Meatballs with gravy. Very tasty recipes: with tomato sauce, with rice, in cream sauce and as in kindergarten
Meatballs with gravy are delicious balls of minced meat stewed in a thick, flavorful sauce. Don't confuse them with meatballs; there are several significant differences between them. Meatballs are most often prepared in larger sizes because they are a separate, complete meat dish, for example, for lunch. Meatballs are fried or stewed in a frying pan, and can also be baked in the oven with or without sauce. Meatballs are boiled in broth; they usually complement some dish, for example.
There is a wide variety of delicious meatballs, mostly differing in additional ingredients. You can add onions and carrots to the meatballs, you can put rice, meatballs with mushrooms or stuffed with vegetables that are wrapped in minced meat are delicious. Various sauces for meatballs can also be prepared and they will radically affect the taste. Well, the most important thing is that the meatballs themselves can be made from various types of meat. I don’t want to see meatballs, but meatballs in all the variety of preparations take the main prize.
Of course, I won’t be able to cover all the options, but I will share many delicious ones with you.
Meatballs with tomato sauce and sour cream
It seems to me right to start with simple and classic recipes. They are usually the most sought after and popular. We have become so accustomed to meatballs since childhood that we very often look for recipes for their preparation that are very similar to those prepared by our mothers and grandmothers, as well as hardworking cooks in kindergarten. And all this is not just like that. By the way, let me clarify that meatballs can be prepared for children and they really like them, both in taste and in shape, and I don’t need to tell you how many kids love gravy. You can choose any side dish according to your taste, but now let's learn how to cook delicious meatballs with gravy.
For the meatballs you will need:
- minced meat - kg,
- egg - 1 piece,
- onions - 1-2 pcs,
- garlic - 1-2 pcs,
- sour cream - 4 tablespoons,
- flour - 2 tablespoons,
- salt, pepper and spices to taste.
Preparation:
1. For meatballs, you can use either ready-made minced meat or make it yourself from the chosen meat. Choose pork, beef or a mixture of two minced meats to suit your taste. My one piece of advice is not to make the minced meat too lean, that is, completely without fat. A little fat in the minced meat will make the meatballs more juicy, and at the same time it will practically melt during heat treatment.
2. Chop the onion smaller, especially if you are cooking for children. Adjust the quantity yourself; you can add one or two onions. The onion itself also helps make the meatballs softer and juicier. Combine onion and minced meat in a large, comfortable bowl. Grind the garlic on a grater or with a knife, and also add it to the minced meat.
3. Break one raw egg into a bowl with minced meat and stir. The egg will help ensure good stickiness of the minced meat so that future meatballs do not fall apart when finished. Salt and pepper the minced meat to your taste.
4. Form the resulting minced meat into even, medium-sized balls. Roll them in flour so that when frying you get a delicious golden brown crust and all the meat juices are sealed inside. Heat a frying pan with vegetable oil and fry the meatballs over medium heat on all sides until lightly browned.
5. Prepare the future gravy. This recipe is the simplest - mix tomato paste with sour cream, dilute with one glass of warm water.
6. Pour the resulting sauce over the meatballs in the frying pan, cover with a lid and simmer for fifteen minutes.
7. As it simmers, the gravy will take on a deeper red color thanks to the tomato sauce. After fifteen minutes, covered over medium heat, the meatballs will be ready and soaked in a delicious sauce.
Delicious meatballs with gravy are ready. The most universal and simplest recipe. If you put cream instead of sour cream, the taste will be more delicate and less sour. Serve with a hot side dish, such as mashed potatoes, sprinkle with fresh herbs. Bon appetit!
Tender meatballs with rice baked in gravy in the oven
Almost all of us have tried meatballs with rice, and many even know them under the name “Hedgehogs”. They can also be cooked in a frying pan in a thick gravy, or you can bake them in the oven, which will only make them more tender, because there will be no drying frying in the frying pan, but only uniform heat on all sides. To flavor the gravy, we will add onions and carrots to it.
You will need:
- mixed minced meat - 600 grams,
- boiled rice - 1 cup,
- egg - 1 piece,
- onions - 2 pcs.
- carrots - 1 piece,
- garlic - 2 cloves,
- tomato paste - 2 tablespoons,
- sour cream - 2 tablespoons,
- flour - 2 tablespoons,
- salt and black pepper to taste.
Preparation:
1. Scroll the meat through a meat grinder or take ready-made minced meat. Place it in a bowl and add finely chopped onion and garlic. We will need the second onion for gravy. Also break an egg into the minced meat. Add some salt and pepper. Stir the minced meat first with a spoon and then with your hands, this is how it mixes best.
2. Grate the carrots on a coarse grater.
3. Mix sour cream and tomato paste in a separate bowl. Add two tablespoons of flour to them and stir to a smooth paste.
4. Pour cold boiled water into a glass and gradually pour it into the future sauce in a bowl. Pour a little and stir, then add more water and stir, and so on until all the water is gone.
Flour is needed in this sauce to add thickness. It also gives off that same characteristic taste that we remember from childhood in the gravy that was served in the canteen of kindergartens and schools.
5. Heat a frying pan with oil. Cut the second onion into small cubes. Fry the onion in oil until translucent, then add the grated carrots to the pan and fry over medium heat until the carrots soften.
6. Now pour the prepared tomato-sour cream sauce into the frying pan with onions and carrots. Stir, add a little salt and let simmer over low heat for 2-3 minutes. Salt and pepper the future gravy to your taste. This is how salty it will be when finished.
