You’re going to fall in LOVE with these Sticky Ginger Rice Bowls! It’s a sweet-meets-spicy sauce situation, flavorful meatballs, pickled veg, and mango on top. The perfect (vegan) summery meal!
Sticky Ginger Rice Bowls with Pickled Veg and Mango
Featured comment
This was 110% perfect. I used a 90 second microwave rice because I’m lazy and let the veggies pickle for a while before cooking the meatballs. We scarfed this down!
Marliss
This recipe is sponsored by ALDI
Let me tell you about something that I capital L-O-V-E love to eat.
It’s a sticky ginger rice bowl with hot white rice, sticky-sweet meatballs with a little bit of kick, crunchy quick pickled vegetables, and a fresh juicy ripe mango. Hello flavor, color, and texture. Hello happy, feel-good, full in my belly.
There’s Everything To Love About These Rice Bowls
In addition to being the thing I can’t stop eating lately, it’s also:
- vegan (!!)
- gingery and fresh
- sticky and sweet
- just a tiny bit spicy
- the right amount of crispy-crunchy
- juicy and fresh
- and flexible to whatever protein or other vegetables you like.
Speaking of protein, let’s chat for a moment about ALDI Earth Grown Vegan Meatless Meatballs.
When we did the shrimp and cauli rice recipe a few weeks ago, it sparked a conversation on Instagram stories about what you all love to buy from ALDI. Most of the things that you all said were things I already knew and loved: oat milk, cheeses, crackers, tofu, ground beef, seafood, etc.
But one thing that so many of you RAVED about that I had never tried were these meatless meatballs. So obviously, it was an add-to-cart moment for me.
AND OBVIOUSLY, THEY WERE AMAZING! You did not steer me wrong. And you are now responsible for my new obsession. This is on you right now.
Another good news item to report on the ALDI front: they are now carrying fresh ginger. Shout it from the rooftops! Fresh ginger at ALDI!
So we made this whole thing, totally vegan, including a sticky-sweet ginger-forward sauce using fresh ginger, all from ALDI. Boom. Affordable, practical, delicious. Couldn’t love it more.
Completely Meatless and Vegan
The direct quote from Bjork after he took his first bite: “This is seriously vegan?”
Some of you POY readers are vegan all the time, and some are occasionally trying to eat less meat, and some are… curious? experimenting? with meatless options. Either way – if you are the kind of person who is not only proving to yourself that meatless really can taste awesome, but also working to get a spouse, partner, or child on that train with you, these meatballs (and this sweet-and-spicy sticky sauce, and those pickled veg, and that fresh juicy mango, omg omg omg) might just be your ticket to success.
And if life seems a little SOS-y and you need to save this one for the weekend, should you then also buy the refrigerated tofu and vegetable dumplings from ALDI and pan-fry them and just straight dip them in a double batch of this sauce? Yes. You should. I can recommend.
Sticky, delicious, meatless summery perfection.
I really love this recipe.
Sticky Ginger Rice Bowls: FAQs
This looks so good! Can this be made 100% vegan?
Totally! To make this 100% vegan, replace the honey with brown sugar, agave, or maple syrup.
How can I make my rice in the Instant Pot?
My standard rice method for the Instant Pot is 1 cup white rice combined with 1 1/4 cups water. Toss both in the Instant Pot on high pressure for 3 minutes. Allow for a natural pressure release (a.k.a. don’t let the steam out yet) for 15 minutes. Done!
Can I make these with regular meatballs?
Sure! This chicken meatballs recipe is SO GOOD. If you can’t find ground chicken, ground turkey will work. The Kirkwood Fresh Ground Turkey from ALDI is everything!
Sticky Ginger Rice Bowls with Pickled Veg and Mango
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
You’re going to fall in LOVE with these Sticky Ginger Rice Bowls! It’s a sweet-meets-spicy sauce situation, flavorful meatballs, pickled veg, and mango on top. The perfect (vegan) summery meal!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Sauce:
- 1/4 cup Fusia Soy Sauce
- 2–3 tablespoons Specially Selected Raw Honey
- 2 tablespoons vinegar
- 1 clove garlic
- one 1-inch knob of fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon sambal oelek or Fusia Sriracha (more or less to taste for some heat)
Rice Bowls and Extras:
- 1 1/2 cups uncooked white or jasmine rice
- 2 carrots, shredded
- 1 large cucumber, halved and sliced
- just a lil bit of rice vinegar, oil, salt, and sugar
- one 16-ounce bag Earth Grown Vegan Meatless Meatballs
- 1 large mango, peeled and cubed
- cilantro for topping
Instructions
- Make the rice: Cook rice according to package directions.
