These sweet and sour meatballs are the perfect comfort food for a chilly night when you want something hearty and satisfying. Packed with bold, tangy flavor, they’re filling enough to stand alone as a complete meal or pair easily with your favorite sides. Best of all, this recipe is gluten free, dairy free, and mammal free, making it completely Alpha-Gal safe without sacrificing taste. It’s proof that allergen-friendly meals can still be rich, comforting, and crave-worthy.
For this recipe you’ll need to refer back to my Savory Meatball recipe. Using this meatball recipe and preparing the meatballs ahead of time gives you a quick, easy supper option. Simply freeze the meatballs on a baking sheet, then transfer them to a gallon-size zip-top bag for convenient storage. On busy nights, you can add the meatballs straight from the freezer into the sauce and let them simmer until fully cooked and flavorful.
If I’ve run out of prepared meatballs from the freezer, I will generally mix the meatballs up while I let this sauce simmer. It’s a pretty easy recipe to mix up as long as your ground turkey is already thawed. So there is some preparation that goes into this recipe. Just read over it and make sure you get things ready before hand.
The Sauce
For the sauce you’ll want to start by heating up your oil in your large saucepan. Once hot enough add in your diced onion and green peppers. Sauté these until they are tender or to the desired tenderness. My kiddos will not eat these crunchy or anywhere close to raw so I cook them down a bit.
Next, go ahead and add your tomato sauce, chicken broth and crushed pineapple. For the pineapple, you can use canned pineapple. Occasionally if I don’t have cans of pineapple I will pull some pineapple out of the freezer, that I keep for smoothies, and will just let them thaw and then throw them in the blender and make my own pineapple purée to add to the sauce.
The last thing is to add your brown sugar, vinegar and ketchup. Mix it all in well and then you are going to turn your burner down to low and let the sauce simmer (uncovered) for 10 minutes. This will thicken it up a bit. The video below will give you an idea of what the simmering sauce should look like as it cooks. You’ll have to stir it pretty often so it doesn’t stick to the pan.
If you don’t have your meatballs premade, you can go ahead and get the meatballs ready while the sauce is simmering. Once the meatballs are ready and the 10 minutes is up on the sauce go ahead and drop the meatballs into the sauce. You will then cover and simmer for another 15 to 20 minutes or until the meatballs are no longer pink.
Once the meatballs are finished you can serve them alone with a side or you could serve them over rice or mashed potatoes. There are several options here. If you have any left overs, they’re good warmed over as well. I take left overs to work sometimes! Enjoy!
Sweet & Sour Meatballs
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- You will need to make the meatballs either ahead of time or while the sauce is simmering.
- Heat the olive oil in your large saucepan. When hot enough add the onion and green pepper and sauté until tender.
- Add the tomato sauce, chicken broth and crushed pineapple and stir until it is mixed well.
- Next, add your brown sugar, vinegar and ketchup and mix until incorporated.
- Bring the sauce to a simmer and let simmer for 10 minutes on low heat. This will allow the sauce to thicken some. During this time you can mix the meatballs if you haven’t already.
- After simmering for 10 minutes, use a cookie scoop or spoon to scoop the meatball mixture into the sauce. (Check the blog post for pics) Using a tight fitting lid, cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the meatballs are no longer pink.
- You can serve this over rice or mashed potatoes.
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