This post may contain affiliate links, please see our privacy policy for details.

Monday dinner perfection…vietnamese meatball and sweet potato noodle bowl.

Vietnamese Meatball and Sweet Potato Noodle Bowl | halfbakedharvest.com @hbharvest

Hey everyone! Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend and are excited for the week ahead. I know that it’s Monday, BUT, at least we have these fun and colorful noodle bowls to chat about today. These are my new obsession. They are all things fun, healthy and cozy – all at the same time – and who’s not a huge fan of that combo.

Typically, I’m not a meatball person, but cover them in a sweet and sticky Vietnamese inspired sauce and I’m all game. Add a little spicy chili broth, sweet potato noodles, mangos and toppings galore and you have yourself a loaded “Tieghan” style bowl. YES, just what everyone needs on a cold winter Monday. <–duh.

PS. I know you really cannot tell from the photos, but there’s some spicy chili broth in the bottom of these bowls. It kind of makes them a little more soup-like, but just extra saucy, which around here is a big plus.

Vietnamese Meatball and Sweet Potato Noodle Bowl | halfbakedharvest.com @hbharvest

Vietnamese Meatball and Sweet Potato Noodle Bowl | halfbakedharvest.com @hbharvest

So how are all you east coast readers doing with all that snow? I heard your weekend was filled with it. Do you love it? hate it? Are you making chili and soup like crazy?

Oddly over here in Colorado, our snow has slowed a bit and we’ve had some really nice warm sunny days. It did snow a little on Saturday and Sunday, but really not much. Speaking of the weekend, how was yours? I mean, aside from the snow, any fun activities to report? As I said I would be on Friday, mine was spent mostly filming recipe videos and very uncomfortably trying to get some new head shots for some upcoming work stuff. Does anyone else hate having their photo taken? I swear, I cannot take a good photo for the life of me. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I just get embarrassed, but whatever the reason, it’s so not fun for me.

What was fun though? If you follow me on Instagram, then you know that on Friday night I received the first draft (aka the dummy) of the Half Baked Harvest cookbook. This was the very first time I’ve seen the book all together. Meaning the recipes, writing, photos were all in place and on pages. It was so cool and definitely the most fun part thus far of creating this cookbook. Getting to see all the work come together is the best feeling. I know, I have been saying this, but I am going to put together a post on the process for writing the book and I will show you some sneak peek photos of the draft! So excited with how it is coming together. I hope you guys will love it!

Oh and yes, I totally spent my Friday night flipping through pages and pages of the book…

Vietnamese Meatball and Sweet Potato Noodle Bowl | halfbakedharvest.com @hbharvest

Vietnamese Meatball and Sweet Potato Noodle Bowl | halfbakedharvest.com @hbharvestOK, while I could go on and on about the weekend and the book, and about a billion other things I have on my mind, but I NEED to tell you every last detail of this pretty and delicious recipe.

These meatballs are all about the sauce, which is a mix of soy sauce, fish sauce, honey, and lemongrass. The sauce caramelizes over the meatballs creating a sweet and sticky glaze. Seriously, it is so good. I used ground chicken, but ground pork or even beef will also work.

Since I am loving my spiralizer at the moment, I decided to use sweet potato noodles instead of rice noodles. I love the color they add to this dish and the fact that they are extra healthy for us too. The combo of the noodles and meatballs is great, but I really wanted to finish the bowl with a few more layers of flavor. Enter the sweet and spicy chili broth. So, chicken broth and sweet Thai chili sauce. Really simple, but perfect to ladle overtop the noodles and meats. Then, finish with fresh mango, mint, basil, chilies and sesame seeds.

Perfect, healthy, quick and easy Monday dinner bowl. Soo, who’s ready to take on the week?

Vietnamese Meatball and Sweet Potato Noodle Bowl | halfbakedharvest.com @hbharvest

Vietnamese Meatball and Sweet Potato Noodle Bowl.

Author: Tieghan Gerard
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings: 4 bowls
Calories Per Serving: 644 kcal

Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.

