Not-So-Swedish Meatballs

What we call "Swedish meatballs" down here is actually nothing like the actual Swedish dish, which involves something called lingonberry jam, gravy, and potatoes. The white trash Southern version, often served in Crock Pots at potluck and such, is made with meatballs, bottled chili sauce, and grape jelly. The dish is also commonly referred to as sweet 'n' sour meatballs.

Now I realize chili sauce and grape jelly doesn't sound like something that would work well together. But it really does create a sweet 'n' sour sauce that's somewhat reminiscent of a sweet barbecue sauce. I created these Sweet 'n' Sour Beanballs for my cookbook's appetizer section:

In my recipe, the chili sauce is made from scratch. And I recommend using all-natural grape jelly rather than the high frustose-sweetened crap. I'd tried another version of this recipe several months ago using my recipe for barbecue sauce, but I wasn't happy with it. This version is closer to the original with its chili-spiced sauce and jelly. I served my balls over smoked spelt, but brown rice or pasta would work just as well.

I'd been craving some Steamed Kale with Tahini Sauce and Sriracha for quite a while:

I don't have a standby tahini sauce recipe for kale, but I googled and quickly found this one on Veria.com. Nothing goes better with kale that savory, garlicky tahini sauce and spicy-sweet sriracha. It's hard to imagine how this could possibly be health food. Nine times out of ten, I'd go for kale over ice cream. Seriously.

By the way, the Caribbean Vegan cookbook giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. tonight. I'll announce the winner in Monday night's post.