Hedgehog Meatballs
A perfect slow cooker recipe that gets the kids involved! Kids love mince and they also love helping in the kitchen.
This recipe is called Hedgehog Meatballs as the addition of rice, which sticks out of the meatballs, makes them look like little hedgehogs. Promise, no hedgehogs were harmed in the making of this recipe.
Ingredients
- rice bran oil spray
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 tbsp rice bran oil
- 1 onion finely diced
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 cup hot water
- 400 g can crushed tomatoes
- 500 g mince
- ½ cup long grain rice
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- Handful of basil leaves or parsley, oregano, rocket
Instructions
- Spray slow cooker with rice bran oil spray and turn to Medium.
- In a pan, fry garlic and onion in the oil on medium heat until onion is transparent.
- Add tomato paste and stir to combine (it will start to stick to the bottom a little bit, but that’s normal).
- After 2-3 minutes add the water to deglaze. Put into slow cooker and add the can of tomatoes with salt.
- In a separate bowl add mince beef, rice, cumin and a dash of salt. Use clean hands to mix the ingredients.
- Split mince mixture in half and then half again. With each of the four portions, split into quarters again, leaving you with 16 portions.
- Get the kids to roll each portion into a ball and place in slow cooker.
- Pop the lid on and cook for 5 hours on Medium.
- After five hours, remove lid, give a bit of a stir and throw in freshly torn basil leaves (or parsley or your fancy).
- Put the lid back on and cook for a further 30 minutes.
Notes
- If you don't have a slow cooker or crockpot, just use a big casserole dish in the oven at 80-100 °C over a few hours. Or bake at 180 °C for an hour.
- Use grated carrot for extra vege goodness and different coloured hedgehog "spikes".
- Add cheese before serving for kids needing more calcium.
- For extra energy, serve the meatballs on wholemeal pasta like fettuccine.
- Use grated carrot for extra vege goodness and different coloured hedgehog "spikes".
- Add cheese before serving for kids needing more calcium.
- For extra energy, serve the meatballs on wholemeal pasta like fettuccine.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
