Blue Cheese & Wild Rice Pork Meatballs
Greetings food adventurers! Today we head back to Roshar for a visit to the warcamps of the Shattered Plains. I have heard that in addition to the usual curries favored by the military, they have outstanding blue cheese and wild rice meatballs.
Our chull-pulled wagons are headed for the Kholin warcamp, which appears to be well organized and fairly clean. Although the nation is technically at war, the Alethi armies are focused more on what seem to be regularly scheduled war-games, so it is perfectly safe and calm in the camp. We fulfill our duties first, delivering messages to various people while getting a lay of the land. We discover a small circus of sorts, featuring various unusual and exotic colors of “chickens” (all birds on Roshar are called chickens) and some large terrifying creatures called whitespines. I sure hope those don’t escape!
There are heavy tents spaced out regularly in the common areas that are open to civilians. Some tents emit the enticing scent of food and it is one of these we enter. Rice and dried herbs are commonly found in the camps so any time a shipment of meat arrives, all the dining areas scramble to get meatballs on the menu.
These meatballs are gluten-free since wild rice takes the place of the usual bread crumbs for structure. Serve them hot so the cheese is still melty. I recommend a side of celery sticks to compliment the blue cheese, and a marinara dipping sauce. Leftovers are amazing as a pizza topping (or cold straight from the fridge, no judgement).
Special shout-out if you happen to be in the Buffalo NY area – Lexington Co-Op has an especially good wild rice blend in their bulk section.
Recipe inspired by Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere / Stormlight Archive series and adapted from Queen of My Kitchen.
Blue Cheese & Wild Rice Pork Meatballs
Special Equipment
- 1 Tablespoon Cookie Scoop (optional)
- Meat thermometer (optional but recommended)
- Large cookie sheet
Ingredients
- 1½ cups cooked wild rice (see step 1)
- ⅔ cup crumbled mild blue cheese (3 oz)
- 1 large egg
- 2 tsp dried rosemary chopped or smashed with mortar & pestle
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1 tsp table salt
- ¾ tsp ground black pepper
- ½ tsp dried savory crushed
- 1 lb ground pork
- Marinara sauce for serving (optional)
Instructions
- First, cook your wild rice. (In a rice cooker: 1 cup rice to 2 cups water on the brown rice setting makes enough for this recipe plus a little extra.) Fresh rice is best – let it cool down a bit before continuing the recipe.
- Preheat oven to 375° F with a rack in the center. Put parchment paper on a baking sheet.
- Put the rice, blue cheese, egg, rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper, and savory into a large mixing bowl. Mix well.
- Add the ground pork into the rice mixture and mix just until combined.
- Shape into meatballs using a Tablespoon or Tbsp-sized cookie scoop. You will have around 28 to 30 meatballs. They will be very sticky and not want to stay in perfect round shapes – this is okay, close is good enough.
- Place meatballs on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven and flip each meatball over (tongs are easiest).
- Return to the oven and bake for an additional 10 minutes for a total cooking time of 20 minutes, or until internal temp reaches 165 F.