7. Turn on the oven to preheat at 180 degrees. Take a baking dish and start forming the meatballs. To do this, lightly moisten your hands with water and roll the minced meat into fairly large balls. Place the finished meatballs in the mold. When everything is assembled, take a frying pan with gravy and pour the meatballs on top. If there is not enough sauce, add a little water; it will mix with the sauce while boiling in the oven.
8. Place the meatballs with gravy in the oven and bake them for about 30 minutes at 180 degrees.
After half an hour, the meatballs are ready. The far cooks very quickly, and we already had the rice ready. You will get very tender and tasty meatballs with a fragrant thick gravy with onions and carrots. This is a very nutritious and satisfying lunch or dinner. Choose a side dish at your discretion. Eat for your health!
How to cook meatballs with gravy like in kindergarten
For those who are inexorably drawn by nostalgia to remember that same taste and cook meatballs like in kindergarten, I offer this good and detailed video. It describes the process of making meatballs and all the ingredients needed for this. There is nothing complicated in such a recipe and the cooks did not keep a military secret with it. Now it will be available to you too. Prepare the meatballs and don’t forget the tender pasta.
Meatballs in cream sauce, baked with cheese
Meatballs with rice are not the only thing that is great with tomato sauce. The creamy sauce is no less wonderful, and if you add cheese to it, then you won’t be able to pull it off by the ears. I can say this for myself and my family, but I’m almost sure that many will agree with me.
Cream is a delicate matter, so we will also bake meatballs in this sauce.
You will need:
- minced meat - 600 grams,
- rice - 100 grams,
- cream 10% - 330 ml,
- cheese - 100 grams,
- garlic - 2 cloves,
- potato starch - 1 teaspoon,
- salt and spices to taste.
Preparation:
1. Prepare minced meat, place it in a container convenient for stirring. Add garlic to the minced meat, passed through a press or grated on a fine grater. Add salt (about 0.5 teaspoon).
2. Boil the rice until half cooked. Add it to the minced meat. Add 0.5-1 teaspoon of your favorite mild spices. For example, Provençal or Italian herbs work very well.
3. Stir the minced meat with your hands, it turns out more evenly than with a spoon or spatula due to the fact that the minced meat is quite thick and lumpy.
4. Lightly wet your hands with water and roll into large round meatballs. Take a comfortable deep baking dish and place future meatballs on the bottom. It is not necessary to spread butter, because we will cook them in sauce.
5. Stir the sauce in a separate bowl. To do this, pour cream into a bowl. Grate the cheese on a fine or coarse grater. Add cheese to the cream, as well as spices and salt to taste. Add a teaspoon of potato starch there, this is necessary to make the creamy sauce a little thicker. Starch will not affect the taste at all. Mix everything well.
6. Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Place the meatballs in the pan in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, during which time the meatballs will be half cooked.
7. Pour the gravy we prepared over the meatballs. Place the remaining cheese at the bottom (it will settle) on top of each meatball so that it bakes with a beautiful golden brown crust.
8. Place the meatballs and gravy back into the oven and bake for another 20-25 minutes. The sauce will reduce and the cheese will bake into a beautiful crust. The meatballs will be completely ready.
Serve hot meatballs in creamy sauce with side dishes and vegetable salads. Bon appetit!
Original meatballs with buckwheat - grechaniky. Step-by-step video recipe
If you've tried meatballs with rice, but are already a little tired of them, then it's time to bring something new to this wonderful dish. Add buckwheat instead of rice and you will get a new type of delicious meatballs. Such delicious meatballs are also prepared with a thick rich gravy in which they are baked.
The ingredients are quite familiar: minced meat, onion, egg, flour and tomato paste. Instead of rice, boiled buckwheat. Add spices to your taste to make these meatballs spicy or spicy and delight your household with a new product.
Make meatballs with gravy more often and don't forget to add variety to them by changing sauces and additives. Don't forget delicious side dishes and salads; lunch should be nutritious and healthy. I wish you health and good mood!
Meatballs with rice is a simple and satisfying dish made from minced meat and rice, which occupies a leading position in large families. Cooking requires simple, affordable ingredients and not a lot of time.
Meatballs are prepared on the stove, in the oven and in the slow cooker - there are many variations. In addition to rice, add onions and carrots. Meatballs are prepared with gravy, sour cream or tomato sauce. We offer several recipes for homemade and delicious meatballs with rice. It is important to know that the rice in this dish is always pre-boiled, but not completely. You can use different minced meat: with chicken and turkey, the dish will turn out to be more dietary, with pork it will be more satisfying.
Classic meatballs with rice recipe
Classic meatballs with rice served with a side dish. The most common and delicious option is mashed potatoes.
Taste Info Meat main courses
Ingredients
- Rice – 400 g;
- Minced meat – 1 kg;
- Carrots – 1-2 pieces;
- Onion – 2 large onions;
- Tomato paste – 3 tablespoons;
- Sour cream – 200 g;
- Water – 2 glasses;
- Vegetable oil – 1 tablespoon;
- Salt, pepper - to taste.
How to cook classic meatballs with rice and minced meat
To prepare meatballs according to the classic recipe, you need to start with rice. If you want to cook the meatballs not today, but the next day, pour boiling water over the rice overnight. By morning it will swell and will not require pre-boiling. Otherwise, the rice needs to be boiled. Pour water over the rice until it covers a little. Place on the fire, bring to a boil, and reduce the heat. We wait for the water to boil. Cool the cooked rice to room temperature.
