Recipe: Meatballs with Secret Vegetables

Books like Deceptively Delicious have popularized “hiding” fruits and vegetables in foods to get your picky kids to eat healthy foods. These techniques are no surprise to me – I’ve been doing them for years. Not for picky children, but for myself.

As a supertaster, there are a lot of foods whose flavors and textures are very difficult for me to eat. Onions? Broccoli? Alcohol? Grapefruit? Kiwi? Can’t go near ‘em. However, I know how important it is to incorporate as wide a variety of healthy foods into my diet as possible, so I’m master sneak-artist.

Here’s one of my favorite (and easy!) sneaky recipes: Meatballs with Secret Vegetables

Ingredients

• 1lb ground beef (I use the super-lean 93/07)
• 1 large grated carrot
• 2C chopped spinach
• 1/2C chopped parsley
• 1 bulb roasted garlic
• 1/4C Parmesan
• 1/2C crumbled cornbread (optional)
• Ground pepper

Notes

• The chopped spinach and grated carrot provide enough moisture to balance using extra-lean beef, and I’ve never needed milk or egg to help bind the mixture or keep it from drying out
• If I have a grain, like bread crumbs, cornbread or even rice I’ll throw it in, but this recipe doesn’t need a starch as a binder
• The measurements are really just approximations. I tend to throw in whatever amounts of ingredients I have and it hasn’t failed me yet

Directions

• Mix all the ingredients together
• Roll out golf ball-sized meatballs (or what people have told me is golf ball-sized. I wouldn’t know. I have a life and that life does not include golf)
• Place on a foil-covered baking sheet (you may want to spray the foil with some oil first, as these meatballs like to stick)
• Bake in a 400° oven for approximately 20 minutes

I ate these meatballs with this soup and a side salad. The carrots add a nice sweetness that balances out the sharpness of the roasted garlic and Parmesan, and the greens stay fresh and crisp, even after cooking. Although I suspect I’ll cave and have some Swedish meatballs when The Rocket Scientist visit the new Ikea, these are still my favorites.

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