Gravy for meatballs. Recipe with tomato paste, sour cream

04/25/2019 Pierre Gagnaire Cooking

Meatballs go well with potatoes. They can also be served for lunch with rice or pasta on the side. The gravy for meatballs with tomato paste plays an important role in creating a tasty dish. A classic, delicate taste that attracts you from childhood with its sourness... How to cook so that your family will ask for more again and again? We present several recipes for gravy for meatballs with tomato paste for your consideration right now. Cook and try.

A budget option

Before flavoring meat products with the appropriate sauce, you need to create them. Before you cook meatballs in a frying pan with tomato paste sauce, let’s make sure you have this simple set of ingredients:

• any minced meat - half a kilogram;
• round uncooked rice - half a glass of dry product;
• medium diameter bulb - 1 head;
• egg - 1 piece;
• flour - one tablespoon. You also need flour for coating semi-finished products;
• salt - to taste, usually half a teaspoon is enough;
• thick tomato paste - 1 tablespoon;
• sour cream or sour cream product - 1 tablespoon;
• bay leaf and other seasonings - to taste.

You also need a good frying pan with high sides, a thick bottom and a lid.

"Highlights" for gravy

The recipe can be varied and made to play with new colors and tastes. For example, you can add not only garlic to the onion, but also chopped celery and/or hot chili pepper, for example, for those who like it “hot”. You can also add basil to the sauce with fresh tomatoes - this is an inseparable pair and always a winning combination. You can change the texture of the gravy itself by blending it in a blender. You can also prepare tomato sauce in a frying pan, and then send the meatballs themselves in it to bake in the oven. All these modernizations have the right to life. Don't be afraid to experiment in the kitchen and try something new. Well, if this is not for you, then the original recipe will help you. (^-^)

First the meatballs

How to cook meatballs with gravy in a frying pan? Let's start with the basics. Let's stick meat balls with rice. To do this, rinse the cereal in several waters and cook it until tender. The water can be salted, but it is allowed to cook in fresh water. Cooked rice needs to be cooled.

Place the minced meat in a deep cup. Salt it and add a little ground pepper. Add chopped onion. Add raw egg and rice. Knead the meat mass thoroughly. Form round balls. To prevent the products from falling apart during frying, it is better to roll them in flour.

Fill the frying pan with vegetable oil. Its layer is one to one and a half centimeters. Heat this oil thoroughly. Fry the meatballs at moderate temperature for three to five minutes on one side. Then we turn it over to the other side. We wait half a minute, and now you can fry the second side for 3-5 minutes, covering the dish with a lid. Meat products are ready. Let's get to the most delicious part - the gravy for the meatballs.

Mushroom sour cream sauce for meatballs

For mushroom sauce based on sour cream, you should choose mushrooms with a light taste and aroma that will not overwhelm the taste of the meatballs. Champignons are ideal.

Ingredients included:

• 400 grams of fresh champignons;
• 350 grams of low-fat sour cream;
• 2 onions;
• 1 table. l. flour;
• 2 table. l. vegetable oil:
• salt and spices.

Time to prepare the sauce: 20 minutes.

Calorie content of the finished dish: 138.6 kcal/100 grams.

Sequence of cooking steps:

1. In separate frying pans, using vegetable oil, fry champignons sliced ​​into plates and 2 onions cut into cubes;
2. Mix mushrooms and onions in one frying pan, add flour to them, which should be saturated with their juices and become golden;
3. Then pour sour cream into the pan, add salt and season. Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes;
4. Blend the prepared gravy in a blender until smooth, after which you can pour it over the meatballs.

Sauce

Pour boiling water over the fried products. The liquid should cover them by half. Salt and place tomato paste between them. Place the bay leaf into the frying pan. Cover with a lid, leaving a small gap.

A simple tomato paste sauce will be more tender with the addition of a small amount of sour cream. Place the entire amount of sour cream in a cup and carefully dilute it in warm water (1/2 cup). Place a spoonful of flour into the resulting liquid. Stir to get rid of lumps.

We open the meatballs. During this time they stewed quite well. Pour the sour cream and flour mixture evenly into the tomato sauce. Let's lift each product so that the delicious tomato paste sauce penetrates under each meatball.

Reduce the temperature to low and keep the lid closed for another 13-20 minutes. At this time, the sauce should gurgle slightly under the lid, without leaving the pan.

We serve ready-made tender meat products with sauce with any side dish or eat them as an independent dish.

If for some reason you do not use sour cream, then this sauce for meatballs with tomato paste can be prepared without it. If the sauce is too thick, you can dilute it with boiling water to the desired consistency.