In the meatball recipe, the rice is always boiled; the rice is not boiled when preparing “hedgehogs” with rice - this is similar to meatballs, but is prepared a little differently.
Peel the carrots and grate them on a fine grater. Chop the onion as finely as possible. Fry the onion in vegetable oil, then add carrots to it. Fry them together for 5 minutes.
Now let's get to the minced meat. If you cook it yourself, pay attention to the freshness of the meat. Fatty meat is not suitable for this dish. If you use store-bought minced meat, pay attention to the fat content. Fatty meatballs will disintegrate.
Combine minced meat, half-cooked rice, and fried onions and carrots in a bowl.
Mix the mass well. Salt and pepper the future meatballs to taste.
We form balls from the mass. Place them in a pan in one or two layers. Use a thick-bottomed pan so that the meatballs do not burn during cooking. If there is no other pan, then place cabbage leaves on the bottom, they will protect the meatballs from burning, but if there is no cabbage, then make a pillow of grated carrots for the meatballs.
In some recipes, the meatballs are pre-fried; this can be done to ensure that the meatballs do not fall apart. In this recipe they are not fried, they turn out whole and soft.
Dissolve tomato paste in a glass of water. Add sour cream and remaining water, mix well. You can add a little salt.
Pour the sauce over the meatballs. The sauce should cover the meatballs 2/3. If there is not enough, add some water directly to the pan.
Place the meatballs on low heat and cook covered for 35-40 minutes according to the recipe. Serve classic meatballs with rice and minced meat with a vegetable side dish or mashed potatoes. You can serve them as an independent dish.
Teaser network
Meatballs with rice in sour cream sauce
Thanks to sour cream, the meatballs are very tender and soft. Meatballs with rice and gravy only take 45 minutes to prepare.
Ingredients:
Preparation
- To prepare delicious meatballs with rice in sour cream sauce, prepare the minced meat yourself. Twist 200 grams of pork pulp and 200 grams of beef pulp. Stir. If you cook meatballs in sour cream sauce for children, it is better to use dietary meat: turkey and rabbit.
- Rinse the rice well until the water becomes clear, place in a saucepan, add a glass of water and add salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce the gas to low and cover the pan with a lid. Cook the rice until all the liquid has evaporated. Don't worry, if the rice is not completely cooked, the meatballs will then undergo further heat treatment. To prepare the minced meatballs, the rice will need to be cooled.
- Add 100 ml of water, salt and spices to the sour cream, mix.
- In a bowl, mix the minced meat, squeezed garlic, salt, and add a little ground black pepper. Mix the minced meat with rice and form meatballs. It is desirable that they be the same size, so it is better to shape them with a tablespoon. The ideal size for a meatball is the size of a walnut.
- Roll the finished meatballs in flour or breadcrumbs, fry for five minutes in butter or vegetable oil.
- Then pour sour cream sauce over the meatballs and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover the saucepan with a lid and simmer the meatballs in sour cream sauce for 20 minutes.
- Sprinkle the finished dish with finely grated cheese and finely chopped fresh herbs.
Meatballs with rice like in kindergarten
Remember that magical taste of kindergarten meatballs? Let's try to reproduce it. It will take 60 minutes to prepare, you will get 6 servings of meatballs with rice, just like in kindergarten.
Ingredients:
Preparation
- Add cooled rice to the minced meat and add salt. Peel the onion and finely chop it, add it to the minced meat along with the eggs, pepper and mix.
- Form small meatballs. To make them smooth and beautiful, place a plate of cold water next to them and wet your hands with it. Meatballs are prepared like in kindergarten without breading, so you have to use water.
- Take a deep frying pan or saucepan, heat the vegetable oil and fry the meatballs, stirring, on all sides until golden brown. Fry over medium heat; there is no need to cook the meatballs until done.
- Mix half a glass of water with tomato paste and salt. When the meatballs are fried, pour the resulting sauce and wait until it boils. As soon as the meatballs boil, immediately reduce the gas to minimum, cover the saucepan with a lid and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Mix sour cream with flour, add 100 ml of water and pour over the meatballs. Close the lid again and simmer for another 15 minutes. Serve with any side dish.
Meatballs with rice in the oven
Meatballs made from fatty minced meat will definitely fall apart if they are not cooked in the oven. This recipe is perfect for meatballs made from fatty minced pork.
Ingredients:
Preparation
- Rinse half a glass of rice thoroughly until the water is clear. Place in a saucepan with a thick bottom and pour a glass of boiling water. Cook over low heat, covered, until all the water has evaporated. Leave the rice to cool. It should only be added to the minced meat when it has cooled.
- Rinse the minced meat, grind through a meat grinder with half an onion. Grate the carrots on a fine grater and divide into two parts. Add one half to the minced meat, leave the other half for gravy. Soak the bread in milk, knead it and add to the minced meat. Add cooled rice and egg. Salt, add spices for meat, form meatballs.
- Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan, a little less than half the amount indicated in the ingredients. Roll each meatball in flour and fry until golden brown.
- Fry grated carrots and chopped onions in vegetable oil. Add 4 tablespoons of tomato paste and 1 liter of purified water. When the sauce boils, add salt, reduce heat and simmer covered for five minutes.
