Meatballs are always a hit in my home, and this sweet and sour meatball recipe is a family favourite. It makes enough to feed our family of five for two nights! The first night, we serve them with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables, and the next night, they’re perfect in bread rolls for a quick and delicious meal.
Roll the mince mixture into evenly sized balls to form meatballs. You can prepare these ahead of time and store them in the fridge or freezer until you’re ready to cook.
Layer the sliced vegetables over the meatballs, then pour the sauce evenly on top. Feel free to add any additional vegetables of your choice for extra flavour and texture
Bake in the oven until cooked through and golden.
Pick up some fresh bread rolls on your way home from school pick-up or work, reheat the meatballs, and enjoy a delicious meatball sub. We kept ours simple with just the meatballs, but you can add lettuce, cheese, or any other toppings to make it even more satisfying. There were plenty of leftovers to feed our family of five again!
Sweet and Sour Meatballs
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- In a large bowl, mix together the 1 kg beef mince, 1 cup dried bread crumbs, 1/2 cup milk, 1 egg, salt and pepper.
- Roll the mixture into evenly sized meatballs and place them in a single layer in a lightly greased baking dish.
- Evenly layer the sliced 1 green capsicum, 1 onion, and 425g can chopped pineapple over the meatballs.
- In a bowl, combine the 2/3 cup brown sugar, 1 cup tomato sauce, 1 cup water, 1/3 cup vinegar, 1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce, 1 tbsp cornflour, and rreserved pineapple juice.
- Stir until well mixed, then pour over the meatballs.
- Place the baking dish in the pre-heated oven and bake for 45 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked through.
- Serve hot with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables.
- Store leftovers in the fridge and enjoy the next night in fresh bread rolls for an easy, delicious meal.
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
- Mix ingredients together and form into balls.
- Arrange in a single layer in a lightly greased baking dish.
- Layer capsicum, onion and pineapple over meatballs.
- Combine all ingredients and pour over meatballs.
- Bake for 45 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through.
- Serve with mashed potato and steamed vegetables.
Nutrition
Have you made this recipe?
I’d love to hear how it turned out!This recipe is simple, delicious, and perfect for busy weeknights. I’d love to hear how it turns out for you—leave a comment below or share your meal on social media! Happy cooking!
27 comments
These look so delicious Kat! I love the idea of adding the vegetables on top too 😀
It works perfectly, Lorraine and so super easy to make.:)
Hi! I make this recipe for dinner today! It’s very simple, perfect! Greetings from Spain!
Hw wonderful Fran.:) So glad you enjoyed it x
Meatballs are a big favourite in our house too Kat! I have never made a sweet and sour version though – what a fab idea! I’m going to have to make this recipe next time!
There are delicious,Lucy.:) And so easy to make, just a nice variation.:)
Thank you Kat. This is going in my meal planner!! Yum!
I also love the idea of the vegetables over the meatballs, so simple and trying this for the first time as meatballs are a quick and easy meal for my 3 kids (11, 8 and 4)… I have been going through your meal planning/recipes and I can proudly say I have 2 weeks orgainsed as I wrote down all the meat I have in my freezer and just worked around what my kids likes 🙂
Just letting you know Katrina, my Kids loved it and so did my partner! A winner in this house and looks like it will be a favourite too. I also added both red and green capsicum for colour 🙂
Fantastic! It is such a easy and delicious meal, perfect mid week dinner.:)
That is wonderful, Tracey! I am so happy to har you have meal planned for the next two weeks! YAY i’m excited to hear that!.:) x
Lovely recipe Katrina ! I made these tonight and just added some red capsicum for colour. I used a mixture of Pork and Veal Mince to carry on the Asian theme of the recipe. As DH is working away from home – I used 1kg of mince and made two batches – we had one tonight and the other is in the freezer.
I particularly loved this recipe because I could assemble it earlier in the day. When I got home from soccer training with my two youngest kiddos – I cooked up some rice and pre-heated the oven. Then I popped the meatball dish in the oven as I left to collect my eldest DD from dance practice. When we arrived home – dinner was practically on the table !
Did you make this recipe up ? It’s a winner in my book – well done !!!
That is wonderful, Julia! It is a real winner in my house too.:) I love the idea of adding red capsicum, i too love to have a bit of colour in my meals, i think it looks nice on the plate.:)
Can this be frozen?
Absolutely, Sherelle.:)
Great idea! I do something similar but put it in the slow cooker instead. YUM! We get 2 meals out of it too.
Great idea in making them in the slow cooker! I love how it makes a lot, perfect for leftovers or to freeze and have another night!
I love all of your easy recipes. Could I add a suggestion? I see you have a print button to print the recipe but what if you want to save the recipe in a folder for later? Could you possibly add a button to make it easier to save the recipe for later use.
Hi Jenny, That is a fantastic idea! I don’t have a save button but it is something i could look into. The other alternative is you can save recipes in Evernotes.
Hi Jenny
Alternative options also…you can save to Pinterest by clicking on the red Pinterest icon. You could also create a bookmark folder and add the page to that folder. Best wishes ?
I love this recipe, I have looked it up so many times I really should print it out and put it in our favourites folder!
LOL, yes print it, I have that option on all my recipes, so pleased it’s one of your family favourites, music to my ears 🙂
I love this recipe, I have looked it up so many times I really should print it out and put it in our favourites folder!
You can easily cook them in a COOKEO for a quick meal. I mixed all the sauce ingredients in a large bowl, fried the meatballs and poured the sauce over the meat. Then cook for about 30 minutes. It’s ready.
That’s a great suggestion! Thanks Sylvie
OMG I just made this tonight for Saturday night dinner ?!!! Made the meatballs and vegetable sauce in the afternoon and popped in the oven a few hours later-absolutely delicious
Hi Julia, so glad you enjoyed it! It’s great that you could partially prepare the meal earlier as nights can be hectic!