala is the key spice this stew. It's used to flavor the lamb meatballs and is stirred into the stew at the end for a final burst of flavor. If you're not familiar with garam masala, here's what you need to know.

• Garam masala is a fragrant, warming spice mix (as opposed to a hot spice mix) used in many Indian recipes. Every chef has his or her own version, but the essential ingredients are cardamom seeds, black peppercorns, cumin seeds, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
• Cumin seeds are sometimes toasted first for added flavor, and then everything is ground to a fine powder, using a coffee grinder or spice grinder.
• Making fresh-ground garam masala will enhance the flavors in any recipe, but for those who are in a hurry, it is easy, these days, to find good garam masala in the spice section of most grocery stores or on line.
• If you have 15 minutes, try this recipe for garam masala, from celebrated Indian chef/cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey

OTHER FAVORITE INDIAN RECIPES ON PANNING THE GLOBE

• Indian Lamb Biryani  [one of Panning The Globe's most popular recipes]
• Indian Chicken Biryani
• Saag Aloo: Indian Spinach and Potatoes
• Chicken Tikka Masala
• The Mumbai Sandwich

This recipe comes from award winning French chef and restauranteur Daniel Boulud. I adapted it from the recipe Indian-Style Ratatouille with Lamb Meatballs in his cookbook Braise: A Journey Through International Cuisine.

Here's the recipe for Indian Spiced Ratatouille with Lamb Meatballs. If you try this recipe I hope you'll come back to leave a comment and a star rating. I'd love to know what you think.

Recipe

Indian Spiced Lamb Meatballs with Ratatouille

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5 from 1 review

• Author: Lisa
• Total Time: 1 hour 40 mins
• Yield: 6-8 1x

Print Recipe

Description

A stew of lamb meatballs and ratatouille braised with coconut milk and fragrant Indian spices - a wonderful one-pot wonder with loads of great flavor.

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

For The Meatballs

• 2 pounds ground lamb
• 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs (from 2 slices good-quality white bread pulsed in a food-processor)
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (I use olive oil)

For The Ratatouille

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 medium eggplants (about 1 pound each), ends trimmed, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 3 medium zucchini, ends trimmed, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped garlic (about 5 large cloves)
• 3 bell peppers (any mix of red, yellow or green), seeded, deveined, and diced
• 1 bunch scallions (about 8), trimmed and thinly sliced
• 2 jalapeño peppers, seeded, deveined, and finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped, peeled fresh ginger (about a 2-inch piece)
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• ½ tsp saffron threads
• ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• several grinds of fresh ground black pepper

Other Ingredient

• 1 cup canned, unsweetened coconut milk (shake can before opening)

Garnish

• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• lemon juice (1 lemon)
• lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
• fresh chopped cilantro, to taste

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 300ºF. Combine lamb and bread crumbs in a bowl. Whisk egg with 1 teaspoon garlic, 1 teaspoon garam masala, and 1 teaspoon salt, and add to bowl. Mix everything together until just combined. Roll into 1½ inch balls. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Brown the meatballs (In two batches to avoid over-crowding) on all sides, 7-8 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat in a large deep covered pot, such as a Dutch oven. Add eggplant cubes and cook, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, for 5 minutes (regulate heat to avoid burning) Add zucchini and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. The vegetables will start to soften. Add the chopped garlic, bell peppers, scallions, jalapeños, chopped ginger, ½ teaspoon turmeric, ½ teaspoon saffron, ⅛ teaspoon cayenne, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper, to taste. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until vegetables soften a bit.
3. Add the coconut milk and the meatballs to the pot and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer, cover and braise in the oven for 35 minutes.
4. Just before serving, stir through a teaspoon of garam masala, garnish with lemon juice, lemon zest and cilantro. Enjoy!

Notes

[This post first appeared on Panning The Globe in June 2013. It was updated in November 2019 with new photos, more clarifying details in the written post and clearer instructions in the recipe.]

Nutrition Information: The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator and is not a substitute for the advice of a professional nutritionist.

• Prep Time: 40 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hour
• Category: Main Dish
• Method: Braise
• Cuisine: indian