Among all the unpretentious meat dishes, meatballs most often help out beginner and experienced housewives. The first attracts simple cooking and guaranteed results, the second - fast cooking and the opportunity to experiment with sauces.
Cooking meatballs can be different: in a saucepan, oven double boiler, in a pan. However, the easiest way is to use a slow cooker. Firstly, there is no need to follow the dish, the multi-cook will do it. Meatballs in the slow cooker will not burn, and the sauce will not drain. Secondly, dirty dishes after the completion of the workflow will remain at least. Thirdly, the maximum amount of vitamins and nutrients will remain in the dish.
Meatballs with sauce in a slow cooker - general principles of cooking
The basis for making juicy meatballs in a sauce in a slow cooker is ground beef. You can buy it by weight or cook it yourself. Any kind of meat will do: beef, pork, lamb, poultry. Self-cooked minced meat is preferable.
A piece of meat should be washed with cold water, dried with paper towels, cut into small pieces for grinding. Then skip them twice through a meat grinder, chop them up in a powerful blender or food processor.
If you want to keep the taste of fresh meat, spices, you need to add a minimum: salt, pepper, neutral seasonal herbs in fresh or dried form. To obtain a richer, brighter flavor, hops-suneli, coriander, mushroom dressing, etc. are added to the meat base.
Boiled rice or soaked pieces of bread can be added to the minced meat as desired. The additive will soften hard meat fibers and will give the dish additional flavors.
There are two ways of cooking meat. Meatballs in a slow cooker can be fry first, then extinguished, or simmer without first roasting. In the first case, the dish will be tastier, in the second - lower in calories and healthier.
Meatballs must be prepared sauce. Thanks to the quenching in the fragrant gravy, the meat pieces are very juicy and tender. The basis for the sauce can be tomato paste (very tasty and budget option), fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese, cream.
Meatballs in Tomato Paste Sauce
A simple and budget way to cook meatballs with gravy in a slow cooker is to use tomato paste to get a sour, fresh sauce. Instead of store paste, you can take homemade tomato ketchup or make a pot of fresh tomatoes.
Ingredients:
• five hundred grams of any minced meat;
• two small bulbs;
• two medium carrots;
• four tablespoons of tomato paste;
• three cloves of garlic;
• salt;
• a mixture of peppers for refueling;
• cooking oil for frying;
• greens according to season or desire.
Cooking Method:
Prepare homemade minced meat or defrost shop.
Peel and chop the garlic.
Wash greenery, dry and chop very finely.
Mix the minced meat with herbs and garlic. If you make your own stuffing, you can chop the greens and garlic with meat.
Salt the meat, add the right amount of pepper and spices to your taste, knead thoroughly.
From the resulting mass to form small meatballs the size of a little larger than a walnut. To prevent meat dough from sticking to your hands, moisten the fingers with cold water.
Remove the husks from the onion and cut into thin half-rings or small cubes.
Peel the carrots and grate them on a coarse grater. You can chop the carrot into thin sticks. The larger the carrot particles, the more pronounced the carrot flavor will be in the sauce.
Enable frying program.
Pour a spoonful of vegetable oil into the thicket of the multicooker and wait 2-3 minutes until it warms up.
Put sliced onion into butter, fry for five minutes.
Add the carrot and fry for another five minutes.
Put vegetable dressing out of the multicooker bowl (or just slide the vegetables aside) and fry the meatballs on both sides of the oil. The meat piece should be browned on each side.
Screw the onion-carrot dressing into the slow cooker, add tomato paste, pour 3/4 cup of water. Stir the sauce so that the tomato paste is evenly distributed.
Salt the sauce to taste, you can add more pepper or spices.
Switch the slow cooker to extinguishing mode and cook for 20 minutes. After the beep, do not turn off the device for another 15 minutes. Due to the mode of maintaining the temperature, meatballs with irrigation in a slow cooker will languish and become tender.
Pork meatballs with green sauce in flour breading
Thanks to the breading, the tender pork meatballs are very beautiful, even and very tasty. By adding eggs to the minced meat, the pieces do not fall apart, keep their shape well and get an extra touch of flavor. Pork mince can be easily replaced with any other or mixed in beef or chicken.
Ingredients:
• a pound of minced pork;
• two chicken eggs;
• large bulb onion;
• four tablespoons of ground breadcrumbs for minced meat;
• a tablespoon of ketchup or tomato paste;
• a tablespoon of sour cream (optional, if desired);
• one multi-glass of drinking water;
• salt;
• spices and herbs (dill, basil, parsley, cilantro, cumin, paprika, pepper mix);
• a teaspoon of flour and breadcrumbs.
Cooking Method:
Grind the stuffing.
Skip the peeled onion through a meat grinder, chop in a blender or grate on a fine grater and add to the meat.
Beat eggs into meat dough, salt and sprinkle with pepper and spices.
Add the breadcrumbs to the meat, mix until smooth.
Wet hands to form meatballs.
Pour the flour and breadcrumbs on a saucer and mix.
Meatball roll in breading mixture.
Put the meat pieces into the multicooker bowl, pour in water.
Add tomato paste and sour cream as desired, mix.
Finely chop fresh or frozen greens and add them to the bowl. You can substitute fresh herbs for your taste.
Cook in stew mode for 45 minutes.
Beef Meatballs with Sweet Pepper Sauce
Very tasty meatballs in sauce in a slow cooker are obtained when added to the bell pepper. The aroma of this dish is amazing.