- Blend the sauce: Blend all sauce ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth.
- Make the pickled veg: Toss your veggies with enough vinegar and oil to just barely coat. Season with salt and sugar. Voila – it’s a very low-key pickled vegetable salad.
- Cook the meatballs: Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add meatballs and most of the sauce. Sauté for 5-8 minutes, shaking the pan to move them around and coat them in sticky sauce until they are cooked through. (You can also cover the pan with a lid to speed up the cook time for the meatballs.)
- Assemble: Serve meatballs over rice with a scoop of the pickled veggies, mango, and a handful of cilantro. Spoon a little bit of extra sauce over the top. SO GOOD.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Bowl
- Method: Sauté
- Cuisine: Asian-Inspired
Keywords: rice bowl, bowl recipe, vegetarian bowl recipe
Thank you to ALDI for sponsoring this post!
More Bowl Recipes We Love!
- Chipotle Tahini Bowls (made with the most addicting chipotle tahini sauce)
- Roasted Vegetable Bowls with Green Tahini (incredibly easy to meal prep!)
- Crunchy Roll Bowls (the fried onions here are a must)
- Sheet Pan BBQ Tofu (the absolute best way to make tofu)
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our creamy and delicious dairy-free recipes. Check it out!
Filed Under: All Recipes Bowls Dairy-Free Dinner Healthy Main Dishes Meal Prep Quick and Easy Rice Summer Vegan Vegetarian
June 7, 2021
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
Did you make a recipe? Tag @pinchofyum on Instagram so we can find you!
So happy to see a recipe for these meatballs . I have been using them for ages now. So delicious. I just dump the whole bag in homemade or jarred pasta sauce.
It will be fun to try this recipe! More please!
Enjoy your blog everyday.
Barbara
So glad to hear this, Barbara! We hope you enjoy the recipe!
This was sooooo good! My favorite kind of dish and even better yet, it was vegetarian to start with.
So glad to hear this, Allison!
Can’t wait to try this!! Any advice for cooking brown rice in the instant pot? Do you use the same ratios as white rice? Love y’alls recipes!!
We rarely cook brown rice, so we don’t have a good ratio. Check this recipe!
We were just talking about the Olive Garden petition for bringing in vegan meatballs into their restaurant yesterday and my parents looked… kind of interested? So, this will be the next thing I try with them. My husband and I are vegan and they are not, so I love introducing them to flavorful vegan options that could (hopefully) replace their meat options occassionally.
We hope you enjoy the recipe!
My whole family enjoys your recipes. I make a lot of them! My teen has gone vegan and I am gluten free. I love that you at least have options for these diets in some of your recipes. I hope to see even more plant based recipes in the future!
So glad you’ve been enjoying the recipes! Thanks for the feedback!
I can’t thank you enough for your creativity with food and your gorgeous photos. I used to struggle as to what to make for dinner. I now plan out my shopping on Sunday, but wait for your Monday ideas. I now have a new “favorite meal” to make this week. We just at the chicken meatballs with harissa. My husband loved it. I have a terrible wheat allergy so I wanted to thank you for always offering subsitiutions. Thank you so much for this blog and the ideas!!!
You’re so welcome! Thanks for following!
I love everything on this site! I literally went to Aldi for the first time ever today to get these meatballs and to make this. Easy fast and delicious. My kids love it.
We love hearing this, Emily! So glad the recipe was a hit!
Just made this tonight! So yummy!
I sub’d cauli rice for lower carb
(Omitted cuke and mango Bc I didn’t have
🙁
Changes I would make:
1/2 the amount of ginger
Double the sauce
So quick and easy!
Thanks Lindsey
Thanks for reporting back! So glad you enjoyed the recipe, Lisa!
I was very intrigued by meatless meatballs but when I looked up the ingredients I got disappointed. Ingredients consist of water, textured soy protein, canola oil, soy flour, breadcrumbs, bleached wheat flour, soybean oil, turmeric, and paprika extractives, sea salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley, wheat gluten, methylcellulose, and caramel coloring.. could this be made vegan with natural ingredients? Don’t feel like eating methylcellulose:) whatever that is. The recipe sounds delicious though!
It’s true that methylcellulose is a miracle of food science and is not an actual nutritious whole-food item (though it does serve other useful purposes in processed foods). But even though these fake meatballs are a processed food, they ARE still vegan. (We enjoy the Trader Joe’s meatless meatballs, which we call “freakballs.” I’m eager to try this Aldi brand now.)
