This is nice!
And not too, too bad for you, all things considered.
To recap – inspired by a TeeVee show, I was going through an old Julia Child cookbook when I came across an appetizer recipe for what she was calling Minimeatballs. The meatballs didn’t LOOK all that mini to me, and I wasn’t, at that very moment, looking to make an appetizer anything; but the simple combination of beef, pork, garlic, parsley, and bread crumbs soaked in French vermouth was too tempting NOT to try.
Now, what to do with them?
Rich is more or less off the tomatoes for the foreseeable future, so your everyday spaghetti and meatballs was out. I was bouncing around looking for ideas from this new web site I’d read of, bigoven.com, and came across a recipe for someone’s Great Uncle Oscar’s Swedish Meatballs that looked to have possibilities.
Of course, I had to change most of it first…
I’d already made Julia’s meatballs and stashed ‘em in the freezer; now I needed to add some good veggies to the sauce, and remove some of the bad stuff. Being a firm believer that the road to HECK! is paved with ‘lite’ substitutes and things of that ilk, I should note that I reduced the fat and cholesterol content by substituting good Greek yogurt (Fage ROCKS, y’all!) for half of the sour cream called for, and used organic chicken stock instead of beef.
The result? A tasty, bubbly pot o’ goodness to serve over buttered poppy seed noodles or perhaps some nice Basmati rice. ‘Shrooms would’ve been a nice touch, but we didn’t really miss ‘em – or the tomatoes.
INGREDIENTS
•Meatballs – fresh made, or, like mine; put up earlier and pulled from the freezer
•Olive or canola oil
•1 red, yellow or orange pepper, diced
•1 onion, diced
•2 carrots, diced
•3 celery spears, diced
•2 cloves garlic
•6 cups chicken stock
•2 tsp paprika
•1 tsp Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute or your salt-free spice blend of choice
•1 cup sour cream
•1 cup Greek yogurt
•Fresh parsley, minced
•1 tbsp cornstarch
•2-tsp water
•Salt and pepper
Heat oil in a good-sized pot, add the diced veggies and sauté for about ten minutes until the onion is tender and the rest of the veggies ‘cooked’ a bit.
Add stock, paprika, and spice blend and simmer for 30 minutes to reduce.
Heat oven to 350º.
Stir the sour cream, Greek yogurt, and a good handful of minced fresh parsley into the stock mixture.
Add meatballs, cover and pop in the oven for one hour. Bring back to the top of the stove and correct your seasoning, if needed.
Make a slurry by stirring 1 tbsp cornstarch into 1-1/2 tsp water. Add to the meatball mixture and stir over moderate heat just until thickened.
Lovely with buttered noodles or rice, and a nice bit of fresh parsley adds a bright, slightly lemon-peppery crunch.
Tomatoes? Who needs tomatoes?