Among all unpretentious meat dishes, meatballs most often help out beginners and experienced housewives. The first attracts simple cooking and guaranteed results, the second - fast cooking and the opportunity to experiment with sauces.
You can cook meatballs in different ways: in a pan, oven, double boiler, in a pan. However, the easiest way is to use a slow cooker. Firstly, you don’t have to follow the dish, a multi-product will do everything. Meatballs in a slow cooker will not burn, and the sauce will not leak. Secondly, dirty dishes after the completion of the workflow will remain a minimum. Thirdly, the dish will retain the maximum amount of vitamins and nutrients.
Multicooked meatballs in a slow cooker - general cooking principles
The basis for the preparation of juicy meatballs in a sauce in a slow cooker is minced meat. You can buy it ready by weight or cook it yourself. Any kind of meat is suitable: beef, pork, lamb, poultry. Self-made minced meat is preferable.
A piece of meat should be washed with cold water, dried with paper towels, cut into small pieces for chopping. Then pass them twice through a meat grinder, chop in a powerful blender or food processor.
If you want to preserve the taste of fresh meat, spices, you need to add a minimum: salt, pepper, neutral seasonal herbs in fresh or dried form. To get a more saturated bright taste, hops-suneli, coriander, mushroom dressing, etc. are added to the meat base.
In minced meat, if desired, you can add boiled rice or soaked slices of bread. The additive will soften hard meat fibers and give the dish additional shades of taste.
There are two ways to cook meat. Meatballs in a slow cooker can first be fried, and then stewed, or stewed without prior frying. In the first case, the dish will turn out tastier, in the second - lower in calories and healthier.
Sauce must be prepared for meatballs. Thanks to stewing in aromatic gravy, the meat slices are very juicy and tender. The basis for the sauce can be tomato paste (very tasty and the most affordable option), fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese, cream.
Meatballs in tomato paste sauce
A simple and inexpensive way to cook meatballs with gravy in a slow cooker is to use tomato paste to get a sour fresh sauce. Instead of store pasta, you can take homemade tomato ketchup or prepare a fill of fresh tomatoes.
Ingredients:
• five hundred grams of any minced meat;
• two small onions;
• two medium carrots;
• four tablespoons of tomato paste;
• three cloves of garlic;
• salt;
• a mixture of peppers for dressing;
• vegetable oil for frying;
• greens according to season or desire.
Cooking method:
Cook homemade minced meat or unfreeze the store.
Peel and chop the garlic.
Wash greens, dry and finely chop.
Mix the minced meat with herbs and garlic. If you make minced meat yourself, you can chop the greens and garlic along with the meat.
Salt the meat, add the right amount of pepper and spices to your taste, knead thoroughly.
From the resulting mass, form small meatballs the size of a little larger than a walnut. So that the meat dough does not stick to your hands, you need to moisten your fingers with cold water.
Peel the onion and cut into thin half rings or small cubes.
Peel the carrots and grate on a coarse grater. You can cut carrots into thin sticks. The larger the particles of carrots, the more pronounced carrot taste will result in the sauce.
Turn on the frying program.
Pour a spoonful of vegetable oil into the thick of the multicooker and wait 2-3 minutes until it warms up.
Put chopped onion slices in oil, fry for five minutes.
Add carrots and fry for another five minutes.
Put the vegetable dressing from the multicooker bowl (or just shift the vegetables to the side) and fry the meatballs on both sides of the leftover butter. The meat piece should be browned on each side.
Screw onion-carrot dressing into the slow cooker, add tomato paste, pour ¾ cup of water. Mix the sauce so that the tomato paste is evenly distributed.
Salt the sauce to taste, you can add more pepper or spices.
Switch the multicooker to the quenching mode and cook for 20 minutes.
After a beep, do not turn off the device for another 15 minutes. Thanks to the temperature maintenance mode, meatballs with watering in the slow cooker will languish and become tender.
Meatballs pork with green breading sauce
Delicate pork meatballs due to breading are very beautiful, smooth and very tasty. By adding eggs to the minced meat, the pieces do not fall apart, keep their shape well and get an additional flavor. Minced pork can be easily replaced with any other or mixed in beef or chicken.
Ingredients:
• a pound of ground beef;
• two chicken eggs;
• large onion;
• four tablespoons of ground breadcrumbs for minced meat;
• a tablespoon of ketchup or tomato paste;
• a tablespoon of sour cream (optional, optional);
• one multi-glass of drinking water;
• salt;
• spices and herbs (dill, basil, parsley, cilantro, caraway seeds, paprika, a mixture of peppers);
• a teaspoon of flour and breadcrumbs.
Cooking method:
Grind minced meat.
Pass the peeled onion through a meat grinder, chop in a blender or grate and add to the meat.
Drive eggs into the meat dough, salt, sprinkle with pepper and spices.
Add bread crumbs to the meat, mix until smooth.
Wet hands to form meatballs.
