This porcupine meatballs recipe is easy, gluten-free and delicious! Kids will love it too! It freezes well and can be cooked a variety of ways. This recipe makes enough meatballs to eat half for dinner and freeze the remainder for an easy meal another day!
Course Lunch or Dinner
Cuisine American
Keyword Clean Eating, Dairy Free, Gluten Free
Servings 36meatballs
Author Sarah
Ingredients
For the Meatballs
3lbground beefI use grass-fed
1 1/2 cupsbrown riceMinute rice
1 1/2cupswater
1 1/2tspminced onion
3tspsea salt
1tspgarlic powder
1/2tspblack pepper
For the sauce
315 ozcans tomato sauce
3cupswater
2tbspWorcestershire sauce
Instructions
Mix ground beef, rice, water and spices in a large bowl until well-combined.
In a separate, medium-size bowl, mix together tomato sauce, water and Worcestershire sauce.
Use a cookie scoop to shape meat mixture into balls and place into a casserole dish if baking in the oven, the slow cooker or Instant Pot.
How to Make Porcupine Meatballs in the Oven
Pour tomato sauce mixture over meatballs, cover tightly with a lid or foil. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes, then uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes or until meatballs are no longer pink inside and rice is soft.
How to Make Porcupine Meatballs in a Slow Cooker
Place meatballs in slow cooker and pour tomato sauce mixture over the top. Cook on low for 8 hours or until meatballs are no longer pink and rice is soft.
How to Make Porcupine Meatballs in the Instant Pot
Place meatballs in the Instant Pot and pour the sauce over the top. Place the lid on the Instant Pot and put it to "sealing". Cook on "Manual" for 25 minutes. When the time ends, let it naturally release for 15 minutes and then manually release.
Notes
We serve our porcupine meatballs with mashed potatoes and corn as they all compliment one another nicely. We like lots of sauce on ours and we eat it all together like a bowl! We have also reheated them served with pasta which is tasty too. You could even serve them on a toasted bun like a meatball sub.
Porcupine meatballs freeze really well. If you plan on making one for dinner and freezing the second for an easy meal later, then this is the ideal recipe for you as it makes enough for two meals! Simply prepare your meatballs as instructed above and pour the sauce over them. You can either freeze them in a foil pan or a gallon zip top bag. When ready to eat simply heat them in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until warm.