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Your Kids Won’t Eat Veggies? Try These Sneaky Veggie Meatballs
December 2nd, 2011
Veggies under cover. Photography by Anne Loucks.
In our winter issue of Canadian Family, we asked the question: When peas and carrots get pushed around the plate, is it time to hide them in your meals?
One mom we spoke to for the piece was Anne Loucks of Ottawa, who adds grated and puréed veggies to meals to make sure her two kids are getting the servings they need each day. When she told us about her amped-up meatball we knew we had to share it with our readers. Anne did say that the recipe can be tweaked. “Sometimes I just wing it with whatever veggies are in my fridge at the time.”
What you’ll need:
- 1 package lean ground beef (or ground turkey)
- 1 egg
- 5–8 crackers, crumbled, or 1/4 cup of bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup shredded carrot
- 1/4 cup shredded zucchini
- 1/4 cup of mushrooms
- 1/4 cup of green pepper
- 1/4 cup of red pepper
- 1/4 cup of onion
- 1 tomato, cut into tiny chunks
- 1/4 cup of celery
- 1/4 cup of spinach
- 1/4 cup of cauliflower
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 4 leaves fresh basil
- 1 small bunch of fresh parsley
1 In large mixing bowl, place ground beef, beaten egg and crumbs.
2 In blender or food processor, purée/chop all veggies and herbs. Place veggies in a small amount of water—just enough to cover the bottom of a frying pan. Cook veggies until soft.
3 Add veggies to the beef mixture and mix all ingredients together. Form into small balls—about 3 teaspoons of mixture. Cover a cookie tray with foil and bake at 350°F until brown and cooked through, about 15–20 minutes depending on size of meatball.
For more great nutritious recipes and family meal ideas, check out our food section.
Copyright © 2012 St. Joseph Media. All Rights Reserved.
I think the recipe is fantastic. A way to add even more nutririon would be to add some tofu to the vegetable mixture in the blender.
In fact, when I make a meatloaf, about 1/5 of it is tofu, and until recently, nobody in the family was the wiser!