Chicken & basil meatballs

Serve these Thai chicken chicory bites and roasted pepper skewers when you're next entertaining. Both make great low-calorie, healthy dinner party canapés

Prep:20 mins
Cook:20 mins

Serves 24 (12 of each flavour)
Easy

Nutrition per serving

kcal 29
fat 1g
saturates 0g
carbs 1g
sugars 0g
fibre 0g
protein 3g
salt 0.1g

Ingredients

1 shallot
250g chicken breast
25g seeded bread
? pack fresh basil leaves
1 clove garlic
rapeseed oil, for frying
12 chicory leaves, red or green
sriracha or Thai sweet chilli sauce, to serve
1 spring onion, cut lengthways and shredded into fine strips
25g salted peanuts, finely chopped
2 roasted red peppers, cut into 24 chunks
24 fresh basil leaves
24 cocktail sticks

Tip

Nutrition per roasted pepper stick (12)

29 kcals • fat 1g • saturates none • carbs 1g • sugars none • fibre none • protein none • salt 0.1g

Method

Put the shallot into a food processor and pulse briefly to chop. Add all the remaining meatball ingredients, except for the oil, and blitz to make a soft purée. Shape into 24 mini meatballs with wet hands.
Heat a drizzle of the oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Add half the meatballs and fry for 5 mins, moving them around the pan to evenly colour them. Remove from the pan and cook the remaining meatballs. Keep chilled until ready to serve. Will keep in the fridge for up to one day.
To serve, warm the meatballs, if you like, at 180C/160C fan/gas 4 for 10 mins, then arrange half in the chicory leaves, top with some chilli sauce and sprinkle with the onion and peanuts.
For the pepper version, thread the meatballs onto 12 cocktail sticks with the 2 chunks of pepper and 2 fresh basil leaves either side.