- Place the meatballs in a baking dish and pour hot tomato sauce over them. Cover the baking dish with foil and place in an oven preheated to 180 degrees. Bake for 40 minutes, serve with fresh herbs.
You can cook meatballs with rice in the oven every day, varying the recipes a little.
Meatballs with steamed rice
For steamed meatballs, you will need sauce. You can take the sour cream or tomato recipe given above.
Ingredients:
Preparation
- Wash the round rice and cook in a glass of water. Add salt during cooking. There is no need to cook until done, the main thing is that the water boils away. Gas after boiling to a minimum.
- Soak the loaf crumb in milk, leave for about five minutes to swell. Mix the loaf with cooled rice, add eggs. Grind the onion in any convenient way: grind in a meat grinder, chop with a blender, grate or cut into cubes. Add chopped parsley or dill.
- It is better to use dietary minced meat for steaming meatballs: turkey, rabbit, chicken breast.
- Mix all the prepared ingredients, add salt and pepper and roll into small meatballs.
- You can sprinkle the cutting board with brittle and freeze the meatballs for future use.
- Place fresh meatballs in a steamer tray and steam for 30 minutes. Steamed meatballs with rice are ready! Serve with stewed vegetables and any side dish.
Meatballs with rice and cabbage
Juicy and tender meatballs with cabbage in tomato sauce are incredibly tasty. This dish resembles cabbage rolls; it is also called lazy cabbage rolls.
Ingredients for 6 servings:
Preparation
- Wash the cabbage, remove the top leaves, cut out the tough veins. To prepare meatballs we need 250 grams.
- Finely chop the cabbage and peeled onions.
- Grate the peeled carrots on a coarse grater.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and fry the carrots, onions and cabbage over medium heat until the cabbage and carrots become soft.
- Rinse the rice thoroughly until the water becomes clear. Pour 2 cups boiling water and cook over high heat for 8 minutes. Then place the rice in a sieve to drain and cool.
- Add cooled rice, cooled stewed vegetables, an egg to the minced meat, add salt, add spices and knead.
- Roll the meatballs and place them in heated vegetable oil. Fry on all sides until golden brown. You will have to fry in batches, because you get a lot of meatballs.
- If you don’t want to cook all the meatballs, then fry as much as you can in a frying pan, and put the rest in the freezer. Place the meatballs in a cauldron and pour boiling water so that it covers them halfway.
- When the water boils again, add tomato paste and salt, stir, cover the cauldron with a lid and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes.
- Add sour cream mixed with 100 ml of water and pour into the meatballs. Mix carefully, as they are almost ready, and simmer for another 15 minutes.
Tips for housewives:
- Meatballs with rice and minced meat can be prepared for future use. Roll the balls and place them on a board or tray in one layer. Freeze in the freezer for several hours. As soon as they begin to “knock” against each other, transfer them to a bag or container. You need to cook such meatballs without defrosting them, simply placing them in boiling sauce.
- Don't buy parboiled rice for meatballs. It's best to take a round one.
- It is very convenient for meatballs to boil rice in bags. You can also boil rice in a large amount of water, and after the rice is ready, drain the water.
- You can use any minced meat for meatballs, as long as it is low-fat. Dietary options are chicken, turkey, rabbit. It is advisable to twist the minced meat yourself, at least you will know what it is made of.
Everyone has been familiar with these small and round cutlets since childhood. And we also remember that Carlson, who lives on the roof, loves them very much. Meatballs are fried, baked, stewed, steamed. They are similar in composition to cutlets, only they contain more bread, eggs, onions, rice, buckwheat, beans, and cabbage are added. Meatballs are a universal dish - both adults and children, spicy food lovers and those on a diet love them. After all, the taste of meatballs is determined not by the minced meat, but by the sauce or gravy in which they were cooked. Add more pepper or tomatoes to the sauce - the taste is the same, replace tomatoes with sour cream - completely different, although the composition of the minced meat is the same. There are a very large number of recipes for making meatballs, so take a closer look and choose.
Meatballs - food preparation
For minced meat, you can use any meat - poultry, pork or beef. But the most delicious is considered to be a combination of two or three types of meat. For coupling, eggs, rice or grated potatoes are added to the mass. For the same purpose, the minced meat should be beaten on a table or cutting board for a couple of minutes. Then the meatballs will not fall apart during cooking, because... the minced meat adheres better. It is lifted above the bowl or table and thrown back with a little effort so that the minced meat makes a loud splash. But without fanaticism, so that it does not fly apart in pieces.
Meatballs - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Meatballs with gravy
A delicious combination of dense beef meatballs with a spicy garlic and mushroom gravy.
Ingredients: lean ground beef – 0.5 kg, 1 onion, 1 egg, 100 ml water, 2 tbsp. sour cream and breadcrumbs, dry dill. Gravy: mushrooms – 200g, 3 cloves of garlic, 2 tbsp. spoons of flour, salt, oil for frying, water - 1.5 cups.
Cooking method
Mix sour cream with breadcrumbs, water and mix with other products for meatballs. Knead the mixture thoroughly and then beat it. Form small balls and fry them over high heat. The purpose of frying is not to bring it to readiness, but to get a crust, even if they remain raw inside. Place them in a mold and bake. This will take about 15 minutes at 200C.
Prepare the gravy. Crush the garlic, but so that it holds its shape. You can flatten it with the side of a knife. Fry it for a few minutes, then remove it, add it to the oil and fry the mushrooms, cut into slices, and a little later add the chopped onion. Add the oil left over from frying the meatballs, add flour and brown it. Then add water, add salt and simmer for a few minutes until the gravy thickens. You can garnish the meatballs with boiled rice and potatoes.
