

Meatballs in tomato and eggplant sauce with couscous
Ingredients
- Meatballs
- 1 cup fresh sourdough breadcrumbs
- ¼ cup skim milk
- 1kg lean beef mince
- 1 large courgette, trimmed, finely grated
- ¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- Tomato and eggplantaubergineX sauce
- spray oil
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 1 large (450g) eggplantaubergineX, trimmed, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons no-added-salt tomato paste
- 2 x 400g cans no-added-salt chopped tomatoes
- To serve
- 2 cups cooked couscous
- 4 cups steamed green beans and broccoli
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Instructions
1 To make meatballs, place breadcrumbs in a medium-sized bowl. Add milk and leave to soak for 3 minutes. In a large bowl combine breadcrumb mixture with mince, courgette and parsley. Season with freshly ground black pepper. Wet hands to roll tablespoons of mixture in balls.
2 To make tomato and eggplant sauce, spray a large pan with oil and set over a medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until soft. Add eggplant to pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes or until golden. Add garlic to pan. Cook, stirring for 1 minute or until mixture is fragrant.
3 Add tomato paste to pan. Cook for 1 minute then add tomatoes with 1 cup water. Bring mixture to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Place half of the tomato and eggplant sauce in an airtight container and place in fridge or freezer (reserving for Day 6 recipe, see tips).
4 Meanwhile, set a large non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat and spray with oil. Add meatballs in batches and cook, turning, for 6-8 minutes or until browned all over and cooked through. Remove half of the meatballs from pan (reserving for Day 7 recipe, see tips).
5 Add remaining sauce to pan. Simmer for 2-3 more minutes.
6 Divide cooked couscous among serving plates, top with meatballs in sauce and serve with steamed green beans and broccoli.
Variations
Make it gluten free: Use gluten-free breadcrumbs in meatballs and use rice or quinoa instead of couscous.
HFG tip
This recipe freezes well. Freeze remaining tomato-eggplant sauce in a sealed airtight container (this sauce is also delicious in pasta). Freeze remaining meatballs and transfer to fridge (to thaw) the night before using them.
This recipe is part of our 7 days, 7 dinners feature – make dinners for a week easily, including ‘make ahead’ components to be used in other dishes.
(Makes two portions: use one portion each of both meatballs and sauce in this recipe, and use remaining portions for the recipes on Day 6 and Day 7.)
Day 1: Chicken, lentil and kumara curry
Day 2: Meatballs in tomato and eggplant sauce with couscous (above)
Day 3: Roasted pumpkin soup with hazelnut and parmesan toasts
Day 4: Fish stir-fry with broccoli and ginger
Day 5: Roasted pumpkin, leek and mushroom cannelloni
Day 6: Chicken, eggplant and capsicum bake with cauliflower mash
Day 7: Spiced pilaf with meatballs, currants and baby spinach
Nutrition Info (per serve)
-
Calories 420cal
-
Kilojoules 1760kJ
-
Protein 39g
-
Total fat 14g
-
–Saturated fat 5g
-
Carbohydrates 30g
-
–Sugars 10g
-
Dietary fibre 8g
-
Sodium 150mg
-
Calcium 130mg
-
Iron 5.5mg
© Healthy Food Guide All rights reserved. Reproduction without written permission prohibited.
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