RECIPE: meatballs in a spicy veg sauce and its infinite variations

This is a useful recipe for the coming weeks when shopping trips may be fewer and further apart because you can adapt it to whatever you have in the fridge and cupboards.

I've given mine a North African feel with fragrant spices and harissa but you could go for an Indian, Mexican, Middle Eastern or Italian flavour  depending on what you fancy and have to hand.

The one essential ingredient is meatballs - the pre-cooked type that you can buy big bags of for the freezer or longish-life chilled packs of from the supermarket. Well, maybe not that essential - you could replace them with hard boiled eggs, or tinned pulses such as chickpeas or red kidney beans. And by varying the veg according to what you have to hand, you can produce an infinite number of different dishes all from this one basic idea.

For my version, serving two,  I used

250ml home made tomato sauce
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 tbs oil
meatballs - 6-8 per person depending on appetite.
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
a handful of green beans, cut into 3 cm lengths
A small wedge of cabbage, finely shredded
Ground spices: ¼ teaspoon each of cloves and cinnamon, ½ teaspoon each of ginger and allspice, 1 teaspoon of turmeric, all mixed together
1 tablespoon harissa (I love Belazu Rose Harissa, now that's available in the UK I no longer have to stock up on La Cape du Phare when I go to France, which leaves more room in the suitcase for cheese and wine!)

Fry the onion in the oil until soft, tip in the ground spices and cook for a minute longer. Add the tomato sauce and vegetables, bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in the harissa then the meatballs and continue to simmer until the meatballs are heated through - about 15 minutes.

I served this version with cous cous to keep that North African vibe going.

Variations  

Tomato sauce - could be home made, or out of a jar. Or use a tin of tomatoes, or some passata, or 2 tablespoons of tomato purée mixed with hot water.

Protein - as I mentioned above you could use  hard boiled eggs or tinned pulses. Or brown some chicken thighs before you fry the onions then add them back to the pan when you add the veg.

Veg - whatever you have in the fridge,  tins or freezer. But for a good textured and colourful mixture I like to use one root veg, one from the peas/beans group and one from the cabbage/cauliflower/broccoli group.

Spices/herbs:

For an Indian-ish tasting dish, use curry powder or paste or mix together 1tsp each of ground turmeric, coriander and cumin and ½ tsp chilli powder to add after frying the onions and add 1tsp garam masala and, if you have it, 1 tablespoon of Kasuri Methi when you add the meatballs.

For Mexican-ish, use 1 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp dried oregano and ½ tsp chilli powder

For Italian-ish,  add 2 cloves of garlic, crushed, 1 tsp dried oregano and ½ tsp chilli flakes after frying the onions then at the end of cooking stir in a few shredded fresh basil leaves and sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese.

For a Middle Eastern flavour, add ½ teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of oregano after frying the onion and at the end of cooking squeeze in the juice of half a lemon. If you have any feta cheese around, crumble a bit over the top.

Obviously none of these dishes is even a remotely authentic dish from the region but nevertheless will taste good!

Any of these could be served with rice, pasta, cous cous, flatbread, wraps or even mashed potato.

If you are cooking from what's hanging around in the fridge, larder or cupboard, why not join me in linking up to Kitchen Clearout over at Madhouse Family Reviews?