Meatballs & oven-baked fall vegetables

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada you know, and for a couple of weeks now we have had lots of cranberries and all sort of squash in our vegetable markets, winking fall and a promise of colorful dishes. Here is the result of my inspiration.

Ingredients: (serving 3): Ground beef or veal 400 gr. Onion, 1 medium, grated. Potatoes, 2 medium, sliced (for fries). Tomatoes, 2 medium, chopped. Turmeric, ½ tea spoon. Chickpea flour, ½ tbsp. Olive oil, 3-4 tbsp. Salt and powdered black pepper, to taste. V8 (or any vegetable juice mix), half a cup. Chopped parsley, 1 tbsp. Side vegetables: I used fresh patty pan squash, cranberries, and asparagus. Use what is in season and what you fancy most.

Method: Mix grated onion with ground meat, turmeric, chickpea flour, and salt & pepper. Use your hand and fingers (not a blender) to massage and mix them very well. Then, make it into a large ball and leave to rest for 10 minutes. Make this large meat ball into about 20 small meat balls. Fry them in 1/2 tbsp. hot oil over high heat till brownish. Shake the pan a few times so all sides of the meat balls are fried.  Add chopped tomatoes, and V8 turn heat to medium and simmer for 20 minutes, or until you get a thick juice in your pan. Set aside.

Fry potatoes in a clean pan, with fresh oil.

For the side vegetables, I first tossed squash and cranberries with half tbsp of olive oil and salt and then put them in preheated oven (400 F), along with asparagus for 20 minutes. The squash and asparagus turned just right – brown and crunchy. But cranberries turned too soft!  So, do take the berries out of the oven earlier – after ten minutes.  They tasted wonderful though in the well-orchestrated ensemble! 🙂