Fairwell Family Secret Meatball Recipe

Rose's Granddaughter's Note:

The secret is pumpkin. Yes, you heard that right, sweet delicious pureed pumpkin! This is a great recipe to cook if you have finicky eaters that don't want to eat healthy. I created this for my husband who actually happens to love pumpkin. Great for cooking in a crockpot and leaving for 8-10 hours to cook. Easy, healthy and rich in nutrients. Great novelty item to serve at Thanksgiving.

• Total Time: 4 hrs 25 mins
• Prep Time: 25 mins
• Cook Time: 4 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 12

Sauce

• 2 (14 ounce) cans no-salt-added diced tomatoes
• 1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin
• ¼ cup margarine or ¼ cup butter

Meatballs

• 3 -4 lbs ground beef
• 1 onion , diced finely
• 1 teaspoon fennel
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• 2 tablespoons garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon ground pepper
• ½ teaspoon allspice

Directions:

1. Mix tomatoes, pumpkin and butter in bottom of crockpot. Turn crockpot onto low with lid off.
2. Mix the remaining ingredients together in a mixing bowl and form large 1-2 inch meatballs.
3. After forming each meatball, place on top of sauce in crockpot. Will eventually have a pyramid of meatballs.
4. Cover crockpot and leave to cook on low for 8-10 hours, or on high for 4-5 hours.
5. I like to drain a little of the fat after 3 hours of cooking.
6. Serve over your favorite pasta or rice mix. Thick enough to serve alone as main course.
7. Feel free to try different variations of your favorite herbs such as Italian seasoning, etc. The flavor from the meatballs will seep into the sauce.
8. Thick enough to make meatball sandwiches.
9. Enjoy!

Reviews

[berry271]

Had this yesterday (a Sunday, I love the slow cooker for Sundays!) served over rice with broccoli and a salad for sides. I was looking for a way to use up some canned pumpkin, and although I was a little hesitant when I saw this recipe, it smelled and turned out great. I really liked the texture and flavor of the sauce. I would not add the sugar as FurryLoo suggested. We liked it as is. The meatball part of the recipe comes out to about 3 "medium-smallish" meatballs per person if you are going by the suggested 12 servings. I was OK with just 3 meatballs, but if I was having guests or using this for meatball sandwiches I would probably make a little extra.

[KWM_SA]

I halved the recipe (kept the spice amounts in the meatballs the same though). I also lightened the recipe a bit by using only 1 T of olive oil and using half beef and half turkey. Still needed to have some of the extra fat skimmed off the top. The sauce is very interesting, and I liked that it was less acidic than the usual all tomato sauce. The meatballs had a nice flavor to them. Cooked just fine in 4.5 hours on high in a crockpot.

[angelstar7]

This smelled wonderful while cooking. I used frozen premade meatballs and cooked them in the sauce on the stove. The sauce was very thick and rich. Went well over noodles. The 5 year old thought the meatballs were great. My S.O. thought it was Ok, adult daughter didnt care for them and I liked them.