servings
Beef & Turkey Meatballs
Meatball Quinoa Soup, Meatballs in your favourite sauce on pasta and Meatball Subs in a marinara sauce are 3 meal ideas. If kids are doing this recipe I would suggest only 1 recipe split between 2 or 3 families so the kids don't get overwhelmed by the rolling involved. This is a great recipe to do with friends because you can chat while you roll the meatballs. Feel free to adjust the mixture of ground meats – all beef, all turkey or a mixture of beef and pork are also delicous.
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 carrot
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1 lb lean ground turkey (breast meat is great if you can find it)
- 3/4 cup bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a 10 inch frying pan heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and saute until soft approximately 10 minutes.
- Stir in minced garlic and cook for another minute then set pan aside to cool.
- In a large bowl grate the carrot.
- To the bowl add ground beef, ground turkey, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, egg, salt, pepper and reserved onion mixture.
- With your hands mix all ingredients together until it is consistent – you might need to help kids with this step.
- Rolling between your 2 palms form meat mixture into small meatballs approximately 2 cm in size. Use approximately 1/3 of the mixture for these meatballs to be added to your soup.
- At this point you should begin your soup preparation. Once the soup is simmering you can make additional meatballs of a larger size to be used in meatball subs or pasta.
- To cook meatballs you can bake them on a large baking sheet at 400 degrees for approximately 20 minutes stirring after 10 minutes.
- To cook meatballs in a marinara sauce, first bring the sauce to a boil, add meatballs and cover. Simmer this sauce for 45 minutes to one hour. Meatballs can be tested and should register 165 degrees in the centre.
Meatball Quinoa Soup
For the Meatball Quinoa Soup Recipe you can use my recipe your own meatball recipe or just shape some ground beef into small balls for my take on an Italian Wedding Soup.
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion diced
- 2 carrots diced
- 2 celery stalks diced
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 carton vegetable, beef or chicken broth (946 ml)
- 1 cup passata or strained tomatoes
- 1 14 oz can of navy beans
- 1 small bunch of kale, chard, spinach or beet greens
- 1/2 cup quinoa
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon feshly ground black pepper
- grated parmesan cheese for garnish
Mini Meatballs from recipe above or your own
Instructions
- Heat your dutch oven on medium heat, add oil and then onions, garlic, carrots and celery. Stir constantly and cook for approximately 7 minutes until vegetables have started to soften but not brown.
- Add bay leaf, broth and strained tomatoes and bring to a boil.
- Add your mini meatballs and continue to simmer for 20 minutes until cooked through.
- While soup is simmering prepare your greens by removing tough stems and spines, and finely chopping leaves – the smaller the better for my kids.
- Add beans, greens and quinoa and simmer 15 minutes until greens and quinoa is tender.
- Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.
- This soup is more flavourful made ahead of time. Refrigerate and reheat before dinner.
- Garnish with freshly grated parmesan cheese and serve.
I love making soup in the winter. This Meatball Quinoa Soup is a great recipe for dinner with some crusty bread. Kids really love.
My twin boys and two friends loved the Kids Cooking Club. They learned to chop, dice, sauté and assemble 4 different family meals. Best of all, they brought home a completed cooked dinner for the family… Read more »