Recipe 2: Meatballs with rice
More often, such meatballs are called hedgehogs, because of the boiled rice sticking out of the ball. Children love them very much. In order for the “needles” to stick out, you need to use raw rice. It’s better to take not a round one, but a long one, like Basmati. You can also put it boiled, it will be just as tasty, it’s just that the meatball will turn out smoother, without “thorns.”
Ingredients: minced meat – 0.5 kg, rice – ? glass, salt, 1 onion, ground pepper. Filling: salt, pepper, sour cream - 200g, water, 1 table. lie tomato paste.
Cooking method
Chop the onion. Either boil the rice until half cooked or soak for an hour. Mix rice, minced meat, onion, salt, pepper. Make balls (about 4-5 cm in diameter) and place in a frying pan greased with sour cream.
Mix the ingredients for pouring, add water, maybe a glass, maybe a little more. You want the sauce to cover the meatballs almost completely. And simmer for about thirty minutes.
Recipe 3: Meatballs in tomato sauce
You can make regular meatballs and simmer them in regular tomato sauce with tomatoes and tomato paste. It will be tasty, but a little boring. What if you create an explosion of emotions and prepare a dish that is quite simple, but tasty and extraordinary? Easily. The minced meat itself will also turn out unusual, where cottage cheese and sauce are added, which has a simply indescribable taste.
Ingredients: minced beef – 0.4 kg, cottage cheese – 100g, 1 egg, 1 large onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 2-3 slices of bread (100-150g), 2 table. l. milk (cream), any greens, 1 teaspoon. l. prepared mustard, salt, spices. Sauce: 2 large tomatoes, onions and bell peppers, 1 carrot, ketchup – 3 tablespoons, tomato paste – 2 tablespoons, 1 tablespoon each. lie starch and sugar, salt, herbs, black pepper, 2 cloves of garlic, 300 ml of water or broth.
Cooking method
Grind the onion and garlic (on a grater, using a blender). Add minced meat and bread soaked in water (or milk) and squeezed out. Knead. The next step is to add the egg, cottage cheese and mustard. Chop the greens, pour in the milk and knead again. At the final stage, add salt and pepper. You can limit yourself to this, or you can add other spices - nutmeg or Provençal herbs, for example. Roll into meatballs of your favorite size. Can be like cutlets or smaller. The main thing is that there are round bells. Roll them in flour, fry and set aside for a while.
Prepare the sauce. It is important for him to chop or grate the ingredients as finely as possible. So, heat the oil. Lightly fry the onion in it, add grated carrots, fry for a couple more minutes, add bell peppers and tomatoes and fry a little more. Next add sugar, salt, ketchup and tomato. Simmer the vegetable mixture for three minutes.
Dilute the starch in 50 ml of water and pour into the sauce. Stir, add water or broth (you can use a cube), chop the herbs and add chopped garlic. Cover the sauce with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes. The crucial moment comes: the meatballs are immersed in the sauce. They need to be completely covered with it. Cover this almost finished dish with a lid and simmer for 15 minutes. Serve with any side dish - rice, vegetables, potatoes.
Recipe 4: Meatballs in sour cream sauce
The meatballs turn out very soft, with a delicate taste. Any meat is suitable for them. You can take ready-made minced meat or chop whole pieces in a meat grinder. If desired, the onion can be pre-fried, this will give the meat balls an original taste.
Ingredients: 0.5 kg of minced meat, stale white bread - 150g, 2 onions, 2-3 eggs, salt, pepper. Sauce: 200g sour cream, 2 teaspoons. flour, salt, meat broth (or water) - 100 ml.
Cooking method
Soak the bread in water (milk), squeeze lightly. It will taste better in milk, but it can also be tasted in water. If you grind the meat in a meat grinder, also pass soaked bread and onions - fried or raw - along with it. Beat the eggs and add them to the minced meat. It is the beaten eggs that make the meatballs tender and juicy. Add salt and pepper. Knead the minced meat thoroughly and beat it a little for airiness. Roll into balls, roll in flour and fry. They are small in size, so they are fried until fully cooked. Transfer the meatballs to a cauldron.
For the sauce, mix sour cream, broth (or water), salt, and flour. Pour this mixture over the meatballs and simmer for five minutes.
Recipe 5: Meatballs in the oven
Delicious meatballs with added cheese. Ideally, it is better to take Parmesan, but you can get by with regular hard or even processed cheese. Cheese makes the meatballs more tasty, and the tomato mixture in which they are stewed makes them juicier.
Ingredients: minced meat – 0.5 kg, cheese – 150 g, 1 egg, 1 onion, salt, pepper. Sauce: 4-5 large tomatoes, teaspoon. lie sugar, salt, black pepper.
Cooking method
Chop the onion very finely and grate the cheese. Mix everything with minced meat, salt and pepper.
Remove the peel from the tomatoes and finely chop the pulp. You can do it faster - cut the tomato into halves and grate. The pulp gradually wears off, but the skin remains in the hands. Add a little salt to the tomato mass and add sugar. Here you need to try. If the tomatoes are sweeter, add a little less sugar, and vice versa. You need to rely on your taste. You can add herbs or allspice. Pour the seasoned tomato mixture into a mold and place in the oven, or simmer on the stove for 10 minutes to release the juice. Yes, this is an interesting turn of events.
