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Italian Meatballs
It took me ages to decide what to name this dish…..just kidding! These bad boys contain tomatoes, basil and Balsamic vinegar, call me predictable but I think it was pretty obvious where we were going here. These are a pretty stock standard mid-week meal at Casa Smith. Super easy to knock together and makes brilliant leftovers for lunch. They also freeze well. Serve them on top of zoodles, courgetti, vegetti or whatever fancy pants name you give your spiralized veg (I’m partial to making mine with sweet potato – are swoodles a thing??)
Meatballs
- 1 kg mince ( I mix 500 grams each of pork and veal)
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1/2 cup almond meal
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- Sea salt and black pepper to season
Sauce
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 large carrot, small dice
- 2 celery sticks, small dice
- 1 brown onion, diced
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 250 grams mushrooms, sliced
- Couple of handfuls baby spinach leaves
- 2 x 400 gram tins chopped tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
- Sea salt and black pepper to season
- 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
- Fresh basil leaves to garnish
Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Mix all meatball ingredients together in a large bowl until well combined.
Roll mixture into balls and place on a lined oven tray ( I make around 24-26 balls out of the mixture).
Bake for 18 minutes.
While they’re cooking, chop your veggies.
Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat and add your onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Cook, stirring until veggies are soft (don’t brown them).
Add the mushrooms and cook for another couple of minutes to soften them.
Pour in the tin tomatoes and tomato paste.
Add the vinegar, sugar, herbs and spices. Lower heat and simmer until veggies are cooked through.
Add the spinach leaves to wilt them and season with salt and pepper.
Add the cooked balls to the sauce, coating them nicely.
Add the nutritional yeast and stir through.
Serve up and garnish with fresh basil leaves, saaaah fancy!
*you can make these without the nutritional yeast, but it adds a delicious cheesy flavour.
