Meatballs in the oven without rice - 2 baking recipes

Groats is not a mandatory component of meat for meatballs. But many housewives prefer to add rice. Most often this is done in order to save money - even from a small piece of meat you can cook dinner for the whole family. As well as rice grains during heat treatment, they release a lot of gluten, helping meat balls to keep in shape, which eliminates the need to put an egg in minced meat. However, this cereal is not to everyone's taste. And today I will tell you how to cook meatballs without rice in the oven.

Minced meat with pearl barley

• Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 8.

I cook this dish in a gravy of vegetables. Meatballs are soft, tender and incredibly juicy. Give it a try!

Ingredients:

• minced meat (preferably mixed) - 1 kg;
• pearl barley - 250 g;
• egg - 1 pc.;
• onion - 3 heads;
• carrots - 2-3 pcs.;
• salt, pepper - to taste;
• flour - 100 g for breading + 3 tbsp. l in gravy;
• water - 1 l;
• vegetable oil - for the passage of vegetables.

Attention! If you have more or less minced meat than indicated in the recipe, then the amount of barley should be different. The optimal ratio is 1 part of cereal to 4 parts of meat mass.

Operating procedure:

1. Boil the pearl barley until cooked for 30 minutes, slightly salting the water, then drain the liquid and cool. To make the groats soft, pre-soak them for several hours.
2. Finely chop with a knife or grate one onion, put in minced meat.
3. Add the egg, barley, salt, pepper and knead the mass.
4. Make small balls at the rate of 2 pcs. per serving. Roll them in flour and put in a deep baking dish. It does not need to be lubricated.
5. Prepare the gravy - in vegetable oil, let the remaining onion for 4-5 minutes, cut into thin half rings. It should become soft.
6. Enter the grated carrots and cook another 10 minutes.Then pour in the water, after adding flour to it and stirring until the lumps disappear, put spices and salt and wait until the gravy boils.
7. Pour the meatballs with the resulting vegetable sauce and put in the oven preheated to 180 degrees for 1 hour.

Garnish for this dish is optional - there is meat, cereals and vegetables. But you can add meatballs in gravy with a fresh salad or mashed potatoes.

Beef meatballs with nuts and cheese

• Cooking time: 1 hour.
• Servings Per Container: 6.

Nuts and cheese contain a lot of fat, which adds satiety to the dish. Another plus - it turns out very tasty and unusual. You can cook such meatballs for the festive table.

Ingredients:

• ground beef - 800 g;
• onion - 1 medium-sized head;
• garlic - 2-3 cloves;
• crumbs of white wheat bread - 100 g;
• egg - 1 pc.;
• hazelnuts (can be replaced with walnuts) - 70-80 g;
• flour - 3 tbsp. l .;
• hard cheese - 100 g;
• milk - 600 ml;
• vegetable oil - for frying;
• salt, pepper - to taste.

Operating procedure:

1. Grind the onions in small cubes, pass the garlic through a press, crush the nuts with a rolling pin or scroll in a meat grinder.
2. Add the prepared ingredients to the minced meat, pour in bread crumbs, beat the egg, salt and pepper.
3. Mix the mass until smooth and make small balls of it, about 3 pcs. for 1 serving.
4. Roll the workpieces in flour and fry in vegetable oil for about 5 minutes on each side. The fire should be medium. It is better to take the pan with a removable handle so that you can send the dish into the oven in it.
5. Pour the meatballs with milk, reduce heat to a minimum, wait for boiling.
6. Transfer the container to an oven preheated to 170 degrees and cook for 15 minutes.
7. Then take out the pan, sprinkle the meatballs with grated cheese and put back. When the chips melt, remove the dish.

On a note. Such meatballs can also be cooked in a slow cooker - put the fried portions in a bowl, pour milk and set up the Multipovar program for 10-15 minutes. Then sprinkle the dish with cheese, mix gently and serve immediately.

What else can be added instead of rice

Instead of rice and pearl barley, when cooking meatballs, you can add buckwheat, semolina, wheat, oatmeal, millet, bulgur or couscous to the minced meat. The main thing is to remember that all cereals in the process of heat treatment increase in volume, and adhere to the specified proportions. The basis of the dish should be meat.

If you move away from the traditional and most common methods of cooking meatballs, and show imagination, you can use not only cereals, but also other ingredients to prepare this dish. For example, chopped on a fine grater raw potatoes, carrots, zucchini, white or Beijing cabbage. Fans of mushrooms can add meat with champignons, oyster mushrooms, honey mushrooms or chanterelles, having previously boiled and cut them. Do not be afraid to experiment, sometimes from incompatible at first glance products turn out amazing dishes.