Cheesy Meatballs (served at least 3 ways)

As a busy Mum, I’ve always got some home cooked meals in the freezer for my kids. These frozen meal are especially handy, when 5pm comes around, the girls are getting tired, I’m tired & I think, what’s for dinner? To know I can prepare a healthy meal for them in minutes, that’s been cooked from scratch, is wonderful. These balls are full of hidden veggies, that have been cut so small by my amazing Thermomix blades. They are also cooked in the Varoma, which keeps them lovely & moist.

I’ve always got some of these meatballs in my freezer (in varying shapes & sizes), that I can turn into a family favourite meal. See the notes below for all the variations. I cook small balls to turn into spaghetti with meatballs. I cook small balls to serve on a pizza base with mashed vegies or pizza sauce, to make a meatball pizza. Another option is to shape the meatball mixture into rissoles, coat in breadcrumbs & shallow fry, so we’ve got hamburgers. You could also substitute the minced beef with minced turkey or pork for another variation.

Ingredients:
1 small onion, halved
1 carrot, cut into pieces
1 zucchini, cut into pieces
handful of fresh parsley, or 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
500g beef mince, premium
1 tbsp vegetable stock paste
60g cheddar cheese, grated
30g plain flour

Method:
1) Place onion, carrot, zucchini & herbs in TM bowl, chop 3 seconds/speed 7.
2) Add remaining ingredients, mix 10 seconds/speed 7. Use TM spatula through the hole in the lid to assist mixing ingredients if required.
3) Shape mixture into small or medium sized balls & place on Varoma tray, lined with baking paper.
4) Add 1 litre boiling water to TM bowl, set Varoma into position, cook 14-16 minutes/Varoma/speed 3.
Serve or freeze.

Notes:

I use these old fashioned ice cream scoops to portion control my meatballs or rissoles, which allows for even sizes & more importantly, even cooking.

These are the meatballs after they’ve been cooked in the Varoma. You can see how moist & tasty they look!
This is a meatball pizza that is one of my kids favourite meals. The pizza sauce is actually pureed vegetables with some tomato paste added for colour. Follow this link for more on pizza night with lots of veggies.

This mixture can also be shaped into hamburgers, coated in breadcrumbs, then shallow fried. Serve as a hamburger or cheeseburger, or even just as rissoles!