fast family dinner: beef + vegie meatballs

This is a delicious weeknight dinner that is quick and easy and went down a treat with my kids……except for elodie who is a bit under the weather and off her food. So it’s not gluten free but to make it gluten free just swap out the tomato soup for 2/3 of a jar of passata and use gluten free flour. I made this after school and emerson had 2 plates and keira ate finn’s meatballs as well as her own dinner. That to me is always a good sign that dinner was a hit. If you want some good old fashioned meatballs that take you half a day then please make these 3 hour meatballs…..amazing.


beef + vegie meatballs for the kids
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Recipe type: Dinners
Serves: 6
What you'll need
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 zucchinis
  • 1 onion
  • 500g beef mince
  • 1 tsp each of coriander, cumin and tumeric
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 egg
  • 3-4 Tablespoons flour (use gluten free for gluten free option)
  • 1 can of tomato soup (or about 600g passata for gluten free option)
  • rice to serve
Instructions
  1. Rinse and cut the carrot and zucchinis into a few large pieces. Place in thermomix and process for 10 seconds speed 6. Scrape down bowl.
  2. Add in peeled onion and process another 5 seconds on speed 6 and scrape down bowl.
  3. You can do these steps in a food processor or just a grater will do.
  4. Add in egg, beef, spices, salt and pepper and the flour. Mix well with your hands so that everything is evenly distributed.
  5. The mixture will be soft and not too dry. If your mixture feels really wet then add some more flour or cornflour.
  6. Pour the canned soup or tomato passata into a casserole dish, add ½ can of water to the dish (don't add anything if using passata as use ⅔ a jar of passata (about 600g).
  7. Now roll the mince mixture into meatballs, we like a generous size and fill the casserole dish. Any extra mixture can be baked separately for 15 minutes in a 180 degrees oven and added to the tomato mixture later on.
  8. Place the casserole/baking dish into a preheated 180-190 degrees oven and bake for 20 minutes. Your sauce should be bubbling and the meatballs cooked right through. Check by cutting into the middle of a meatball.
  9. Serve with some rice or mashed potato or steamed greens. Garlic bread would also be delicious with this too.
  10. Hope you enjoy it! We just loved it and will be making it again some time soon.

 

Comments

  1. Corrie, I can’t wait to try this recipe. All your recipes are terrific. Someone gave me some mince from their belted galway cows and I am keen to try it so I think I will try the meatballs first.
    Cheers Trish

  2. This looks good, might have to give them a go as the Italian meatballs in the recipe community are divine and our favourite but have milk and cheese in them so no good for our dairy free friends. If you can have dairy try them, if not then ignore my suggestion!

  3. Hi Corrie,

    This looks delicious thanks for another great recipe! Looking forward to trying this.

  4. Oh wonderful thank you!

  5. I do a similar one from the CWA cookbook – Porcupine meatballs. But the rice is in the meatball! yummo. I didn’t know if Tomato soup was GF or not – I’m mean’t to have GF but use Tomato soup anyway. (I was reading somewhere the other day that coeliacs should have 2% or similar of gluten in their diet. This is the studies moving forward with tolerance and also to do with the vaccine they are developing..interesting).

    • oh wow that’s interesting about the GF and having a bit. wow. I have to say when I went cold turkey on the wheat and dairy and then had some honey soy chips and a diet coke one afternoon my body just reacted big time!

  6. Thanks – that looks great – always looking for quick and easy recipes to make in the TMX – for some reason I have trouble finding good ones! Will definitely try this.

  7. I usually cook my meatballs ahead of time – 20 min at 350F. Then put them in the sauce and bake it. Our tried and true gf sauce is small can of tomato sauce (not the salt free), 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup vinegar, 1/4 cup of ketchup, 2/3 cup brown sugar and 1/2 tbsp of prepared gf mustard. Bake for an hour at 350F. Sorry for the old fashioned measurements – am completely metric for everything except cooking!

  8. Yes the benefit of precooking is that you can get rid of some of the fat – I dab it with some paper towel.

  9. Thank you for this recipe, I’m always looking for some “health by stealth” ideas for my very fussy miss. For once she finished dinner first instead of sitting for ages being coaxed to eat her veggies, perfect!

  10. Melanie jade says:

    Corrie I love your recipes. I cooked this tonight and it was fabulous. The spices add a nice change to typical Italian flavours. I served them with some macaroni and steamed greens. I also made the passata in my Thermomix while I started the meatballs off roasting in the oven. We are dairy free so it’s good to find a recipe for meatballs without parmesan. Oh and I doubled the recipe to feed our family of 5 for two nights.

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