You know those meals that your mom makes all the time growing up and you kind of get tired of eating it, but then you truly appreciate it when you grow up and move out? Well that’s what albondigas (meatballs) are to me. It happened to me when I moved to New York. I don’t know what it was, but I started craving my mom’s meatballs. I never made them on my own before that time, so I called my mom and got the recipe from her. Ever since then, it’s on the weekly menu.
These aren’t your typical meatballs that you eat with spaghetti or the ones you can buy at Ikea, these are Cuban meatballs—made with a mix of sazon, tomato sauce, corn and sofrito…all simmered to perfection. I know the corn might sound a little odd to you, but trust me, its great! It adds an extra texture and little bit of sweetness to the dish. I love serving it over rice and stirring in the salsita (salsa) with the rice. I highly recommend it.
Well get to cooking! And let me know what you think in the comments below!
Ingredients
- ¾ lb Ground beef Or 1½ lbs of ground beef and omit the pork
- ¾ lb Ground pork
- 1 tbs Garlic powder
- 1 tsp Salt
- ¼ tsp Black pepper
- 1 Egg
- 1 cup Bread crumbs
- 1 cup Onion
- ½ cup Green bell peppers
- 3 Garlic Cloves
- 1 cup Tomato sauce
- 1 can Corn
- 1 packet Sazon Goya sin achote
Instructions
- In a bowl place the beef and season it with the garlic powder, salt, and black peppers. Add the egg and bread crumbs and stir to combine all together.
- Grab some of the meat and place on the palm of your hands and roll it to make about 2inch balls. Set aside and continue with the rest of the meat.
- In a food processor, mince the onion, green pepper and garlic.
- In a cooking pot, coat the bottom with oil, and heat on medium/high heat. When hot, place the onions, green peppers and garlic inside and cooking till soft and onions are translucent. About 3 minutes.
- Once your sofrito (the onions, green peppers and garlic) is cooked, add the meat balls to the pot. (I like to place them all in a circle so they are all touching the bottom of the pot.)
- Brown the meatballs on all its sides and combine it with the sofrito. Don’t cook them all the way through. This takes about 5 minutes.
- Once your meat is browned, add the tomato sauce, can of corn, and sazon goya and stir. Bring it to a boil and then lower your head to low/medium so that the sauce can simmer. Allow it to simmer for about 10 minutes or until the sauce begins to thicken.
- Serve with rice and enjoy!
