We will have soup for breakfast, and soup for lunch. And for dinner we will have broth! - my 10-yr-old son

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Meat Patties

One of our very favorite meals thus far is meat patties (which can also be meatballs).

It's a recipe you can change around all the time but the basics are thus:

ground beef (or chicken or lamb or turkey)
salt
pepper
pureed veggies - I like to use onion, garlic, carrot regularly and then add in a few extras - zucchini, spinach, kale, etc.
you could also use fresh herbs in Stage 2/3 and dried herbs/spices in Stage 5 to change the flavors around

For 2 pounds of beef I usually use 1 small onion or 3/4 a medium one, 2 or 3 cloves garlic and one huge carrot.  If I'm using a leafy green, I'll use several handfuls.

Mix it all together and form into patties.  Bring a pan of broth to a boil (use the kind of broth that matches your meat - chicken broth for chicken patties) and place the patties in the broth - enough broth to come up about halfway on the meat.  Reduce heat, cover and let simmer for about 30 minutes, turning a few times.  You can either let the broth reduce so it's thick like gravy and serve it with the patties or you can use the broth as a soup.

I've tried adding the meatball version of this directly to soup and letting it simmer, but they don't end up nearly as tasty as having them in the concentrated broth and then put into the soup at the end.

These are flavorful, soft and snarfed down by my kids.  You could easily make large batches of this and freeze them uncooked.  When you're ready to make them just pop a few into the pan and let them simmer until cooked through.

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