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Beef and Rice Meatballs

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  • Prep 5 min
  • Total 45 min
  • Servings 26
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by: Silvia Martinez
Updated Jul 20, 2017
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Ingredients

  • 1 14.5-oz Muir Glen™ organic fire roasted diced tomatoes
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 serrano pepper, cut in half lengthwise
  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 1/3 cup yellow onion, finely chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 3/4 cup cooked rice
  • 1/8 cup Progresso™ Plain Bread Crumbs
  • 1/2 of 9-oz package frozen chopped spinach

Steps

  • 1
    In a blender, mix the contents of the can of tomatoes, clove of garlic and water.
  • 2
    Heat the oil over low heat in a pot. Add the tomato blend and serrano pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce to low heat.
  • 3
    While the sauce cooks, mix the ground beef, onion, pepper, salt, egg, Worcestershire sauce, cooked rice and breadcrumbs to form a uniform mass. Grab some of the meat with your fingers, and use your hands to make a ball about 1-inch in diameter.
  • 4
    Carefully set the meatball in the tomato sauce. Repeat, making meatballs until you’ve used all the meat. Add the chopped spinach to the sauce.
  • 5
    Increase the temperature to bring the sauce back to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium-high so that the tomato sauce gently boils. Cook the meatballs for 25 minutes.
  • 6
    Serve immediately with beans and tortillas.

Expert Tips

  • tip 1
    This recipe calls for ground beef, but try using a mix of half pork and half beef to give the meatballs a different sabor.
  • tip 2
    You may add any vegetable that you have on hand to the sauce, such as peas or carrots.

Nutrition Information

No nutrition information available for this recipe

More About This Recipe

  • Rice is a traditional dish in many Latin American and Caribbean countries. In Mexico, for example, families prepare whole pots of rice some two to three times a week. There’s a Mexican saying that goes, “Si sabes cómo hacer el arroz, ya te puedes casar.” In English, it would sound something like, “If you know how to cook rice, you’re ready to get married.” The idea is simple: if you know how to make rice, you can make almost anything. I remember that the first dish my mom taught me to cook was rice and vegetables, but that wasn’t the only thing I learned. I also learned that I could double the recipe to have leftovers for the next day. At home if we have extra rice, we usually make two things: either breakfast the next day with a fried egg and salsa over the top, or we would add it to meatballs to give them a lighter texture. And it’s precisely our meatball with tomato sauce recipe that I am sharing today. Each time I prepare this dish it reminds me of cold afternoons with family, where a hot plate of saucy meatballs would make us forget almost everything.
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