Beef Meatballs With Vegetables and Couscous

Crunchy deep-fried meatballs flavored with parmesan, garlic, and lemon zest. I like to serve them with creamy vegetable stew and couscous. It is such a delightful dinner, even your children will ask for a second serving.

Jump to:

• Combining the meatballs with vegetables
• Prevent deep-fried meatballs to dry
• Prevent meatballs from falling apart while frying
• Timesaving tips
• Preparing the deep-fried meatballs
• Making the vegetables stew
• Preparing the Couscous
• Serving the meal
• More deep frying recipes
• 📋 Meatballs with Vegetables and Couscous

Combining the meatballs with vegetables

Deep-fried meatballs are a crunchy meaty delight, and as a contrast to their crumbly texture, I like to serve them with a creamy vegetable stew. However, I don't want to add anything buttery or milky as the deep frying is already very rich.

In this recipe, I serve them with sweet potatoes and broccoli, but you can use any vegetables you like. As a juice, I use a cup of my own tomato sauce made with fresh tomatoes which I preserve for the winter every September.

Depending on what vegetables you are using you can use brown or chicken stock instead of the tomato sauce. Make sure you have a starchy vegetable like potatoes or beans to thicken the sauce.

I always have a stock of homemade chicken stock in the freezer and in the link, you can find more about it.

Homemade chicken stock is one of my secret ingredients in many dishes. It is creamy and very tasty.

The broth and the vegetables moisten the meatballs creating a perfect balance of texture, flavor, and juices.

For a vegetarian version of meatballs, you can try fried eggplant balls or gluten-free Arancini.

Prevent deep-fried meatballs to dry

The main difficulty in making perfect deep-fried meatballs is making sure they don't come up too dry in the middle.

To prevent it, I soften the breadcrumbs with milk, adding moisture to the mixture.

I also mix the breadcrumbs with some finely chopped onion and to give some nice extra flavor I add lemon zest and chopped basil leaves.

Prevent meatballs from falling apart while frying

Another problem often arise when making meatballs is that they fall apart when you are cooking them.

To prevent this you need to make sure you add the right quantity of breadcrumbs vs meat and add the exact number of eggs as from the recipe.

Another important trick is to keep the palm of your hand wet with warm water when you roll the meatballs. The water will prevent the mixture from sticking to your hand and will form a smooth and uniform surface to the balls.

Timesaving tips

To save time when I need to prepare dinner, I have a stock of prepared ingredients stored in my freezer. Breadcrumbs are one of them.

I don't like store-bought breadcrumbs as they tend to be dry, however, making them fresh each time it is very time-consuming.

So I make a large batch once a month and freeze it. I mix them with garlic, basil, and parmesan, so they are ready to be used in the recipe.

Frozen breadcrumbs do not solidify so you can just pick what your recipe requires and keep the rest in the freeze.

If you want to know what else I keep in my freezer, you can read the article: Once a month freezer meal prep

Preparing the deep-fried meatballs

You can start by preparing the ingredients for the meatballs, but as it is best to let the breadcrumbs rest to absorb the milk, you can do that first then skip to the next heading to prepare the vegetables.

Once the vegetables are cooking you can move back to finish the meatballs:

1. Pour the milk over the breadcrumbs and let it absorb for 20 minutes
2. Mix the breadcrumbs with all the ingredients for the meatballs mix
3. Wet the palm of your hand with warm water. It will help you make smoother meatballs.
4. Roll the meatballs and lay them on a cutting board
5. Prepare the fryer and heat up the oil
6. Deep fry the meatballs
7. Lay them on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil

Making the vegetables stew

1. Clean and cut the onion in slices
2. Stir fry it with 2 tablespoon of olive oil
3. Wash, peel and cut the sweet potato into large chunks
4. Put them in a pan with the onion
5. Season with salt and pepper
6. Add 1 cup of tomato sauce and bring to boil
7. Simmer covered for 10 minutes
8. Add the broccoli cut in large pieces
9. Simmer covered for another 10 minutes

