This sweet and sour meatballs recipe with an orange-pineapple sauce is delicious served over rice as a main meal or threaded on toothpicks as an appetizer. Skip the take out and make this tasty recipe at home in about an hour.
If you love sweet and sour sauce, you are going to love this orange and pineapple combination. It pairs perfectly with the robust flavor of the ground beef seasoned with garlic, ginger, and Chinese five-spice powder.
How to Make the Pineapple-Orange Sweet and Sour Sauce
Zest and Juice Your Orange: Orange zest is the outer layer of an orange’s skin. It is filled with flavor and the fruit’s oils. Orange zest adds a bright citrus flavor to this recipe. You can zest an orange with a box grater or micro plane. Juice your orange using a fork or juicer. One medium orange should yield about 1/8 cup of orange juice. The juice and orange zest will add lots of flavor to your sauce.
See How to Zest Citrus Fruit for step-by-step instructions.
Separate your pineapple juice from the pineapple chunks. Combine about 1/2 cup of pineapple juice with arrowroot powder or cornstarch to make a slurry. Set this aside for now and use it to thicken your sweet and sour sauce.
Combine the remaining sauce ingredients into a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook while stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Add the pineapple slurry and thicken. Remove the sweet and sour sauce from the heat.
How to Make the Asian Flavored Meatballs
Select a relatively lean ground beef or grind it yourself. Either ground round or ground sirloin will work wonderfully for this recipe. You can also use ground chuck, which has a higher fat to meat ratio. Pan-frying will release a lot of the fat in ground chuck that you can drain off.
Grate the garlic and ginger using a box grater before adding to the mixing bowl. Since we are cooking the meatballs for a short period of time, larger chunks of garlic and ginger may not have time to soften. Grating the garlic and ginger allows the flavors to infuse into the meat mixture.
Don’t over mix. If the meatballs are overworked, they will turn out tough. First, combine all the ingredients but the ground meat. The milk and egg help keep the meatballs tender when cooked. The breadcrumbs help bind the meatball mixture together.
Let the breadcrumbs soften and absorb the milk and flavors of the garlic, ginger, and spices. If you don’t have breadcrumbs, substitute a slice of bread. Finally, add the ground beef, and mix gently with a fork or your hands until just combined. You should still see chunks of meat in your mixture.
Cooking Tip: Make Your Own Breadcrumbs
Roll the meatballs gently in the palms of your hands so you don’t compact the ground beef. For a unified appearance, use a tablespoon to measure out the meatball mixture. Drop the meatballs into the skillet as you work, until all the meatballs are formed.
Pan fry while turning frequently to brown on all sides. Cook the peppers and combine with the meatballs, pineapple, green onions, and sweet and sour sauce.
Orange Pineapple Sweet and Sour Meatballs
This sweet and sour meatballs recipe with an orange-pineapple sauce is delicious served over rice as a main meal or threaded on toothpicks as an appetizer. Skip the take out and make this tasty recipe at home in about an hour.
Ingredients
Ingredients for the Sweet and Sour Sauce:
- 1 16 ounce can pineapple chunks in natural juice
- 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)
- 1 medium orange, zested and juiced (about 1/8 cup juice)
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar (or white or rice)
- 1 teaspoon tamari (or soy sauce)
- 1 cup cane sugar
Ingredients for the Meatballs:
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup dried bread crumbs
- 2 cloves garlic grated
- 1/2 inch piece ginger grated
- 1/4 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
- 1/8 teapoon salt
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 medium sweet red pepper cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 2 green onions sliced (reserve green parts for garnish)
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil for frying meatballs
- 3 cups cooked rice (optional)
Instructions
Directions for the Sweet and Sour Sauce:
Separate the pineapple chunks from the pineapple juice. Reserve the pineapple chunks for later. Measure out 1/2 cup of pineapple juice, stir in the arrowroot powder to make a slurry, and set aside (this will be used to thicken the sauce later).
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the orange juice, zest, ketchup, vinegar, and tamari or soy sauce. Stir in the sugar and simmer until the sugar dissolves.
Stir the pineapple juice and arrowroot slurry and add it to the saucepan.
While stirring, bring the saucepan to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the sauce to cool. (Makes about 2 cups)
Directions for the Meatballs:
Preheat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
In a large bowl, combine egg, milk, dried bread crumbs, garlic, ginger, Chinese five-spice powder, pepper, and salt. Stir to mix thoroughly. Add ground beef. Mix until combined.
Shape the meat mixture into 1-inch meatballs. Add the meatballs to the skillet and cook until they are browned on all sides, about 10 minutes. Remove the meatballs from the pan. Reserve about 1 tablespoon of drippings in the pan and drain off any excess.
Add the peppers and onion to the skillet and cook for 5 minutes. Return the meatballs to the pan. Add 1/2 cup of the sweet and sour sauce, stir to combine, and cook until the meatballs are no longer pink in center, about 5 minutes more.
Add the reserved pineapple and green onion to the skillet, and stir to combine. Serve over rice with the remaining sweet and sour sauce. Serves 6.
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