Sweet and Sour Meatballs

This week I’m excited to share with you a recipe perfect for game-day, potluck, or holiday. Meatballs are a fun and delicious way to start off a meal or serve along other small foods during a gathering (we’re no stranger to meatballs). This time of year, between Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and football parties, we end up being a lot more social and therefore need to cook food that is easily shareable.

Our sweet and sour meatballs are great in the small 1-inch variety, but would also be good in a larger size for a more traditional entreé serving at home. They could also be cooked and kept warm in a slow cooker, rather than a skillet, if you’re planning ahead and hosting a get-together with multiple items on the menu. Whether you use buffalo and ground beef or a combination of different meats (be cautious with very lean meats so that they don’t dry out), we think you’re going to love these tangy meatballs.

Ingredients
meatballs
2/3 C slices of baby portobello mushroom
1 small onion, quartered
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/8 tsp dried oregano
Pinch celery salt
1 lb ground beef (85/15)
1 lb ground bison
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp avocado oil

sweet and sour sauce
3/4 C homemade ketchup
1/3 C apple cider vinegar
1/4 C coconut aminos
1/4 C apple sauce
1 Tbsp spicy brown mustard

Method

Pulse the mushroom, onion, and dried spices together in a Ninja, food processor or blender until vegetables are finely minced.

Add both beef and buffalo to a large bowl and combine with your hands. Then, add the mushroom and onion mixture as well as the eggs and knead everything together until fully blended with your hands.

Roll 1-inch meatballs with your hands and set them on a large plate or platter to rest until all of the meatballs have been rolled.

Warm oil over medium heat in a large skillet. In batches, add the meatballs and cook for 2-3 minutes per side. The meatballs will be fragile, so we used a long-handled spoon (rather than tongs) to turn them in the pan. Set cooked meatballs aside. Scrape any burnt bits from the skillet, but reserve as much of the fat and oil as possible for the sauce.

Stir sauce ingredients together in a small bowl. Then, add the meatballs back into the skillet, pour the sauce over them, and stir while cooking over medium-low heat for 5-7 minutes.

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Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Servings: 6-8
Time: 20 minutes prep, 30-40 minutes cook
Difficulty: easy
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sweet and sour sauce
3/4 C homemade ketchup
1/3 C apple cider vinegar
1/4 C coconut aminos
1/4 C apple sauce
1 Tbsp spicy brown mustard

Method

1. Pulse the mushroom, onion, and dried spices together in a Ninja, food processor or blender until vegetables are finely minced.

2. Add both beef and buffalo to a large bowl and combine with your hands. Then, add the mushroom and onion mixture as well as the eggs and knead everything together until fully blended with your hands.

3. Roll 1-inch meatballs with your hands and set them on a large plate or platter to rest until all of the meatballs have been rolled.

4. Warm oil over medium heat in a large skillet. In batches, add the meatballs and cook for 2-3 minutes per side. The meatballs will be fragile, so we used a long-handled spoon (rather than tongs) to turn them in the pan. Set cooked meatballs aside. Scrape any burnt bits from the skillet, but reserve some of the fat and oil for the sauce.

5. Stir sauce ingredients together in a small bowl. Then, pour the sauce to the skillet, add the meatballs, and stir while cooking over medium low heat for 5-7 minutes.