Meatballs in Tomato Saucewith cauliflower / green beans
Meatballs are a budget friendly way to enjoy comfort food on a busy weeknight! Served with a flavorful tomato sauce and cauliflower and green beans on the side, this meal has everything you need for a little midweek pick-me-up.
Ingredients
- Shallots - 1 bulb, diced
- Garlic - 2 cloves, chopped
- Thyme leaves - 1 tsp, leaves torn
- Oil, olive - 1 Tbsp
- Paprika - 1/4 tsp
- Tomatoes, crushed (28 oz / 794 g) - 1 can
- Beef, ground - 1 lb
- Eggs - 1
- Salt - 1/2 tsp
- Oregano, dried - 1/2 tsp
- Black pepper - 1/4 tsp
- Oil, cooking - 1 Tbsp
- Cauliflower - 12 oz, chopped
- Green beans, fresh or frozen - 12 oz, chopped into 1” / 2.5 cm pieces
- Butter - 1 Tbsp
Nutrition Facts
Prep
- Cauliflower / Green beans / Shallots / Garlic / Thyme - Prep as directed. Store cauliflower, green beans, and shallots each in their own container. Combine garlic and thyme in another container. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Make tomato sauce - (If prepping right before cooking, get water for cauliflower / green beans boiling before continuing with prep.) Heat a saucepan with olive oil over medium heat. Add shallots and saute until soft, 2 to 3 minutes. Add garlic, thyme, and paprika and saute for 1 minute. Pour tomatoes over top and simmer for 5 minutes. Season with some salt and pepper. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Form meatballs - Combine beef, eggs, salt, oregano, and black pepper. Form into 1” / 2.5 cm wide meatballs. You should have ~4 meatballs per serving. (Can be done 1 day ahead)
Make
- Bring a large stock pot of salted water to a boil.
- While water is coming to a boil, heat a skillet with cooking oil over medium-high heat. Add meatballs and saute on all sides until golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes.
- Pour tomato sauce around meatballs and cover. Cook, covered, until meatballs are cooked through, 12 to 15 minutes.
- While meatballs cook, return to boiling water. Add cauliflower florets and boil, uncovered, for 2 minutes (the cauliflower will take a few minutes longer than the green beans). Add green beans and boil both together until tender, 4 to 6 minutes more.
- Drain cauliflower and green beans.
- Toss cauliflower and green beans with butter. Season generously with some salt and pepper.
- Serve meatballs and sauce with cauliflower and green beans on the side. Enjoy!
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Reviews
This meal has 35 reviews
Easy and yummy. I love the rice in the meatballs.
I used a lot of shortcuts and still came out of it with a meal that was a heck of a lot more imaginative and nutritious than the one I would have made!
We liked this meal a lot! Little bits of the meatballs did stick quite a bit to the skillet. I think this might be from all the starch in the rice and the GF breadcrumbs. Despite that, this was one we will make again.
Enjoyed this meal. Used my Instant Pot to make the potatoes and green beans, which simplified the whole thing. Meatballs were easy to make, though I would add some more spices the next time. The final step of simmering the meatballs in the sauce actually takes FAR less time than the recipe calls for. If you have a meat thermometer, I would defer to that so the meatballs don't get overcooked. Would recommend this recipe, though!
I thought this was pretty good, and completely missed the step where you finish the meatballs in the sauce...I just ladled the sauce overtop- and it was fine. A bit time consuming, though, and I used at least 3 pans, which is more than I'm used to.
Meatballs tasted a bit bland to me. Used Trader Joe’s tiny potatoes which turned out great but again a bit bland.