Tag Archives: slow-cooker

Slow-Cooker Sweet and Savory Meatballs

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Very similar to the “retro meatballs” of yore, this sauce goes beyond just grape jelly and chili sauce. With the additional ingredients, the depth of flavor is slightly more pronounced.

If you grew up with go-go boots, hot pants, princess phones, and avocado green kitchens, you probably remember when saucy meatballs first became the rage at neighborhood parties in the ‘burbs. The secret ingredient was (drumroll, please)… grape jelly!

According to Southern Living, it’s still the secret ingredient, bringing a sweetness to the heat and spice of companion ingredients like chili sauce and barbecue sauce. And we still love those sweet-tangy-saucy little bites. They’re always crowd pleasers in the South (hey, in the North too), and they’re strictly a dump-and-stir proposition, leaving plenty of time to attend to other party chores.

Our preferences lean toward savory as opposed to sweet, so we upped the chili sauce by 25%. The recipe is easily finessed to appeal to your personal preferences. For instance, you could reduce the amount of grape jelly to lower the sweetness factor even more; double the mustard to 2 teaspoons; and/or use a tangier BBQ sauce. Another change we made was to the quantity of meatballs. The original recipe called for two pounds and we used three-and-a-quarter pounds, but did not increase the other ingredients.

Easy-Peasy, just whisk together the sauce and give your slow cooker a spritz of cooking spray. In go the meatballs, in goes the sauce. Toss. Cook. Done.

Sprinkle chives on top before serving. Actually, you don’t even have to serve them. Just place a container of toothpicks next to your slow cooker, and guests can serve themselves. Try them and find out why this groovy appetizer from back in the day is once again a hit.

Slow-Cooker Sweet and Savory Meatballs

  • Servings: 104 meatballs
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 cups grape jelly, such as Smucker’s
  • 12 oz. bottle of chili sauce, such as Heinz
  • 1/2 cup barbecue sauce
  • 2 tsp. Dijon mustard
  • 1 tsp. Sriracha chili sauce
  • 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
  • 1/4 tsp. black pepper
  • Cooking spray
  • 3 1/4 lbs. frozen meatballs (about 104)
  • 2 Tbsp. finely chopped chives
Directions
  1. Whisk together grape jelly, chili sauce, barbecue sauce, mustard, Sriracha, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Lightly coat slow cooker with cooking spray.
  2. Place frozen meatballs in slow cooker. Pour jelly sauce over meatballs, and toss to coat. Cover and cook on HIGH until sauce is thickened, 2 to 2 1/2 hours, stirring halfway through.
  3. Top with chives, and serve immediately.

http://www.lynnandruss.com

Adapted from a recipe for Southern Living

Slow-Cooker Sausage and Kale Minestrone

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Here’s a wonderfully warming soup for a cold Winter’s day. Once you’ve prepped the ingredients, there’s not much you have to do for several hours. It’s made even easier if you buy bulk sausage, so that you don’t have to meddle with removing casings. And if spicy is not your thing, go ahead and use mild Italian or turkey sausage.

With lots of super-flavorful turkey stock leftover, we used that as the base, ramping up the overall deliciousness! Serve with a slice of crusty garlic bread toasted under the broiler.

Slow-Cooker Sausage and Kale Minestrone

  • Servings: 6
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

  • 12 oz. spicy Italian sausage, casings removed
  • 1 large yellow onion, chopped (2 cups)
  • 1 large carrot, chopped (1 cup)
  • 2 ribs celery, chopped
  • 6 cups chicken or turkey stock
  • 2 14.5 oz. cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
  • 1 15 oz. can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 tsp. kosher salt
  • 1/2 tsp. black pepper
  • 1 cup uncooked ditalini pasta
  • 5 oz. baby kale leaves, roughly chopped

Directions

  1. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high. Add the sausage to the skillet, and cook, stirring to crumble with a wooden spoon, 4 minutes.
  2. Add the onions, carrots, and celery to the skillet; cook, stirring occasionally, until the sausage is browned and the vegetables are lightly caramelized, about 6 minutes.
  3. Add 1 cup of the stock; cook 1 minute, stirring and scraping to loosen the browned bits from the bottom of the skillet.
  4. Transfer the sausage mixture to a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker. Stir in the tomatoes, beans, salt, 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper, and the remaining 5 cups stock. Cover and cook on LOW until the vegetables are tender, about 2 hours and 30 minutes.
  5. Stir in the pasta; cover and cook on LOW until the pasta is al dente, about 1 hour.
  6. Stir in the kale and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls, and serve hot.

http://www.lynnandruss.com

Recipe from Cooking Light