With cheese

The gravy for meatballs, the recipe for which is found in numerous variations today, is delicious with cheese. It is recommended to take a solid or semi-solid dairy product. It can have a salty, spicy or even slightly smoky flavor. The more cheese you get in a dish, the tastier it will be.

What ingredients will you need?

For the dish you need to take:

• flour and butter - 2 tbsp. l.;
• sunflower oil – 1.5 tbsp. l.;
• selected cheese (already coarsely grated) – 180-200 g;
• full fat milk – 1 full glass.

A variety of spices are well suited for treats. For example, a mixture of spices for sauces.

Step-by-step cooking process

Cooking steps:

1. You need to heat the oil in a frying pan. Flour is poured into it through a fine sieve. Fry the dry component until light golden brown.
2. You need to slowly pour all the milk stated in the recipe into the mixture. Constantly stirring the ingredients, you will need to bring them to a boil. The milk is poured in slowly and carefully.

3. Afterwards, cheese shavings are added to the total mass.
4. All that remains is to add soft butter fat and spices. Be sure to mix everything thoroughly.
5. You need to wait until the cheese melts.

When the shavings are completely melted, all that remains is to mix everything again and serve with the main dish.

Rules for serving dishes, decoration

There are several options for serving food. For example, first place a side dish with meatballs on plates, and pour gravy on top. Another option is to simmer the meat treat in the sauce so that it is well saturated with it. As a side dish, you can choose pea porridge or cauliflower casserole.

Spicy tomato sauce

There is also a good recipe for fans of hot sauces. This is a method of making meatball gravy with garlic and pepper. List of ingredients:

• vegetable oil, without flavoring - 2 tablespoons;
• garlic - 5-7 cloves;
• 1-2 teaspoons red hot pepper;
• bay leaf - 1-3 pieces;
• tomato paste - 300 grams;
• hot water - 1/2 cup or glass, optional;
• salt and herbs to taste.

Meatballs with rice and tomato sauce - a classic recipe

Let's start with a classic recipe, which is often present in the menu of kindergartens, and simply in home cooking.

Ingredients:

• minced meat - 500 g
• rice - 150 gr
• chicken egg - 1 pc.
• medium onion - 1 pc.
• salt, pepper - to taste
• flour - 2 - 3 tbsp. spoons
• carrots - 1 pc.
• tomato paste - 4-5 tbsp.
• sugar - 1 tbsp. spoon
• paprika - 1 tbsp. spoon

Cooking process:

So, to prepare them, finely chop the onion. I take half a medium onion to add to the minced meat and leave the other half for the sauce. My husband is not a big fan of onions, so I keep it to a minimum. If you like onions, you can take more.

I have minced pork + beef. I mix it with chopped onion, rice and egg. I don't forget to add salt and pepper.

As for the rice. Some people prefer to pre-cook the rice for 10 minutes until half cooked. But I don't do this, because... The rice will already be cooked in half an hour while the dish is stewing.

Therefore, you can safely add unboiled, the only thing this leads to is that the meatballs will turn out a little drier inside. For example, this doesn’t bother me, because it will still be incredibly tasty.

But, decide for yourself what is more convenient for you, do so, just make sure that the rice does not boil at all and remains dense. Mix everything into a homogeneous mass. You should get beautiful, aromatic minced meat.

We begin to form meatballs.

Scoop the minced meat with a spoon and roll it into a ball between your palms. They should be approximately the same size, so that it does not happen that some of them will already be ready, and those that are too large will remain raw.

If you wet your hands with water or oil before molding, the stuffing will not stick to your hands.

Then each ball needs to be rolled in flour and placed on a cutting board. We roll it lightly, without fanaticism.

So my delicious landing is almost ready for further preparation. The meat balls will need to be fried with a little oil so that they “set” and retain their round shape. If you don't do this, you will end up with hedgehogs.

Place our meatballs in a frying pan. Fry over low heat, turning over to another side. We have no intention of frying them until done. Let's just brown it a little. Turn it off and leave it like that for now.

It's time to prepare the tomato sauce. I don't really like to get a lot of dishes dirty while cooking, but the recipe calls for preparing the sauce in a separate container. To do this, place chopped onion and finely grated carrots in a frying pan, fry until soft and light golden brown.

When this happens, add tomato paste. Since tomato paste itself is neutral and just has a tomato taste, we immediately add sugar and salt to it.

You can pepper it to taste. And here we add paprika. It will give the sauce an even richer red color, so don't skimp. You can put a heaped tablespoon.

