Lemongrass Vietnamese Meatballs
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Celebrate the vibrant flavors of Vietnam with these delectably tender Vietnamese meatballs. Combine fragrant aromatics with fresh herbs and umami-rich sauces to make these juicy balls of deliciousness that are bursting with flavor. They’re also a breeze to make: you’ll be in flavor town in just 30 minutes!
Vietnamese food is something I come back to again and again for its bright, fragrant flavors and that beautiful balance of savory, sweet, and fresh. When I make these Vietnamese meatballs, I blend the onion, cilantro, brown sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, sriracha, lemongrass, garlic, and ginger into a fragrant paste, then mix it straight into the ground pork. The result is wonderfully soft, flavorful meatballs that pan-sear to a golden brown on the outside and stay juicy inside.
That aromatic paste is what really sets these apart. Lemongrass brings a citrusy lift, the sauces add depth and savoriness, and the touch of brown sugar rounds everything out. Cooked in a little oil and finished with fresh cilantro, these meatballs are simple to make but packed with layered flavor — perfect with rice, noodles, or wrapped in crisp lettuce.
Is this an authentic Vietnamese meatball recipe
Vietnamese meatballs, called Bún Nem Nướng, are seasoned pork balls often served with rice noodles and pickled vegetables. They are made with ground meat and other ingredients popular in Vietnamese cooking, like lemongrass, garlic, ginger, and cilantro.
My Vietnamese meatball recipe is made with flavors associated with Vietnamese cooking: lemongrass, fish sauce, ginger, soy sauce, and pork. I’ve taken these flavors and transformed them into meatballs you will love. If you are looking for an authentic Vietnamese meatball recipe, I suggest that you try this Bún Nem Nướng.
Ideas for using Vietnamese meatballs
These Vietnamese meatballs are so packed with flavor that you can seamlessly use them to build other recipes. Here are our top picks:
- Make it an appetizer by serving them alongside your favorite dipping sauce.
- Cook the meatballs, then place 3-4 on a skewer to make a Vietnamese meatball skewer, perfect for dipping.
- Serve them over rice or vermicelli noodles as I do in my banh mi noodle bowls, or add them to a stir fry.
- Make a banh mi sandwich variation or a batch for these awesome winter rolls.
- Fill lettuce cups with your meatballs alongside rice vermicelli noodles, fresh herbs, and a sauce.
Lemongrass Vietnamese Meatballs Recipe
Ingredients
- ¼ cup EACH: minced onion and cilantro
- 2 tablespoons EACH: brown sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sriracha
- 3 stalks lemongrass (white part only)
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 inch piece of ginger
- 1 lb ground pork (beef or chicken)
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- Cilantro (for serving)
Instructions
- Place the onion, cilantro, brown sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, sriracha, lemongrass stalks, garlic, and ginger into your food processor and process on high until smooth and almost paste-like.¼ cup EACH: minced onion and cilantro, 2 tablespoons EACH: brown sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sriracha, 3 stalks lemongrass, 3 cloves garlic, 2 inch piece of ginger
- Add the ground pork to a large bowl, pour in the lemongrass paste, and mix everything together.1 lb ground pork
- Use a medium-sized cookie scoop to scoop the meat and then form it into balls. Place the balls onto a baking sheet.
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs and cook them, turning a few times, until they are well-browned and cooked through, about 8-10 minutes.1 tablespoon cooking oil
- Serve the meatballs with some cilantro over top.Cilantro
Video
Nutrition
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These meatballs turned out great. Quite soft and a bit hard to work with but they tasted amazing.
These are delicious! I actually popped them in the oven and finished them on broil and they came out perfect.
Such a great recipe! I do agree with the other commenters though that the mixture ends up being WAY too wet as is. Either scale back the mixture or scale up the meat by, honestly, like 2-3x if you want it to be able to hold it’s shape.
I LOVE the flavor and texture of these meatballs! I made then to make the winter rolls, and also to pack for my daughter’s lunches… the only issue I had was getting the meatballs to cook evenly, so I ended up browning them in the pan and then piling them into an oven-safe covered dish and cooking them in the oven for 20 minutes or so to get the internal temperature high enough without over-cooking the outsides…. that worked great!
This was delicious! Made them today with ground chicken and the flavor is amazing. As some other people said, the meat was very runny so I ended up adding one egg and 3/4 cup breadcrumbs to firm it up. It was still runny and I couldn’t make them into meatballs but my plans was to bake them so I dropped large spoonfuls of meat on a baking sheet and baked them at 350°F for 25 minutes. They don’t look pretty but they taste amazing. This recipe is definitely going into my recipe book. Thank you!
Made these today very yummy. Served them over basmati rice and topped with Asian greens sautéed in soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce and garlic
Good food but the recipe is tricky. I added about 50% more mince because te mixture was way to wet.
Instead of “one small onion” it would be better to define the amount of onion by weight.
The flavors were great, but I think the texture needed something (an egg?) to hold them together. I tried to make meatball skewers to BBQ and they fell completely apart on the grill and I had to finish cooking the crumbles in a skillet. I will try this recipe again but will add either an egg and/or some type of crumb (panko, bread, or crushed Rice Krispies). We served with rice and broccoli.
Amazing recipe! I’ve made it three times so far and each time we all love it. The only difference is the addition of a chilli which I added two times but this was great even without.
Spicy makes everything better!!
They look delicious! Can you cook in air fryer?
I’ve never tried it. If you’ve successfully cooked other meatballs in your air fryer then I would think this would work, too. I would use caution though if yours has a paddle in it. From my experience, the air fryers with the paddles make a mess of many recipes and it may end up crumbling the meatballs.
What a fantastic recipe! I served these on lemongrass “skewers” – I tried it grilled and then made them for a dinner party baked at 450 – fantastic. I served them with a plum sauce and everyone enjoyed.
That’s such a great serving idea! I’m going to have to remember that one!
This recipe is fantastic! So flavorful and great, authentic Vietnamese flavors.
Thanks, Alex!
I made these and they were lovely but I had to add flour as they were too wet. I was unsure whether or not to add the oil to the mix and I did in the end as thought it would otherwise say add all other ingredients except oil? can you advise please?
Yes they are very moist meatballs! The oil is added to the pan to cook them. 🙂
What do you think of baking them??
I think it would work!
Made this over the weekend for a potluck and they were demolished. I used 2 lbs lean beef and 1 lb ground pork. With everything else added it made about 50 meatballs using a medium size baking scoop. The taste is truly amazing and I will be making these very often. I also made a sauce with Greek yogurt, sriracha, lime zest and lime juice which was also very good.
Love the sound of that sauce you made!!
So good!! ? Made them today and this will bee one of my “make again” recipes!
I live in the south of Sweden, this is a good substitute too the swedish ones ?
Tack så mycket ?
I’m so happy they were a hit! Hooray!