Easy meatballs for kids
This easy homemade meatball recipe is perfect for kids. With only a few ingredients they’ll enjoy making them as well as eating them!
This easy recipe for homemade meatballs with a tomato sauce is perfect for kids who want to help rustle up a simple family meal. Meatballs are a great kid-friendly family dinner, but if you don’t like what goes into shop bought ones, you’ll be glad to hear that homemade meatballs are really easy to make.
What should I serve with meatballs?
This is an easy recipe for meatballs and serves them with a simple tomato sauce. The best thing about these homemade meatballs though, is that you can mix it up a little bit to keep things interesting. Swap the beef mince for lamb, add some Morrocan spices and serve it with cous cous and you’ve got a very different but equally delicious meal to spagetti and meatballs.
If you’re serving the meatballs with pasta, our delicious roasted red pepper sauce or hidden vegetable sauce. Both are great ways of getting extra hidden veggies into your kids and are perfect for fussy eaters!
How can kids help to make homemade meatballs?
Meatballs are a great dish for kids to help make, especially if they like to get their hands a little bit messy. Once you’ve popped the ingredients into a bowl, your kids can roll little pieces meat in their hands to form the meatballs. It’s a very simple job that kids can do from a young age. You might need to help your kids keep the meatballs the same size, but other than that, they really can take on this job themselves.
Should I bake meatballs or fry them?
You can choose to either bake or fry meatballs. I prefer to bake them as it’s a little bit healthier than cooking them in oil, and you can just pop them in the oven and forget about them for a while.
Useful equipment
You might need the following baking tools/gadgets to make these homemade fish fingers
Pyrex dishes
Baking tray
Frying pan
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Difficulty: Medium
Time: 20 minutes + 30 minutes cooking
Serves: 4
Ingredients
For the meatballs:
4 tbsp breadcrumbs
500g mince (beef, pork or a mixture of the two)
1 egg
a small onion (or 1/2 a large one)
1 tbsp basil
1 tbsp parsley
For the sauce:
Tin tomatoes
1 small onion (or half a large one)
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp Caster sugar
2 tsp rosemary
1 tbsp parsley
How to make easy homemade meatballs
Put all the meatball ingredients into a bowl
Pop the mince and breadcrumbs in a bowl. We already had some breadcrumbs – we made way too much the other day when we made chicken nuggets so I put the extra in the freezer. If you don’t have any fresh, make some from one slice of bread and a hand blender.
Get your toddler to crack in the egg into a small bowl (in case shell goes in), then add it to your mixing bowl. If you do get egg shell in your bowl, fish it out with a larger piece of shell – shell sticks to shell better than your finger.
Get your kids to help you peel the onion, then chop it up really finely (or grate it), then get your child to add it into the bowl.
Add in the herbs. You can add any flavours you like, and you don’t have to be too accurate about quantities – you can just get your kids to sprinkle in the herbs.
Make the homemade meatballs
Prepare a baking tray by lining it with tin foil. I prefer to bake meatballs as I find you don’t have to keep such a close eye on them and they don’t break apart at all, which can happen if you fry them. You can choose to fry them in a litle oil if your prefer, making you to turn them so they don’t burn on one side.
Once everything is in the bowl, stick your hands in and give it a good mix and squeeze ot all together. This was a really fun job for my kids!
When everything has come together, start taking small bits of the mixture and rolling them into balls. Put them on to your baking tray. If your little one helps you make balls, just watch that they are all roughly the same size as you need them to cook at the same rate.
Drizzle them with a little oil then put them in the oven for 25-30 minutes. They’re ready when they have turned a nice brown colour and meat is cooked all the way through.
Make the sauce
While your meatballs are cooking, make your sauce.
First, chop your onion then heat in a frying pan with a little oil. Once they’ve softened and turned lightly golden (about 5 minutes) add the garlic and herbs. If you’re using a garlic crusher see if your little one can squeeze it in the pan for you.
Add the tomatoes and sugar then leave to simmer until it’s reduced and thickened a little. Once the sauce is ready, add the meatballs and give it a stir.
Serve with some pasta.
Easy homemade meatballs for kids
Ingredients
For the meatballs:
- 1 small onion or ½ a large one
- 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- 500 g mince beef, pork or a mixture of the two
- 1 tbsp basil
- 1 tbsp parsley
For the sauce:
- Tin tomatoes
- 1 small onion or half a large one
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 tsp Caster sugar
- 1 tsp rosemary
- 1 tbsp parsley
Instructions
Mix the meatbal ingredients together
- Pop the mince and breadcrumbs in a bowl. Crack in the egg, and chop up the onion really finely (or grate it) and add it to your bowl. Finally add the herbs.
Make the meatballs
Preheat your oven to 180C
- Get a baking tray ready if you’re cooking your meatballs in the oven. Alternatively you can fry them in a little oil so you’ll either need your frying pan out, or a plate.
- Once everything is in the bowl, stick your hands in and give it a good mix.
- When everything has come together, start taking small bits of the mixture and rolling them into balls. Pop them on to your baking tray.
- Drizzle them with a little oil then put them in the oven for 25-30 minutes.
Make the sauce
- First, chop your onion then heat in a frying pan with a little oil. Once they’ve softened and turned lightly golden (about 7 minutes) add the garlic and herbs. Add the crushed garlic.
- Add the tomatoes and sugar then leave to simmer until it’s reduced and thickened a little.
- Once the sauce is ready, add the meatballs and give it a stir. Serve with some pasta.
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If you liked these homemade meatballs you’ll love our easy homemade burgers for kids, our easy pizza for kids and other dinner ideas.
Why adding sugar? Can we avoid putting sugar in kids meals please!
The teaspoon of sugar in the sauce is just there to balance the acidity of the tomatoes. You can leave it out if you don’t want to add it.