Pour about 2-3 cups of boiling water into the roast. Once you've nailed down the recipe, you'll know exactly how much water to add for your pan.

Next, be sure to taste it (!) and add salt and pepper to taste. You can also add aromatic seasonings. For example, I like to add a little khmeli-suneli or dried basil and garlic. You can also add fresh crushed garlic, but the smell is not for everyone. And pour the gravy over our fried meat balls.

The gravy should completely or almost completely cover them. At first it may seem like a lot, but I assure you that after 30 minutes of simmering, even with the lid closed, it will decrease by at least half. So, cover the meatballs drenched in gravy with a lid, set the heat to the lowest setting and simmer until done. This process takes approximately 25-30 minutes, the minced meat cooks very quickly and the rice that we put inside has time to cook.

If the rice was previously boiled until half cooked, then the cooking time can be reduced to 20 minutes. This should be enough.

After half an hour, the meatballs are ready. My sauce thickened and I didn't get much of it. More could have been done. As a side dish, you can take crushed or whole boiled potatoes, and buckwheat, pasta, and pea puree are also suitable. How fragrant and beautiful they are!

I'll break one ball to show you. The rice inside was completely cooked. The meatballs hold their shape, they are plump and delicious! Both adults and children will be delighted. Take note of the recipe, it is very easy and simple to prepare. And you can quickly feed the whole family!

Making hot sauce

Peel the garlic and press it through a press. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Throw in the garlic and sauté at low temperature for a couple of minutes.

Mix the paste with hot water. Pour the tomato mixture into the pan with the garlic. Add pepper, salt, bay leaf. Mix everything well and simmer the gravy over moderate heat until it reaches the required thickness. If you need it thicker, evaporate more liquid. On average, gravy for meatballs with tomato paste and garlic is boiled for ten minutes. If desired, decorate the finished meat product with this gravy with herbs.

Delicate milk sauce for meatballs

Compound:

• milk – 0.25 l;
• butter – 50 g;
• flour – 20 g;
• dry white wine – 20 ml;
• fresh herbs – 100 g;
• salt, pepper - to taste.

Cooking method:

• Finely chop the greens with a knife.
• Melt the butter in a frying pan and fry the flour in it until golden brown.
• Pour in the milk, whisking the sauce until there are no lumps. If their formation cannot be avoided, rub the sauce through a sieve and return to the pan. Bring to a boil.
• Pour in the wine and stir.
• After a couple of minutes, add the greens, continue to cook the seasoning, stirring, for 2-3 minutes.

Gravy with vegetables

A very good addition to meatballs would be gravy with vegetables. The sauce turns out thick and satisfying, and also looks beautiful. To make the recipe for tomato sauce for meatballs with the addition of vegetables a reality, we need to make sure that all the ingredients are available:

• Carrot - one large specimen.
• Onions - one large head or two medium ones.
• Sweet pepper of any color - 1 piece. We take this component optionally. The gravy is great without it too.
• One glass of chicken or any other meat broth. You can just take a glass of boiling water.
• Half a glass of thick tomato paste. This is about five tablespoons.
• Flour - a heaped tablespoon.
• Laurel leaf - 1-2 pieces.
• Salt - to taste.
• Ground black or red pepper - to taste.
• Vegetable oil without aroma - for sautéing vegetables.

With sour cream

Meatballs in tomato sauce in the oven made from chicken meat, with sour cream without frying, are suitable for a diet menu.

Composition of ingredients

Product set:

• chicken breast – 750 g;
• tomato paste – 1 tbsp. l.;
• rice – 100 g;
• sour cream – 2 tbsp. l.;
• onions – 2 pcs.;
• flour – 1 tbsp. l.;
• chicken egg – 1 pc.;
• dry spices, salt - to taste.

What can be added and changed in the composition

Mushrooms added either to the minced meat or to the sauce are perfect for this version of meatballs with gravy. Grated cheese, which can be sprinkled on the products within 10 minutes, will also decorate the dish and enhance the creamy taste. until the end of baking.

Step-by-step cooking process

Step-by-step instruction:

1. First you need to boil the rice in salted water for 10 minutes, drain in a colander and leave in it until it cools completely.
2. Wash the chicken breast in cold water and pat dry thoroughly with kitchen napkins, collecting all the liquid. Carefully remove the film from the meat and pass it through a meat grinder.

