Ground Pork

A go-to recipe for more than just pasta. Put it toward chicken, meatballs, and more.

This dry-style curry from southern Thailand is characteristically hot and salty, with notes of fresh turmeric, lemongrass, and makrut lime leaf.

In Louisiana, rice dressing, which combines rice, ground meat, and aromatics, is served alongside turkey and all of the trimmings at Thanksgiving.

Bean thread noodles absorb the bright, citrusy flavors of the dressing that’s made with lime juice, fish sauce, and Thai chiles in this Thai noodle salad recipe.

Inspired by the laab found in Thai markets, this pork laab gets its fabulous flavor from thinly sliced pork liver combined with the ground pork.

For these pearl meatballs, a mixture of pork, ginger, and scallions are combined into a meatball, then rolled in grains of sweet glutinous rice.

Lion’s head meatballs are traditionally stewed or steamed in a casserole dish; here they star in the sandwich of my childhood dreams.

The carrots melt into the broth of this comforting soup with meatballs.

Little pot rice noodles are so named because each serving is traditionally made to order in small individual copper pots, and the dish is beloved because it perfectly embodies the spicy and sour flavor profiles of Yunnan. 

Deep-fried tofu gets braised with shiitake mushrooms in soy sauce and Chinese wine for this easy dish.

Shanghainese enjoy rice balls in both sweet and savory preparations. I love both, so I included them here. All Shanghainese buns and pastries have simple identifiers for telling the difference between sweet and savory. Sweet versions are always round and smooth, while savory ones will have a tail hinting at the filling inside.

One great thing about dumplings is that you can use practically anything in the filling—and you can pan-fry them, or boil them, or deep-fry them.

Packed with greens, these boiled dumplings easily go vegetarian by switching out the ground pork for crumbled tofu.

You’ll find Korean rice cakes in all kinds of shapes and sizes—from long cylinders to thin, oblong rounds. While their flavor does not change according to shape, textures do. Thin rice cakes work well for this stir-fry, as they quickly absorb flavors and soften into crispy, chewy coins.

This roll can be filled with whatever you like: beef, pork, or vegetables. The combination in this recipe is my favorite.

The trick to keeping this salad crisp? Salt, drain, and squeeze excess liquid from the cucumbers before dressing them. Add a swoosh of yogurt and juicy oven-baked meatballs to make it a flavorful, filling meal.

Here’s a Sichuan-inspired stir-fry of snappy, blistered asparagus and crispy pork. Can’t find asparagus? Green beans or snap peas work just as well. (One thing that’s non-negotiable: a side of chile crisp.)

Bright in color and flavor, the silky sauce for these meatballs is made from a purée of coconut cream, Thai green curry paste, and spinach.

Whipping an egg into the filling of these simple, folded dumplings makes them fluffy and moist—and a double hit of soy amps up the umami.