Meatball Stew - CrockPot Recipe!

We LOVE meatballs!!! Katie grew up eating her grandma’s meatballs and has extremely fond memories of them served with rice and green beans at family dinners. Scotty didn’t eat a lot of meatballs as a kid, but once Katie got a hold of him, he discovered their greatness. This recipe cooks meatballs alongside carrots so you get your meat and your veggie all in one. It’s a pretty scrumptious deal. It’s excellent served over rice or noodles, and, like Katie’s grandma’s, goes fabulously with green beans (or broccoli, for what it’s worth)! :)

Ingredients

  1. 2 eggs
  2. 1/2 cup of Regular bread crumbs
  3. 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  4. 1/2 tsp salt
  5. 1/2 tsp black pepper
  6. 2 Tbsp dried onion flakes
  7. 1 lb. ground beef
  8. 1 lb. ground pork
  9. 2 Tbsp olive oil
  10. 1 bag of baby carrots
  11. onion and celery (we use the small tub of pre-chopped onion and celery that you can buy at HEB; if there’s not an HEB near you, it adds up to between 1/3 and 1/2 of a small white onion and 3ish stalks of celery…you can add or subtract based on how much you like onion and celery)
  12. 1/2 cup of your favorite red wine
  13. 2 cans cream of mushroom soup

Directions

  1. Mix the eggs, bread crumbs, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and onion flakes together with a fork in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Add the ground meat to the bowl and mix well. (Often I (Katie) use my hands, even though they physically ache from the cold… I just don’t think a fork does the job.)
  3. Form the meat into 2” balls (we usually end up with 12-13, though we’ve been known to make ‘em big and only get 10).
  4. Put the carrots in the bottom of your CrockPot.
  5. Heat the olive oil in a pan and brown the meatballs on all sides. Remove meatballs from pan and place them on top of the carrots in your CrockPot.
  6. Deglaze your pan with the red wine and add the onions and celery. Sauté for about five minutes, until the veggies are nice and tender.
  7. Pour the entire contents of the pan over the meatballs. Mmmm!
  8. Pour the two cans of cream of mushroom soup over the top of everything – make sure you cover the meatballs evenly.
  9. Cook on “Low” for 7-9 hours or on “High” for 3 1/2 - 5 hours.