Stuffed Pepper Meatballs

I think this is what would happen if stuffed green peppers and porcupine meatballs had a bite sized love child. Stuffed green peppers are one of my favorite things, but I wanted a meatball option.  Sautéing the vegetables and pre-cooking the rice in their juices gives these porcupines so much more flavor than just combining all the uncooked ingredients together and hoping the rice gets tender.

Ingredients (makes about 30 meatballs, but I don’t really know because I kept eating them):

For the rice:

1 Tablespoon olive oil for the pan

½ cup finely diced white onion

½ cup finely diced green pepper

½ cup long grain rice

1 (8 ounce) can of tomato sauce

1 cup water

½ teaspoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon salt

For the meatballs:

1 Tablespoon olive oil for the pan

1 pound lean ground beef

1 egg

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1teaspoon salt

Freshly cracked black pepper to your taste

Rice mixture from above

Fresh parsley for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Rice: Heat 1 Tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add in the diced onions and green peppers and cook, stirring often, for about 4 minutes or until the veggies are soft but not browned.

Add the rice to the saucepan and stir. Cook for about two minute to make sure the rice is coated with the oil. Add in the tomato sauce, water, dried parsley and salt. Bring to a boil, turn the heat to low, cover and let cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Meatballs: Heat 1 Tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium low to medium heat. While that is working, combine the ground beef, egg, Worcestershire, salt, black pepper and cooled rice mixture together.

Dampen your hands and pack about 2 Tablespoons of the meatball mixture into walnut sized balls and cook (in batches, so you don’t crowd the pan) until browned on both sides and cooked through. You really only want to turn these once, because they are tender. I use two teaspoons to turn them over.

Pile the meatballs onto a plate and sprinkle with fresh parsley.