While the tomatoes are releasing their juice, form meatballs with wet hands and plunge into the stewed tomato mixture. Bake for 30 minutes until done (200C).
Recipe 6: Meatballs in a slow cooker
Cooking in a slow cooker is a real pleasure. All you need to do is load the groceries; she does the rest herself. There is no need to monitor the process, nothing will burn or run away. And after a certain time, all that remains is to pick up the delicious finished dish. Like, for example, meatballs.
Ingredients: minced meat – 0.5 kg, salt, 1 egg, pepper, ? stack boiled rice, 1 onion. Sauce: 1 bay leaf, salt, spices, 400 ml of water (broth), 2 tablespoons each. spoons - flour, mayonnaise, sour cream, ketchup or tomato paste.
Cooking method
Chop the onion and mix with other ingredients for the meatballs. Form balls and place in a bowl.
In a bowl, thoroughly mix all the ingredients for the sauce and pour it over the meatballs. Turn on the “Extinguishing” mode for 1 hour.
— Meatballs will turn out tastier if you don’t use purchased minced meat, but grind the meat yourself. It turns out more juicy, because... it retains the meat juices.
— To make the meatballs juicy and fluffy, soaked bread is added to the minced meat - it absorbs the meat juice, not allowing it to come out. It is better to use stale bread, because... fresh gives the meatballs a not very pleasant stickiness.
Meatballs are small balls of minced meat (usually meat), to which bread or rice, as well as onions and spices are added. There are a large number of meatball recipes, and in many countries they, under various names, are considered a national dish.
Basically, meatballs are served with a sauce in which they are cooked. Potatoes, cereals, and pasta are great as a side dish for meatballs. When serving, the side dish is usually poured with the sauce in which the meatballs were stewed, for greater aroma and rich taste.
The best side dishes for various meatballs
Meatballs can be made from chicken, turkey, beef, pork, and fish. First, the meatballs are fried over high heat until a crust forms, then they are stewed in the prepared sauce in the oven, saucepan or frying pan. The most popular sauces for meatballs, whether made from meat or fish, are sour cream and tomato.
Chicken meatballs
Chicken meatballs are very easy to prepare and turn out tender and juicy. In addition, they are considered light and low-calorie. Therefore, it is better to choose a side dish for meatballs that is also as healthy as possible.
Vegetables and herbs go very well with chicken meatballs. Firstly, such a dish for lunch or dinner is ideal for supporters of proper nutrition. Secondly, vegetables highlight the bright taste of meatballs well. Such a side dish could be stewed cabbage or green beans; they have very few calories, but a huge amount of nutrients. You can stew cabbage or beans immediately along with the meatballs; during cooking they will perfectly absorb the taste of the sauce.
Another healthy side dish option would be wheat porridge. Chicken meatballs in creamy or sour cream sauce go well with boiled or fried potatoes, as well as mashed potatoes, but such a dish will already be quite high in calories.
Pork and beef meatballs
Beef meatballs are not as low-calorie and dietary as chicken meatballs, but they are still very healthy. And if you do not add rice and carrots to them, then the calorie content of such meatballs will decrease.
Beef meatballs go well with both a familiar side dish (boiled rice or mashed potatoes) and a rather unusual one - couscous. Couscous goes well with beef dishes; the finished porridge can be poured with sauce and meatballs placed on top. But you can serve the side dish separately from the main dish. Rice as a side dish can be varied by adding canned corn or peas.
Pork meatballs turn out very tasty without rice. Most often they are cooked in sour cream or tomato sauce; this dish turns out to be especially soft and tender. Pork meatballs are an ideal side dish that will absorb the sauce well. This could be mashed potatoes, rice, buckwheat or wheat porridge. It is better to cook the rice fluffy, so it will better take on the flavor of the sauce.
In addition, any crumbly porridge will go well with pork meatballs. You can prepare country-style potatoes as a side dish. To do this, peeled potatoes need to be cut into pieces and boiled. Fry the finished potatoes in a frying pan with butter. The potatoes develop a golden brown crust that perfectly complements the juicy, soft meatballs.
Fish meatballs
Fish meatballs are a simple and quick dish that includes various sauces and additives. You can prepare such meatballs from different types of fish, for example, you can use pollock or pink salmon.
Fish meatballs stewed in sour cream can be served with boiled potatoes. The potatoes need to be poured with the sauce remaining after stewing the meatballs. You can sprinkle the meatballs and potatoes with herbs on top.
Fish meatballs go well with rice, buckwheat, mashed potatoes and pasta.
Tricks for preparing meatballs with garnish
Using a slow cooker or steamer for cooking, you can cook both the meatballs and the side dish at the same time. You can place rice or pasta in the bowl, and the meatballs on a special grill for steaming. Two dishes will be ready within 30 minutes, which greatly saves time spent in the kitchen.
Meatballs that are about to be stewed often have grains added to them. Thanks to them, the meat does not turn out dry, and the meat balls do not fall apart during the cooking process. Rice is usually used, but it is quite possible to replace it with wheat or semolina, couscous, or bulgur.
The worst side dish for meatballs is cereal, which is already added to the composition of these meat balls. You should not serve rice or wheat porridge as a side dish if these grains have already been used to prepare the main dish. The same grain both in the main dish and in the side dish will create a feeling of monotony, the taste of the dish will not be so bright and rich.