Pour flour and breadcrumbs on a saucer and mix.
Roll meatballs in a breading mixture.
Put the meat pieces in a multicooker bowl, pour in the water.
Add tomato paste and, if desired, sour cream, mix.
Finely chopped fresh or frozen greens and add to the bowl. You can replace fresh herbs with dried ones to your liking.
Cook on fire for 45 minutes.
Beef Meatballs with Sweet Pepper Gravy
Very tasty meatballs in a sauce in a slow cooker are obtained by adding to 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 herbs;
• salt and spices at its discretion;
• two bell peppers.
Cooking method:
Peel and puree the onion in a meat grinder or in a blender.
In the prepared minced meat add eggs, salt, onion puree and spices.
Mix everything and form the meatballs.
Wash bell pepper, cut the core with seeds and the stalk, cut into thin strips.
Put meatballs at the bottom of the bowl.
Spread chopped greens, tomato paste and slices of pepper on top.
Pour half a glass of water.
Switch the appliance to the quenching mode.
Cook the 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. It turns out delicate pieces of minced chicken, which literally melt in your mouth.
Ingredients:
• kilogram of minced chicken;
• one chicken egg;
• a piece of white bread;
• half a glass of milk;
• one onion;
• pepper and salt;
• optionally a pinch of nutmeg;
• two tablespoons of cooking oil for frying;
• a tablespoon of butter;
• a tablespoon of white flour;
• two glasses of chicken stock or water;
• one hundred grams of store sour cream.
Cooking method:
Pour in the loaf of milk and leave for 10 minutes.
Make mashed potatoes from the onion by grating it.
Drive the egg into the minced chicken.
Squeeze the loaf and send to the meat.
Put onion gruel there.
Salt, add a little pepper (you can not add), carefully mix the minced meat.
Form the meatballs and send to the refrigerator.
Turn the slow cooker on the frying mode, pour in the vegetable oil and immediately add the cream.
When the lump of butter has dissolved, pour flour into the bowl and lightly fry.
Pour chicken broth into the multicooker (you can dilute the cube of broth or take ordinary drinking water).
Break the flour lumps with a fork so that a uniform sauce is obtained.
Add sour cream to it, mix, salt and cook until the sauce begins to thicken.
Fry cold meatballs on both sides in a small pan.
Put them in a cream and flour sauce.
Stew meatballs in a slow cooker under a lid for 35 minutes.
Cheese and Cream Meatballs
A wonderful dish can be prepared if you take cream and soft cream cheese for the sauce. The taste of a piece of meat 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 content;
• half a glass of milk;
• two cloves of garlic;
• one hundred grams of soft cream cheese;
• a tablespoon of butter;
• large onion;
• half a teaspoon of ground nutmeg;
• a teaspoon of salt.
Cooking method:
Soak the bun in milk.
Grind garlic and onions.
Mix minced meat with onions, garlic and squeezed roll, salt.
Pour the cream into the bowl and immediately put the butter.
Turn on frying mode.
As soon as the cream warms up, put the soft cream cheese from the jar into the bowl.
While stirring, dissolve the cream cheese.
Salt to your taste, add spices that you like (dried grated mushrooms, nutmeg and paprika are very good).
Put meatballs in the prepared sauce. You can pre-fry them in a pan.
Switch the machine to the quenching mode, cover.
Cook the meatballs in the sauce in a slow cooker for 30 minutes.
Mushroom Chicken Meatballs
Mushroom sauce gives a spicy taste to a simple meat dish. It is not necessary to use minced chicken. Mushrooms go well with beef and pork. Be sure to try cooking this version of meatballs in a sauce in a slow cooker.
Ingredients:
• half a kilo of minced meat;
• 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 frying oil.
Cooking method:
Soak dried mushrooms in warm water for several hours.
Pour rice into the slow cooker and cook on the appropriate program. Throw back into a colander, wash the thicket.
Mix minced meat with egg and rice. Salt and mix again.
Turn the slow cooker on frying mode, add oil and fry meatballs on both sides. Put out of the bowl.
Chop the onion.
Squeeze the mushrooms from the water and chop.
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 sour cream and mushroom sauce for 10 minutes, it should thicken a little.
Salt, pepper and put the meatballs.
Stew under the lid for 20 minutes.
Meatballs with Gravy - Tips and Tricks
- Meatballs in a slow cooker cook very quickly. They are served as an independent dish (in this case, freshly baked cakes can be offered to meat) or together with a side dish: boiled mashed potatoes, buckwheat, rice, stewed or fresh vegetables.
- Ready meat pieces can be prepared for future use and frozen in the freezer. This will not affect the taste of the dish, but it will greatly simplify the nutrition plan of a large family. The hostess will only have to take out the semi-finished product from the freezer and immediately use it. Fast and tasty!
- Frozen meatballs do not need to be defrosted before being sent to the multicooker for stewing. 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. Pieces due to breading do not stick together. You can brew both fresh and frozen convenience foods.
