How to Make Sweet and Sour Meatballs

By: Cheryl Bowman

If you want to try to jazz up your normal meatballs, try creating sweet and sour meatballs. There are a lot of ways to make this dish, depending on your tastes or the region you are from. Play around with your sweet and sour meatball recipe until you find a dinner that pleases the entire family.

These easy sweet and sour meatballs can be kept warm in a slow cooker and are great for large gatherings. They are popular at Bat Mitzvahs and Bar Mitzvahs, although it is not necessarily a Jewish dish.

Basic Recipes for Sweet and Sour Meatballs
Recipes may call for wine, pineapple juice, chili sauce, cranberry sauce, soy sauce and any combination of these and other juices.

You can use frozen meatballs or you can create homemade meatballs. Meatballs can be made from beef, pork or veal or any combination of the three. This recipe uses porcupine balls, which are meatballs with rice in them.

Easy Sweet and Sour Meatballs Recipe
Ingredients You Will Need:
1 ½ pound ground beef
½ cup finely chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup raw rice
1 egg
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 cups beef broth
1 can pineapple chunks
1 tablespoon corn starch
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup vinegar

Combine the ground beef, onion, garlic, rice, egg and salt and pepper in a bowl. Shape into 1 ½ inch meatballs and place in crock pot or Dutch oven. Add beef broth and simmer over low heat (do not boil) until done for about 75 minutes. Skim off any fat that rises from cooking.

Drain syrup from the pineapple and set aside. Combine corn starch and brown sugar in a saucepan. Add syrup and vinegar. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Cook over medium-low heat until thick and syrupy.

Pour the sauce over meatballs and carefully stir in the pineapple. Simmer for ten minutes.

Serve over rice or pasta. Garnish with fresh parsley sprigs or chopped fresh parsley.

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