Porcupine Meatballs
A budget-friendly comfort food recipe that's easy to prep ahead
Did anyone else grow up eating porcupine meatballs or was that just my family? It’s the epitome of nostalgic comfort food for me.
I think originally this was a depression-era type recipe but wherever it came from, it’s delicious and super easy!
My mum originally used to make this in a pot like soup, using the sauce ingredients as a soup type base and slowly cooking it down. Over time I’ve established this oven-baked version that I find way easier!
Ingredients
500g beef mince
1/2 cup uncooked long grain white rice
1 egg
1/2 medium onion chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1/2 teaspoon mixed herbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pepper to taste
Sauce
1 can condensed tomato soup
1 cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon (packed) brown sugar
Method
Preheat your oven to 180/200c and move the rack to the middle position.
Add the meatball ingredients to a large bowl and mix together with your hands. Form into roughly 4cm meatballs and add them as you go along to a 9×13 baking dish. You should end up with roughly 18-20.
Add the sauce ingredients to a medium bowl and stir together. Pour the sauce over the meatballs.
Cover the baking dish and bake for 1 hour. Make sure the foil/seal is tight or the rice won't cook properly. If you find the rice isn't cooked after an hour, simply pop it back in the oven until the rice has softened.
Serve with mashed potato and mixed vegetables.
The main thing with this recipe is to start it a good 1.5 hours before you’re wanting to eat dinner. It doesn’t take long to prep at all, you just need a good amount of time for it to sit in the oven and do its thing.
You can easily spread this out to serve 5 or 6.
I hope you love it as much as we do!