Preparing the Couscous

1. Pour 1 cup of couscous into a large bowl, season with extra virgin olive oil
2. Stir so the couscous is well seasoned
3. Pour the stock over the couscous
4. Stirring with a fork every once in a while to make sure the grains do not clump.
5. Let it rest for 15 minutes
6. It is ready to be served

Serving the meal

1. Make sure your timing is coordinated so that the vegetable stew, the couscous, and the meatballs are ready and at the same times and they are served warm
2. Serve couscous first
3. Place the deep-fried meatballs over the couscous
4. Serve the vegetable stew over so the couscous and the meatballs will absorb their juices

More deep frying recipes

Who doesn't love deep-fried food, I certainly do and I like to keep it traditional. If I have to eat fried food I rather eat it properly done, with a proper fryer.

I bought a proper fryer, so easy to use and perfect when you have people for dinner. You can fry large quantity of food in no time.

Here are some deep fried recipe you may enjoy:

• Rice Arancini Recipe Gluten-Free and Vegetarian
• Fried Zucchini Flowers Recipe
• Deep-Fried Eggplant Balls
• Fried Pizza
• Vegetarian Eggplant Milanese
• Fried Calamari Recipe
• Italian Fried Dough Crispelle

Deep fried desserts:

• Struffoli
• Orelliette

If you are making these Crunchy Deep-Fried Meatballs With Creamy Vegetables Stew And Couscous, leave your comment below I would like to hear from you. You can find more delicious ideas if you FOLLOW ME on Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.

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Breadcrumbs

• Pour the milk over the breadcrumbs and let it absorb for 20 minutes

  1 ½ cup breadcrumbs, ¼ cup milk

Making the vegetables stew

• Stir fry the cleaned and sliced onion with 2 tablespoon of olive oil

  1 onion diced, 2 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt

• Wash, peel and cut the sweet potato into large chunks and put them in a pan with the onion

  1 sweet potato

• Season with salt and pepper, add 1 cup of tomato sauce and bring to boil

  1 cup tomato sauce

• Simmer covered for 10 minutes

• Add the broccoli cut in large pieces

  2 heads broccoli

• Simmer covered for another 10 minutes

Making the Meatballs

• Mix the breadcrumbs with all the ingredients for the meatballs mix

  ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan, 1 clove peeled garlic cloves, 10 leaves fresh basil leaves, 1 lemon zest, 1 lb freshly minced lean beef, 2 fresh eggs, 2 teaspoon salt, 1 onion diced

• Wet the palm of your hand with warm water. It will help you make smoother meatballs.

• Roll the meatballs and lay them on a cutting board

• Prepare the fryer and heat up the oil

  vegetable oil for frying

• Fry the meatballs

• Lay them on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil

Preparing the Couscous:

• Pour 1 cup of couscous into a large bowl and season it well with the olive oil.

  1 cup couscous, 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

• Pour the stock over the couscous

  1 cup homemade chicken stock

• Stirring with a fork every once in a while to make sure the grains do not clump.

• Let it rest for 15 minutes

Serve it

• Make sure your timing is coordinated so that the vegetable stew, the couscous, and the meatballs are ready and at the same time and they are served warm. Serve couscous first

• Place the meatballs over the couscous

• Serve the vegetable stew over so the couscous and the meatballs will absorb their juices

• To prevent the meatballs from being too dry, add the milk to the breadcrumbs
• To prevent the meatballs from breaking while cooking, add the right quantity of breadcrumbs vs meat and add the exact number of eggs as from the recipe
• keep the palm of your hand wet with warm water when you roll the meatballs. The water will prevent the mixture from sticking to your hand and will form a smooth and uniform surface to the balls.

Calories: 848 kcal | Carbohydrates: 106 g | Protein: 53 g | Fat: 25 g | Saturated Fat: 7 g | Cholesterol: 160 mg | Sodium: 2217 mg | Potassium: 2091 mg | Fiber: 16 g | Sugar: 17 g | Vitamin A: 10433 IU | Vitamin C: 283 mg | Calcium: 379 mg | Iron: 9 mg

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Source: https://yourguardianchef.com/meatballs-with-vegetables-and-couscous/

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