Ingredients:
• three hundred grams of ground beef;
• large onion;
• egg;
• two tablespoons of tomato paste;
• a bunch of fresh greens;
• salt and spices at its discretion; • two bell peppers.
Cooking Method:
Peel and mash the onion in a meat grinder or in a blender.
In the finished minced meat add eggs, salt, onion puree and spices.
Mix everything together and form meatballs.
Wash the Bulgarian pepper, cut the core with the seeds and the stem, cut into thin strips.
Put the meatballs on the bottom of the bowl.
Top with chopped greens, tomato paste and slices of pepper.
Pour half a glass of water.
Turn on the device to extinguish mode.
Cooking meatballs with gravy in a slow cooker for half an hour.
Chicken meatballs with sour cream sauce
Sour cream sauce for meatballs is very popular with young children. Gentle pieces of minced chicken, which literally melt in your mouth, are obtained.
Ingredients:
• kilogram of minced chicken;
• one chicken egg;
• a piece of white bread;
• half a cup of milk;
• one onion;
• pepper and salt;
• optional pinch of nutmeg;
• two tablespoons of cooking oil for frying;
• tablespoon butter;
• tablespoon white flour;
• two glasses of chicken broth or water;
• one hundred grams of shop sour cream.
Cooking Method:
Roll milk and leave for 10 minutes.
Make mashed potatoes with onion and grated it.
In the minced chicken to drive an egg.
Squeeze the loaf and send to the meat.
There also put onion gruel.
Salt, add a little pepper (you can not add), knead the stuffing thoroughly.
Form the meatballs and send to the fridge.
Turn on the slow cooker in frying mode, pour in vegetable oil and immediately add cream.
When the lump of butter is dissolved, pour flour into the bowl and lightly fry.
Pour chicken broth into a slow cooker (you can dilute a bouillon cube or take regular drinking water).
Smash flour lumps with a fork so that you get a uniform sauce.
Add sour cream to it, mix, salt and boil until the sauce begins to thicken.
In a small frying pan fry cold meatballs on both sides.
Put them in a creamy flour sauce.
Stew meatballs in a slow cooker under a lid for 35 minutes.
Meatballs in a sauce of cheese and cream
A wonderful dish can be prepared if you take cream and soft melted cheese for the sauce. The taste of meat pieces in such a luxurious sauce will seem special, and you can use any kind of meat.
Ingredients:
• four hundred grams of any minced meat;
• seventy grams of white bread;
• a glass of drinking cream of 10% fat;
• half a cup of milk;
• two cloves of garlic;
• one hundred grams of soft melted cheese;
• tablespoon butter;
• large onion;
• half a spoon of ground nutmeg;
• a teaspoon of salt.
Cooking Method:
Soak the bun in the milk.
Chop garlic and onions.
Mix minced meat with onion, garlic and squeezed bread, salt.
Pour the cream into the bowl and immediately put the butter.
Enable frying mode.
As soon as the cream warms up, put the soft melted cheese out of the jar in the bowl.
Stir in the cream while stirring.
Add salt to your taste, add spices that you like (dried ground mushrooms, nutmeg and paprika are very good).
Put meatballs in ready sauce. You can pre-fry them in a skillet.
Switch the device to the extinguishing mode, cover with a lid.
Cooking meatballs in sauce in a slow cooker 30 minutes.
Chicken meatballs with mushroom sauce
Mushroom sauce adds a spicy taste to a simple meat dish. Do not necessarily use minced chicken. Mushrooms are great with beef and pork. Be sure to try to cook this version of meatballs in a sauce in a slow cooker.
Ingredients:
• a pound of minced chicken;
• a glass of boiled rice;
• two tablespoons of butter;
• one hundred grams of dried mushrooms (or 250 grams of fresh);
• large onion;
• one chicken egg;
• two tablespoons of flour;
• glass of water;
• some cooking oil.
Cooking Method:
Soak dried mushrooms in warm water for several hours.
Rice to fall asleep in a slow cooker and cook on the appropriate program. Throw in a colander, wash the thicket.
Mix minced meat with egg and rice. Salt and mix again.
Turn on the slow cooker in the frying mode, pour in the oil and fry the meatballs on both sides. Put it out of the bowl. Chop the onion.
Squeeze the mushrooms from the water and cut.
Pour another spoonful of oil in a slow cooker, fry onions and mushrooms.
Put sour cream and flour, pour in water, mix the sauce.
Boil creamy-mushroom sauce for 10 minutes, it should thicken a little.
Salt, pepper and lay out meatballs.
Simmer under the lid for 20 minutes.
Meatballs with gravy - tricks and tips
- Meatballs in the slow cooker prepare very quickly. They are served as a separate dish (in this case, freshly baked flat cakes can be offered to the meat) or with a side dish: boiled mashed potatoes, buckwheat, rice, steamed or fresh vegetables.
- Finished meat pieces can be stockpiled and frozen in the freezer. It will not affect the taste of the dish, but it will significantly simplify the meal plan of a large family. The hostess will only remove the semi-finished product from the freezer and immediately use it. Quick and tasty!
- Frozen meatballs do not need to be thawed before they are sent to the slow cooker for quenching. However, the cooking time is given to increase by 10 minutes.
- If the meatballs are breaded in flour, they can be laid out in 2-3 layers. Thanks to the breading, the pieces do not stick together. Both fresh and frozen semi-finished products can be breaded.