SavePrintEmail

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground chicken
  • 4 tablespoons sesame oil
  • 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons fish sauce
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1 lemongrass stalk, chopped
  • 2 medium sweet potatoes, spiralized or cut into matchsticks
  • 4 cups low sodium chicken broth, steaming (optional)
  • 2 carrots, shredded
  • 1 Persian cucumber, sliced
  • 1 mango, cut into match sticks
  • cilantro, mint, limes, pickled ginger, and sesame seeds, for serving
  • 2-4 tablespoons sweet Thai chili sauce, more or less to your taste (optional)

Instructions

  • 1. Roll the chicken into 20-30 tablespoon size meatballs, place each meatball on a tray as you work.
    2. In a small bowl, combine the 2 tablespoons sesame oil, soy sauce, fish sauce, honey and lemongrass.
    3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Add the spiralized sweet potato and give it a good toss. Cook, stirring often until the noodles have softened, but are not mushy, about 5-8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the noodles from the skillet.
    4. Return the skillet to medium heat. Add the meatballs and cook until cooked through, about 5 minutes, turning them 2-3 times throughout cooking. During the last minute or so of cooking, add the sauce and give the meatballs a good toss through the sauce. Cook another minute longer, until the sauce glazes the meatballs. Remove from the heat.
    5. To assemble, divide the noodles and meatballs among bowls and ladle the steaming broth over top. Top each bowl with carrots, cucumbers, mango, cilantro, limes, ginger, and sesame seeds. Serve with chili sauce. Enjoy!
View Recipe Comments

Vietnamese Meatball and Sweet Potato Noodle Bowl | halfbakedharvest.com @hbharvest

ME…as long as these bowls are included…ok and maybe some chocolate too. 🙂

Add a Comment

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comments

  1. I couldn’t wait to make this dish! I love all of your recipes! This one was not my favorite and wanted to perhaps post some suggestions for anyone else who may have experienced the same issues! The broth was extremely sweet so it may be better with a pho broth (homemade or store bought). My meatballs were also extremely salty from the salt and pepper seasoning and then the soy sauce. I say only pepper on the chicken for next time!

    Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!

    Reply

  2. Oh man, my husband and I threw this together this evening for our Valentine’s day dinner and it was delicious. The only thing we changed was by using ground turkey for the meat balls because our local store did not have chicken. Thank you for all the wonderful recipes. You rock Tilghman ♡

    Reply

  4. I know bowl meals are trendy but I’m still SO into them and that sticky saucy glaze in this one makes it a complete winner!

    Reply

  6. This looks so good! Also, in Canada on the East Coast, we had about 50-70 cm of snow and 100km/h winds, so yes, it was a good day to stay cozy inside! Haha. Have a good week!

    Reply

  7. Hi,

    I see some green on the meatballs in the photo you are cooking them. Is that cilantro or mint or both? I don’t see it in the sauce recipe.

    Reply

    1. Hi! That is cilantro that I sprinkled over the dish. Let me know if you have questions. Hope you love this recipe! 🙂

      Reply

  9. Ok, I reread it. It seems you meant 20 to 30 meatballs, each made from a tablespoon of ground chicken. Maybe there’s a more elegant way of writing that, but didn’t understand from the way it was written. I know if I heard the inflection of your voice as you said it, it would be obvious.

    Reply

  10. What is a 20-30 tablespoon size meatball? I know it isn’t a 20 T. glob of meat (I hope ;-). Is it 2 -3 T. of meat, or is that a size of some measuring device I’m not familiar with? Are you dividing all the meat into 20 to 30 meatballs?

    Reply

    1. Hey Clare, so sorry for the confusion, I mean about 20 meatballs made form about 1 tablespoon of meat. So sorry if that is confusing. Let me know if you have questions. Hope you love this!

      Reply

      1. Rest assured your description of 20-30 “tablespoon” sized meatballs is self explanatory and elegantly described. The majority of us got it! Some will always need more hand holding regardless…

        Reply

  14. This looks so good! Looks like you didn’t peel your sweet potatoes which makes life so much easier (:
    I’m so with you….I HATE HATE HATE to have my picture taken too! I don’t know why, but just like you, the photos never look like me–which might be why I hate it so much. But unlike you, I LOVE LOVE LOVE meatballs! HA!
    Asher looked so cute viewing your first draft of your cookbook! And I enjoyed seeing another one of your brothers on your Instagram, always fun to put a face with a name.

    Reply

  15. Those meatballs! They sound delish Tieghan! Your dishes are not only delicious looking but works of art. Counting the days til the cookbook!

    Reply