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Posted June 12, 2012 by Jennifer Lam (Jenius) in Recipes
 
 

Recipe: Meatballs with leftover vegetable juice pulp

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Much like the trend of eating an animal from head to tail, over the last year, I’ve become increasingly conscious of living a more sustainable lifestyle. I make a real effort to minimise food waste.
As we regularly juice at home, there’s always been a healthy collection of vegetable pulp. Some of my favourite juice combinations are:

Juicing at home - beetroot, carrot, apple, celery, ginger

While the pulp from these juices may be great for compost, I’ve been experimenting with it in other edible forms. The latest experiment were these delicious meatballs!

Home cooking: meatballs in tomato sauce

Meatballs with vegetable pulp from juicer
Serves 4

Ingredients
500g minced pork
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
1 pinch of salt
1 cup vegetable pulp from juicer, depending on your taste
Olive oil
Salt & pepper, season to taste
Tomato sauce
1 bottle (700ml) passata
Fresh basil
¼ cup water
Salt & pepper, season to taste
Method
To make the meatballs, place the mince, vegetable pulp, garlic and fennel seeds in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper and mix until well combined.
Shape meatballs into a large ball, slightly bigger than the size of golf balls.
Heat some oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Cook the meatballs turning occasionally for 5 – 10 minutes until browned.
Add the tomato passata then use the water to empty the passata bottle (shake well with water in the bottle and empty contents into the pan).
Cover and bring to boil. Reduce heat and cook covered for 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve with fresh basil and crusty bread or pasta.

Depending on what juice you’ve made, the flavour of the meatballs will vary so have fun with it!
Don’t forget you can keep the juice pulp in the fridge overnight if you’re not ready to use it on the day of juicing, or you can even make the meatball mixture ahead and freeze it!
As you know, I love easy peasy recipes and this one has been a real success. Not only are the meatballs more nutritious (as you’re replacing breadcrumbs with vegetables), but they’re also absolutely irresistible.
In this batch, I used the leftover pulp of a beetroot, carrot, apple, celery and ginger juice so there was the sweetness of apples which offset the sharpness of the vegetables. It was a true Winter warmer!
Happy juicing & cooking! x

Homemade meatballs in tomato sauce with basil and bread


cooking cooking with leftovers easy peasy juice meatballs recipe sustainability

Jennifer Lam (Jenius)

 
Jennifer is the founding blogger of I Ate My Way Through (originally, Jenius.com.au). Having grown up in a family where food was always at the centre of all celebrations, family events and milestones, Jen is obsessed with capturing irresistible flavours and stories from myriad cultures. A lover of the finer things in life, as well as cheap eats, her blogging ethos is all about empowering people to have good food and invigorating travel adventures - because life is too short for mediocre food or dull travel. Her hobbies are breakfast, lunch and dinner. She's globally curious, passionate about female entrepreneurship, is a soy chai latte fanatic, and loves vintage, dressmaking and photography.


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