Meatballs are appreciated by many due to the variety of recipes, large selection of sauces and simple cooking methods. Thanks to their juiciness and softness, this dish is prepared both by supporters of diets and proper nutrition, and by mothers for small children. You should choose a side dish for the meatballs, first of all, based on your personal taste preferences. But meatballs can also be an independent dish without a side dish if rice or other grains are added to them. The choice of side dish and its necessity is a matter of taste.
Meatballs - still pronounced with different accents, but most gourmets eat them with equal pleasure, although this depends on the quality of the minced meat, additives and gravy sauce in which these delicious meat “balls” are cooked. Minced meat cutlets and meatballs differ only in fillers. Meatballs contain more eggs, onions, and bread crumbs; it is possible to include buckwheat, rice, beans and even cabbage.
There are many options for preparing meatballs: they are stewed in various sauces, baked in the oven, fried, steamed. Meatballs can be prepared for everyone - for adults and children, for diet food and for lovers of spicy cuisine.
The sauce plays the most important role in making meatballs - and this is where mastery comes in. For spiciness, you can add pepper and tomato to the sauce, for creamy tenderness - sour cream instead of tomato. How to cook excellent meatballs so that even your guests will like them is described in many recipes. We offer some of them here and promise you success in making delicious meatballs.
Necessary ingredients for making meatballs
It is better to make minced meat for meatballs from several types of meat, which, in combination with each other, compensate for their shortcomings (dryness, excessive fat content). For better stickiness, raw egg, grated fresh potatoes or rice are added to the minced meatballs.
For the same purpose, such minced meat is “beaten”: it is beaten in small portions on a cutting board, that is, a piece of minced meat is periodically thrown from top to bottom with force. As a result, minced meat acquires two advantages at once: stickiness and fluffiness.
These dense and juicy meatballs are made from beef with garlic and mushroom sauce.
Ingredients:
- lean ground beef - 500 grams;
- fresh chicken egg - 1 piece;
- natural sour cream - 2 tablespoons;
- drinking water - 100 milliliters;
- onion - 1 piece;
- breadcrumbs - 2 tablespoons;
for the gravy:
- mushrooms - 200 grams;
- wheat flour - 2 tablespoons;
- drinking water - 1.5 glasses;
- fresh garlic - 3 cloves;
- vegetable oil 3-4 tablespoons.
Prepare meatballs with gravy as follows:
- Add water, sour cream mixed with breadcrumbs, raw egg, chopped onion to the prepared minced meatballs and knead thoroughly until smooth. “Beat” the resulting homogeneous mass on a cutting board by slapping minced meat cakes on it - it is generally believed that this will give it fluffiness and stickiness.
- Roll the prepared minced meat into small balls and fry them in boiling vegetable oil until golden brown. Place the semi-finished meatballs in a suitable refractory container and place in the oven for 15 minutes at 200 C.
- At that time . Fry crushed but shape-retaining cloves of peeled fresh garlic in a separate frying pan in boiling vegetable oil and remove. Fry the cooked fresh mushrooms in the same oil, a little later adding chopped onions and the oil remaining from frying the meatballs. Pour flour into all this while stirring, wait until it browns, then add water, add salt and continue to cook over low heat while stirring until the gravy thickens.
- Serve ready-made meatballs with gravy with any side dish: with rice, mashed potatoes, noodles, etc.
2. Recipe for making meatballs with rice
Children will definitely like meatballs according to this recipe - they look like hedgehogs due to the grains of rice sticking out in different directions. That's why they are called hedgehogs. For those who like rice needles sticking out, choose long rice and add it to the minced meat raw. With boiled rice, the “hedgehog” ball will not turn out so interesting - it will be tasty, but smooth.
Ingredients:
- minced meat - 500 grams;
- rice - 1 glass;
Fill:
- natural fresh sour cream - 200 grams;
- tomato paste - 1 tablespoon;
- water - 1-1.5 glasses;
- salt and pepper - to taste.
How to cook according to the recipe: meatballs with rice
- The selected rice can be soaked in water for 1 hour or boiled until half cooked. Chop the peeled onion, add it along with salt and ground pepper into the minced meat and mix everything until smooth.
- Roll the prepared minced meat into balls of equal volume (4-5 centimeters in diameter) and place one at a time in a frying pan greased with sour cream.
- Immediately prepare the filling by mixing sour cream with tomato paste and spices, add water and pour over the meatballs placed in the pan so that the sauce covers them almost completely. You can start simmering with the lid on, and simmer for the last 10 of 30 minutes without a lid on low heat.
3. Recipe: meatballs in sour cream
Meatballs in sour cream is a delicious dish made from minced meat. The minced meat can be anything: ready-made or “home-grown”. But it’s better to lightly fry the chopped onions in vegetable oil first to create the best aroma of the finished meatballs in sour cream.
Ingredients:
- minced meat - 500 grams;
- stale white bread - 150 grams;
- fresh onions - 2 onions;
- fresh chicken egg - 2-3 pieces;
- salt and pepper - to taste;
For the sauce:
- from methane natural fresh - 200 grams;
- premium wheat flour - 2 teaspoons;
- water or meat broth - 100 milliliters.
According to the recipe: prepare meatballs in sour cream as follows:
- Prepare the minced meat: add stale white bread soaked in water or milk; raw or fried chopped onions; beaten eggs, which make the minced meat fluffy and juicy; salt and pepper. Mix everything thoroughly - lightly beat the minced meat.
