I found this recipe in Whole Foods for the Whole Family cookbook. I’ve done a little altering to it though. First, it calls for brown rice, which I swear I bought, but is nowhere to be found in my pantry. So I subbed white rice.
The method for making this involves baking the raw meatballs on top of the rice. Because of this, you’re going to need to use very lean meat or else the dish will be too greasy. I’ve made it before with ground bison. This time I used some of the 88 meatballs I made and froze. I froze some of them raw, specifically to use in this dish. A quick thaw in the microwave was all they needed. It sped up the prep work a lot to start with the meatballs already made.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- 1 1/2 lbs. meatballs (about 34)
- 2 cans stewed tomatoes (15oz each)
- 1 can beef broth
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- 1 tsp. oregano
- 1 tsp. basil
- 1 Tbs. cornstarch
- 1 1/2 cups rice (white or brown)
Thaw the meatballs if you’ve made and frozen them already. Place the tomatoes, broth, seasonings and cornstarch in a saucepan. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Spread rice in the bottom of a greased 9×13 casserole dish. Spoon the sauce over the rice and top with meatballs. Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the rice is cooked.
I have now shared 3 meatball recipes in one week! Two of them involved rice. Thank goodness for the Ingredient Spotlight: Sweetened Condensed Milk on Wednesday.
It probably kept us from going meatball crazy!
Or not….
No, more meatball recipes! I love making a huge batch of meatballs to store in the freezer, and always need new ways to use them up!
Just wanted to let you know that I enjoy reading your blog, and have nominated you for the “Stylish Blogger Award”. Come check it out on my blog post, and Congratulations!
http://southernmom23.blogspot.com/2011/02/stylish-me-award.html
This sounds like a wonderful (easy) family recipe. I think I will sub rotel for the tomatoes. Thanks for sharing!
Do you think that you can use meatballs that are already cooked? Would you change the cooking time if you did use precooked meatballs?
I think if you covered it, you could use already cooked meatballs. But the rice might not cook right then. Maybe loosely covered? That would keep the meatballs moist and allow the liquid to cook off the rice. Let me know if you try it.
I made this dish last night. It was wonderful. I used pre-made frozen meatball in mine. I cooked it for 45 minutes and it turned out great! Thanks for the great recipes.
This recipe looks so good ! I’m getting the meatballs one too 😉 thank you Tiffany