Meatballs are a popular and easy meal in Mexico, and this version is served with a tomato sauce flavoured with chipotle chillies. We have used our Smoky chilli spice blend, which is packed full of delicious cumin and chipotle, but see below for alternatives. Serve with rice, tortillas or our cheesy cornbread. serves 6

• 1 carton smoky chilli blend (or see Cook’s notes below)

• 500g minced beef, or half beef and half pork

• 1 egg

• 100g cooked rice (see below)

• salt and pepper

• a squeeze of lime juice

• generous handful of chopped coriander

• 1 large onion, quartered

• 4 cloves garlic

• 1 tin tomatoes, plus half a can of water

1. Make the meatballs by combining half the spices, meat, rice, egg, lime juice and half the coriander. Form into about 20 meatballs and chill.

2. Place the onion, garlic, tomato, extra water and the remaining spices in a pan, bring to the boil and simmer until the onion is soft. Blend until smooth, then stir in the remaining coriander. Check the seasoning, adding salt and pepper to taste.

3. When you are ready to eat, heat the sauce and carefully drop the meatballs in - they are not sturdy when raw! Simmer gently, turning once, until cooked.

4. Serve as suggested above, with a tangy tomato and avocado salad on the side.

Cook’s notes

• The easiest way to have the rice for making the meatballs is to cook enough rice to serve as an accompaniment (easy cook long grain rice is the best for Mexican food), use the 100g then microwave the rest when you are ready to eat.

• If you are not using our Smoky chilli blend for this recipe (why not?!), use 1 tbsp each of ground cumin and chipotle chilli powder or cayenne. Remember to check the seasoning.

• If you have some chillies in adobo sauce, finely chop a couple and add to the sauce for extra piquancy.