- Make identical balls from the resulting minced meat, roll them in flour and fry. Fry until fully cooked, then place in a thick-walled heat-resistant bowl.
- Prepare the sauce by mixing broth, sour cream, salt and, without lumps, flour. Pour the resulting sauce over the prepared meatballs and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve hot with your choice of side dish and fresh vegetables.
With good minced meat, meatballs are a win-win dish, but you can add a creative touch to the classic recipe: meatballs in tomato sauce. For example, add a little cottage cheese to the minced meat, and vegetables and starch to the sauce.
Ingredients:
- minced beef - 400 grams;
- cottage cheese - 100 grams;
- fresh chicken egg - 1 piece;
- fresh onion - 1 onion;
- fresh garlic - 2 cloves;
- white bread crumb - 150 grams;
- milk or cream - 2 tablespoons;
- greens - by preference;
- ready mustard - 1 teaspoon;
- salt and spices - to taste.
For the sauce:
- ripe tomatoes - 2 pieces;
- onions - 2 onions;
- sweet pepper - 2 pieces;
- carrots - 1 root;
- ketchup - 3 tablespoons;
- tomato paste - 2 tablespoons;
- granulated sugar - 1 tablespoon;
- starch - 1 tablespoon;
- fresh garlic - 2 cloves;
- water or broth - 300 milliliters;
- salt, ground black pepper and herbs - to taste.
According to the recipe: prepare meatballs in tomato sauce as follows:
- Add chopped onions and garlic, pre-soaked bread crumbs squeezed out of water or milk into the prepared minced meat. Mix everything and knead thoroughly until completely homogeneous.
- Finely chop the greens, mix them with cottage cheese, egg and mustard, combine with minced meat, add salt and pepper and knead thoroughly again. You can stay with this option, or you can expand the range of spices by adding nutmeg or Provençal herbs.
- Form small identical balls from the minced meat, roll in flour, fry in vegetable oil and place in a saucepan.
- To prepare the sauce, chop all the ingredients and, starting with onions, a little later - carrots, followed by sweet peppers and chopped tomatoes, fry in a frying pan in vegetable oil. At the very end, add salt, add sugar, ketchup and tomato paste. Simmer this entire mixture over low heat for 3-4 minutes. After these minutes, pour starch, broth or water diluted in 50 milliliters of water into it, add chopped herbs and chopped garlic. Simmer the sauce covered over low heat for 10 minutes.
- All that remains is to put the sauce in the saucepan with the finished meatballs so that they are completely covered with it, and simmer the meatballs in the sauce for another 15 minutes over low heat. Serve hot with your preferred side dish and vegetable salad.
5. Homemade meatball recipe in the oven
The taste of meatballs is very successfully enhanced by the addition of cheese, even processed cheese. Any hard cheese is suitable for this, although it tastes better with Parmesan. When combined with tomato sauce, the meatballs turn out very tasty.
Ingredients:
- minced meat - 500 grams;
- cheese - 150 grams;
- chicken egg - 1 piece;
- onion - 1 piece;
- salt and ground black pepper - to taste.
For the sauce:
- large ripe tomatoes - 4-5 pieces;
- granulated sugar - 1 teaspoon;
- salt and black pepper - to taste.
According to the recipe, cook meatballs in the oven as follows:
- Combine chopped onion, grated cheese, salt, ground black pepper with minced meat and knead thoroughly until completely homogeneous.
- Prepare tomato dressing in a way convenient for you, excluding tomato skins. You can scald and remove them, or grate them cut in half - the skin will remain in your hands.
- Salt and sweeten the resulting tomato dressing to taste, add herbs of choice and ground allspice. Simmer in a frying pan over low heat to release the juice as much as possible.
- At this time, stick the meatballs and place them one by one in the juicy tomato mass, in which the meatballs should be baked in the oven for 30 minutes at 200 C until cooked.
6. Recipe for cooking meatballs in a slow cooker
There is no need to exaggerate the “magical” properties of a multicooker - skillful hands have never been canceled. Yes, nothing will run away or burn, but it will only be tasty if you put deliciously cooked foods there. A correct and simple recipe will help with this.
Ingredients:
- minced meat - 500 grams;
- boiled rice - 1 cup;
- chicken egg - 1 piece;
- onion - 1 piece;
- salt and pepper - to taste.
For the sauce:
- broth or water - 400 milliliters
- flour - 2 tablespoons;
- mayonnaise - 2 tablespoons;
- natural sour cream - 2 tablespoons;
- ketchup or tomato paste - 2 tablespoons;
- bay leaf - 1 piece;
- salt and spices - to taste.
Prepare meatballs in a slow cooker as follows:
- In the usual way, prepare minced meat for meatballs according to the recipes given earlier. Make identical meat balls and place them in the multicooker bowl.
- In a separate convenient bowl, mix the necessary ingredients for the sauce, pour it over the laid out meatballs and turn on the “Stew” mode for 1 hour, after which you will get unusually aromatic and tasty meatballs.
Chefs' secrets on how to cook delicious meatballs
- When choosing homemade or store-bought minced meat, you should lean towards freshly homemade minced meat, as it does not lose its natural juiciness, which guarantees the high quality of the finished meatballs.
- You cannot ignore the presence of bread crumb soaked in milk or water in the minced meat, because it is the bread crumb that retains the tasty and healthy meat juice in the meatballs as much as possible. The bread crumb from stale bread does not impart unwanted stickiness to the finished meatballs. Give preference to stale white bread.