3. It is necessary to combine the resulting composition with rice porridge, chopped 1 onion, salt, egg and spices. Knead the minced meat only with your hands, be sure to beat it on the bottom of the cup at the end.
4. The mold needs to be greased with sunflower oil and small meatballs already formed from the meat mass should be placed inside, leaving a distance between the products.
5. Separately mix sour cream with tomato paste, flour, spices and ½ tbsp. water. The resulting composition needs to be poured into semi-finished products.
6. The mold must be placed in the oven, heated to 200°C and left for 35 minutes.

Decoration and serving rules

Serve with boiled pasta, potatoes or grilled vegetables in portions in plates, topped with plenty of gravy.

Step-by-step preparation of vegetable gravy for meatballs

Wash and peel the carrots. We also free the onion from inedible elements and, after peeling it, rinse it in cold water. Wash sweet peppers (if using). Remove the stem and seeds from the inside.

Chop the onion any way you want. Rub the carrots through a coarse grater. Cut the pepper into strips or cubes.

Heat the oil and place the carrots and onions in the frying pan. Fry them until golden.

Add the flour to the vegetables and mix very carefully, breaking up any lumps. Reduce the temperature of the stove. We spread the tomato. Pour out the water. Stir and add sweet pepper. We also add salt, bay leaf and ground pepper to the depths of the frying pan at this stage of preparing the gravy. Simmer our gravy at a very moderate boil for fifteen to twenty minutes. At the end of cooking, add greens if desired.

With flour

This is the simplest version of gravy for meatballs. It uses the simplest basic ingredients. The main ingredients are flour and mushrooms. For example, you can use champignons.

What ingredients will you need?

For the dish you need to take:

• champignons – 180-200 g;
• flour – 2.5-3 tbsp. l.;
• water – 270-300 ml;
• salt, oil.

It is best to use butter for this dish.

Step-by-step cooking process

Cooking steps:

1. You need to melt the butter and add the mushrooms to it. First, the champignons are peeled from the outer skin and cut into slices.

2. The mushrooms need to be lightly browned.
3. After that, the components in the frying pan are sprinkled with flour and simmered for about ½ minute with frequent stirring.
4. Gradually pour water into the mixture and mix everything with a whisk so that no lumps form.

At the very end, the products are salted. All that remains is to blend the gravy with a blender.

Rules for serving dishes, decoration

Place the finished meatballs on portion plates and pour over the mushroom sauce. Flour will make it thick, and processing with a blender will make it tender.

Gravy with minced meat

It happens that you need to prepare a delicious dinner as quickly as possible without wasting a minute of extra time. A recipe for gravy with minced meat and tomato paste comes to the rescue. Add it to any suitable side dish. Name and quantity of products:

• minced meat - half a kilogram;
• two large carrots;
• one or two medium onions;
• garlic - 2-4 cloves;
• Bay leaf;
• thick tomato paste - 1.5-2 tablespoons;
• vegetable oil - 2-3 tablespoons;
• 0.5 teaspoon salt;
• freshly ground black pepper - 1/2 teaspoon.

Classical

The meatball gravy, the recipe for which is published in the article, was previously always served to visitors dining in Soviet canteens. You could also ask for cutlets, chops, potato pancakes, and liver pancakes. Modern housewives often repeat this simple recipe at home.

Its calorie content is approximately 164 kcal per 100 g, and BJU:

What ingredients will you need?

For the dish you need to take:

• onions and carrots - 1 pc.;
• tomato paste, sunflower oil and sour cream - 1.5-2 tbsp. l.;
• strong meat broth (from any base) - 1 full glass;
• flour (passed through a sieve) – 1-1.5 tbsp. l.;
• salt.

This recipe does not include spices. But each housewife can add them to her own taste. On sale you can find successful mixtures, especially for preparing gravies and sauces.

Step-by-step cooking process

The cooking process includes several stages:

1. Peeled carrots must be processed with a medium grater, and onions must be chopped randomly.

2. Afterwards, they will first be fried alternately in boiling oil for 3-4 minutes, and then simmer together for 8-9 minutes.
3. The treat is topped with meat broth. And you can immediately add tomato sauce. Just fresh tomato puree will do.
4. After adding sour cream, it’s time to salt the mixture and add the selected spices. If the broth is salted, then you can do without this component.
5. It remains to simmer the mixture for another 20-25 minutes. You need to wait until the vegetables are completely boiled. Then you can add flour and simmer for another 2.5-4 minutes. Be sure to stir the ingredients during the process. The gravy should eventually thicken well.

If desired, the completely finished mass can be blended with a suitable blender attachment. Then it will turn out more uniform and tender.

What can I add?

