I love meatballs, however, my early attempts at them were never great. As time has gone on I’ve developed a recipe I really love so thought it was about time I wrote it down. I use both pork and beef to make the meatballs. The added pork helps keeps them juicy. I used 2 very meaty sausages, however, sausage meat or pork mince is fine too. Instead of breadcrumbs, I soak a slice of bread in milk. Make sure you don’t add too much milk or the mixture gets a bit wet. Alternatively you can use breadcrumbs, but I find the opposite happens and makes the balls dry, plus I don’t usually have breadcrumbs in the cupboard. I use a hand blender to blitz all of the mince up until it’s sticky. I’d say this is optional. Doing this gives you more of a Swedish meatball that holds together very well which I like.
When I roll out the balls I use 00 pasta/pizza flour. This is very fine flour. You could achieve this by sifting usual plain flour though. This helps shape the balls and also gives them a nice crispy outside like you often get with Swedish meatballs.
I find the best way to cook these is in an ActiFry in one of the basket attachements. Cook for 20 minutes turning them after 5 minutes to help with sticking. You can also cook them on a baking tray or on a wire rack over a baking tray or roasting tin in the oven.
Pork and Beef Lean Meatballs Recipe
Serves: 6 (48 balls, 8 balls per serving)
Ingredients:
500g 5% Beef Mince
175-200g lean pork mince (or 2 meaty, skinned sausages)
1 egg, beaten
1 slice bread cut into 1cm cubes
100ml milk
1tsp dried Oregano
1 diced birds eye chilli (or pinch of chilli flakes)
1 Tbsp fresh parsley
2 Tsp garlic paste
100g finely diced/minced onion
Salt and pepper
Splash of Hickory liquid smoke (optional)
Finely sieved flour
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200C (180C fan)
2. Soak the bread with the milk in a bowl and leave while you prepare the other ingredients.
3. Add all of the other ingredients (apart from the flour) into a big bowl and mix well. Add the bread to the mix after it’s had 10 minutes to soak.
4. Use a blender or hand blender to mince and combine everything so the mix is smooth.
5. Divide the mix into 6 and then divide again to make 8 balls from each batch. Use the flour to help roll the balls if the mixture is sticky.
6. Place on a baking tray with some fry light sprayed on the base to help prevent sticking.
7. Bake for 20 minutes, turning the balls half way through.
macros2muscles 