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These delicious Mini Meatballs with Roasted capsicum Sauce comes from our recent #freezertolunchbox challenge. This challenge happens every school holidays. We cook 5 recipes total over the course of 5 days to stock the freezer with delicious snacks and lunches for the weeks and months ahead. It is a great way to get organised, try some new recipes and fun!
Goodness me these are delicious! My partner can be defined as a meatball hater but boy did he love these meatballs. “These are actually really good!” he said before devouring the remaining meatballs on the baking tray. They are so simple, use basic ingredients but taste so good!
I make a little roasted capsicum dipping sauce to go with these. It takes no time at all but adds a yummy flavour to the meatballs once dipped. This sauce freezes really well which is a great bonus!
This recipe makes 40 meatballs and 1.5 cups of sauce approximately. I package these into lots of 5 meatballs making 8 serves for the lunchbox or serve as is for a yummy dinner.
Don’t forget to hang out with TRTLMT in all the cool places!
Mini Meatballs with Roasted Capsicum Sauce
- Total Time: 30
- Yield: 40 1x
Description
Makes 40 meatballs and 1.5 cups of sauce approximately. Meatballs can be doubled.
Ingredients
Gather these
- 3 slices of day old bread, can use GF or omit completely if preferred
- 70g carrot, roughly chopped
- 70g zucchini, roughly chopped
- 1 garlic clove, peeled
- ½ small onion, peeled
- 500g good quality lean beef mince
- 1 Tbsp dried Italian herbs
- optional pepper and salt
Sauce
- ½ bunch of basil leaves
- ½ onion, peeled
- 1 garlic clove, peeled
- 500g roasted capsicum strips
- 1 Tbsp tomato paste
- 1 Tbsp honey, optional (to counteract the acidity of the roasted capsicum)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
Instructions
Then mix like this
- Preheat oven to 180C. Line a deep baking tray with baking paper.
- Place bread into bowl. Speed 7 / 6 second. Set aside.
- Add veggies to bowl. Speed 7 / 5 seconds.
- Add beef, herbs, pepper and optional salt, Italian herbs and breadcrumbs. Speed 7 / 10 seconds. Spoon mixture out on to a plate.
- Roll 40 small meatballs from the mixture and place onto the baking tray. Be sure not to make them too small as you don’t want them to be a choking hazard for young children.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes. Stir them around often for even browning.
- Meanwhile, place all the sauce ingredients into a clean mixer bowl. Speed 7 / 10 seconds. Then cook 15 minutes / 100C / Speed 2 with internal steaming basket on the lid to prevent splatters. Allow to cool completely before freezing in individual portions.
- Remove meatballs from oven and drain on paper towel.
Or cook like this
- Preheat oven to 180C. Line a deep baking tray with baking paper.
- Place bread into food processor. High speed until breadcrumbs form. Set aside.
- Add veggies to processor. Mix on medium to high speed until finely grated but with some texture.
- Add beef, herbs, pepper and optional salt, Italian herbs and breadcrumbs. Medium speed until combined. Spoon mixture out on to a plate.
- Roll 40 small meatballs from the mixture and place onto the baking tray. Be sure not to make them too small as you don’t want them to be a choking hazard for young children.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes. Stir them around often for even browning.
- Meanwhile, place all the sauce ingredients into a clean food processor bowl. High speed for 20 seconds. Pour into a saucepan and cook over a medium to high heat for 15 minutes storing often. Allow to cool completely before freezing in individual portions.
- Remove meatballs from oven and drain on paper towel.
Notes
- Allow meatballs to cool completely before placing into an airtight, freezer safe container in a single layer. Freeze for up to three months. Freeze sauce in individual serving sized freer safe containers for up to six months.
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 25
My boy loves these for his lunchbox. I pack them together with some vegie sticks and a TRTLMT tortilla cut into wedges. I was sick during the freezer to lunchbox challenge and then had a baby just before school started so I didn’t get around to making the dipping sauce! Have just been serving them with a bit of tomato sauce but they are a firm favourite. Pretty quick to make too; the baking makes them nice and easy – I actually found turning them once sufficient. Thanks Peta!