In addition to the vegetables listed in the recipe, you can add others to the treat. For example, sweet pepper. Preferably red. Then it is cleaned, chopped into small cubes and stewed along with the rest of the vegetable ingredients. The pepper needs to soften well.

Rules for serving dishes, decoration

When serving food to the table, you first need to distribute the meatballs onto portioned plates. They should still be warm. Top the dish generously with gravy. To taste the sauce well, you should take a piece of soft black or white bread.

Meatballs in tomato sauce in the oven - general cooking principles

• Ground meat. For meatballs, meat can be twisted at home or purchased. The first option is preferable, since you can chop the vegetables at the same time. And there will be more confidence in the quality of minced meat. For meatballs, you can use beef, poultry, pork, lamb, but it tastes best when mixing two or three types. You can make fish meatballs, such a recipe is below.

• Rice. It is almost always added to meatballs, which is how they differ from cutlets. The cereal needs to be boiled until almost done, but it is important not to overcook it. You need to add a lot of water, then pour the rice into a sieve or colander with small holes.

• Vegetables. They can be used for sauce, but are also added to minced meat. Usually onions, garlic, and sometimes carrots and peppers are placed inside.

• Sauce. For tomato filling, you can use fresh or canned tomatoes, their paste, puree, and ready-made ketchup. If necessary, the base product is diluted with water. Dairy products, vegetables, and mushrooms can be added to the sauce.

• Egg. It is often present in the recipe, helps hold the mass together and prevents the meatballs from falling apart.

• Baking. The formed meatballs can be immediately poured with sauce or pre-brown a little in the oven. The balls are laid out in the mold in one layer; there is no need to leave a distance between them.

Oven-baked meatballs with vegetables in tomato sauce - recipe without rice

I am an ardent fan of oven-cooked dishes, especially if this dish combines both a main dish and a side dish. Therefore, I want to share with you a recipe for making meatballs with vegetables baked in the oven. Once in Bulgaria I tried meatballs, in which, in addition to traditional onions, bell pepper was also added. I really liked the idea, but I decided to add baked peppers since its taste, in my opinion, is brighter. For my meatballs, I used veal, but the choice of meat is up to you.

Ingredients:

• meat - 600 g;
• bell pepper - 3 pcs.;
• gogoshar - 1 pc.;
• onions - 2 pcs.;
• tomatoes - 500 g;
• zucchini - 300 g;
• salt - to taste;
• chicken eggs - 1 pc.;
• ground black pepper - to taste;
• garlic cloves - 4 pcs.;
• fresh basil - to taste

Cooking process:

First of all, we choose a beautiful large bell pepper, wash it and place it in a baking container. I prefer to roast the peppers in the oven, which takes about 20 minutes. It is important not to forget to turn it over during cooking. Place the baked peppers in a bag or pan for a few minutes so that the skin can then be removed more easily.

Next, prepare all the vegetables. Cut the onion into strips. And lightly fry in vegetable oil. We also chop two green bell peppers and gogoshar; if you don’t have gogoshar, you can replace it with red bell pepper. We immediately add the chopped pepper to the onion.

We cut the zucchini, if they are small, then into circles. I can fit 8 meatballs in my pan, so I put 13 zucchini slices aside, they will later serve as partitions between the meatballs.

Add the chopped zucchini to the pan with the rest of the vegetables. We don’t cook the vegetables for a long time; we only need them to become slightly softer.

Place the tomatoes in boiling water for a few seconds. Remove the skin from the tomatoes and chop them finely. Place the tomatoes in the pan with the vegetables. Stir, simmer for 1-2 minutes. Lastly, add chopped garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Some chopped greens will add flavor to the dish, so choose your favorite. Today I have basil.

Place half of the cooked vegetables evenly on the bottom of the baking dish. For meatballs, pass the meat through a meat grinder along with one onion. Add one egg, salt and black pepper. Mix thoroughly. Peel and seed the baked bell pepper, chop it and add it to the minced meat along with one tablespoon of paprika.

Once again, carefully knead the minced meat and with wet hands form balls like these.

We fill the space between the meatballs with zucchini circles, inserting them like coins into a piggy bank. Place the rest of the vegetables on the meatballs and distribute evenly. Place the dish in an oven preheated to 200 degrees. Baking time will depend on the meat used and the size of the meatballs. The veal meatballs, weighing approximately 80 grams, took about an hour to cook.

During baking, I do not cover the dish, but if you notice that the vegetables have browned too much, you can cover the dish with baking paper. Serve the finished dish immediately, you can add more fresh herbs.

The dish turns out juicy and soft and comes with a side dish right away. Bon appetit.