You could absolutely sub in your favorite vegan ground meat or meatballs!
This looks amazing! We are currently living out of the country and don’t have access to the vegetarian meatballs. Could you use tofu?
Not sure where you live Emily, but I’m in the UK and love IKEA plant balls. Really tasty and good pricing (£2.95 for 500g).
Can’t wait to try this 😍
Absolutely!
sounds so delicious. Meatless, vegan is my kinda recipe 🙂
We hope you enjoy it, Priya!
This was 110% perfect. I used a 90 second microwave rice because I’m lazy and let the veggies pickle for a while before cooking the meatballs. We scarfed this down!
So glad it was a hit, Marliss! Great idea using the microwaveable rice!
I made this last night and it was amazing! I added thinly sliced red onions to the cucumbers and cut the meatballs in fourths after cooking to get the delicious sticky sauce all over. Next time I’m doubling the sticky sauce. Sooooo yum! Loved the “meatballs”- my meat loving husband didn’t even know.
You did it again!
So glad to hear this! Thanks for the comment!
I made this with the chicken meatballs linked in the recipe. So delicious! Will double the sauce next time because I needed more for drizzling. Even my particular kids loved the meal.
So glad the recipe was a hit, Hilary!
What else would you serve with the sticky ginger vegan meatballs to complete a meal
With the pickled vegetables, it should be a complete meal! You could also roast, grill, or saute vegetables like peppers or zucchini to serve on the side.
I can’t wait to try this with some plant-based meatballs from IKEA! We don’t have the ALDI ones here in the UK, but the IKEA ones should do. Looks absolutely amazing!
Great idea to use the IKEA meatballs! Hope you enjoy the recipe!
This was very delicious. I mean the meatballs, were xcrumptious! The sauce has just the right bite, acidity and sweetness. My son usually doesn’t like ginger, but he like these! Thank you,
You’re so welcome Jill! Thanks for giving the recipe a try!
I don’t normally eat vegan but this looked so good I had to try it, and I was not disappointed! (Even my solidly meat-and-potatoes husband commented on how good it was, and I just didn’t get around to letting him know the meatballs were vegan.) This meal was simple and fast enough for a weeknight, or a plain old hot summer night when I wanted to put about 17% effort into dinner. The combination of the umami sauce with the rice and pickled veggies was spot on. (I almost skipped the veggies. Please don’t.) Cilantro puts it over the top. I’m doubling this next time so I can have leftovers to eat at work.
Thanks so much for the comment, Jessica! We’re so glad you enjoyed the dish!
Just made this with gluten-free meatballs, so good!
Glad to hear it, Kylee!
Pretty good!
This was an easy and delicious dinner, even a hit with our 2.5year old! Made with the chicken meatballs suggested, otherwise exactly as written. Next time will be making extra sauce 🙂
So glad it wa a hit!
This was the perfect dinner! The right amount of veggies, spice, sweetness, protein, everything I was craving!
Made the full recipe so we enjoyed left overs for lunch the next day. Quick easy pickled veg was delish.
So glad to hear it, Marilla!
We love Aldi but tend to buy the same things there – thank you for this recipe and a good reason to try these meatballs! They were wonderful. My daughter and I didn’t tell my teenage sons or my husband they were meatless – and everyone loved them! (Wed did double the recipe AND then doubled the sauce for our family of 5, which was perfect – just enough leftovers.) Thanks again.
So glad it was a hit with your family!
Made this tonight and it turned out wonderfully! I couldn’t find this brand of veg meatballs so we used regular frozen homestyle meatballs. The sauce is amaaaazing and my kids gobbled up these pickled veggies.
Glad the recipe was a hit, Katy!
I made this with grilled chicken and my husband literally groaned as he took his first bite. We both loved it; easy to make and a delightful combination of flavors.
Great idea using grilled chicken! So glad you both enjoyed it!
Got here by recommendation and sure glad I did! Had all the ingredients on hand except the mango. Grabbed 6 at the store. 🙂 Whole family loved it and would like to have it again. Thanks for this one!
We’re thrilled to hear this, Heather! Thanks for giving the recipe a try!
Me again! Just want to say that this is my all time favorite week night family meal. Can’t get enough. It’s quick, forgiving (got distracted and left out the ginger – still awesome) satisfying and loved by all. It’s also great for those to add as much of each ingredient to their bowl as they see fit. Just love it all around. Thank you!
Oh, I just bake frozen Gardein (or any meatlessballs on hand) in the toaster oven, don’t bother with the blender, toss the balls in some sauce when cooked thoroughly, and use the instant pot for brown rice… Really couldn’t get any easier.