Homemade Sweet and Sour Meatballs

How To Make Delicious Homemade Sweet & Sour Meatballs? These easy peasy savory meaty balls are sure to make your lunch or dinner meals more fun! You only need ground pork, seasonings, aromatics, breadcrumbs, some celery, carrot, egg, and flour for the meatballs. Frying these to get ready for the sweet savoy simmering sauce made of pineapple juice, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, some sugar, ginger, garlic, onions, carrots, and bell peppers. Once everything is well coated, serve these with some freshly cooked rice.

Homemade Sweet & Sour Meatballs Recipe :

For the Meatballs:

• 1 kilo ground pork
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• 1 large onion ( chopped )
• 1/4 cup spring onion ( chopped )
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
• ¼ cup celery ( chopped )
• 1 small carrot ( chopped )
• 1 large egg
•  1 cup all-purpose flour or cornstarch
• oil for frying

For the Sauce:

•   1/3 cup pineapple juice
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 3 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• Ginger ( sliced )
• 3 cloves garlic ( minced )
• 1 large onion (quartered)
• 1 small carrot ( sliced )
• 3 red and green bell peppers
• 1/2 cup water
• Slurry ( 1 tsp. cornstarch 2 tablespoon water )

Steps:

For the Meatballs

1. Mix together ground pork, salt and pepper to taste, onion, spring onion, breadcrumbs, celery, carrot, and egg. Mix until well combined.
2. Form into medium-sized balls. Dredge in flour or cornstarch. In a pan at medium heat with hot oil, fry these for 8 – 10 minutes.
3. Flip both sides to cook evenly. Take these out and set aside.

For the Sauce

1. Toss until the meatballs are fully coated. Optional; top these with green onions. And it’s ready to serve!
2. In a bowl mix pineapple juice, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
3. Heat some oil in a pan, saute ginger then garlic and onions. Mix in carrot and bell peppers for a few seconds. Then add in the sauce and mix well.
4. Pour in the water and give it a mix. Once simmering, add in the slurry. Simmer for 2 minutes before adding in the meatballs.

How to make this Sweet and Sour Meatball Recipe?

“How to make Sweet Sour Meatballs” or “How to make Sweet n Sour Meatballs”, spelled any which way is a delicious main dish, side dish, appetizer, or party food that many will absolutely love. The old-fashioned sweet and sour meatballs can be as simple as meatballs with ketchup and brown sugar, with the addition of apple cider, water, and cornstarch to make a slurry. Meatballs were often just made with a choice of meat, some salt and pepper then molded into balls. But now you can find an array of other meat choices like beef, pork, chicken, a combination of any meats, even to make “Sweet and Sour Venison meatballs”. 

While you can find a good amount of recipes to make an “Italian Meatball Appetizer” or the popular Ikea “Swedish Meatball Appetizer” this Filipino version of Meatball recipe is sure to brighten your day with its beautiful lightly red color, meaty, savory, and slightly tangy and sweet goodness! All you need to do is make the meatballs by mixing ground pork, some salt, pepper, chopped aromatics like onions, spring onions, celery, carrots, with the addition of breadcrumbs and eggs to bind everything together. Mix until it looks really sticky looking, form into balls with your hands, dusting each ball in cornstarch to make that nice crunchy outer layer. Fry the balls, flipping these around until it all looks golden. 

These will then be simmered into a delectable sauce made by sauteing ginger, garlic, and onions. Adding vegetables like carrots and belle peppers for pops of color and natural sweetness. Then the main sauce made of pineapple juice which adds to the brightness, ketchup to add that savory taste and color, vinegar for that slight tang and acidity, soy sauce, sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Pour in some water to dilute this a bit before bringing it into a simmer. Adding a slurry made of 1 teaspoon of cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of water to help thicken the sauce. Once thick enough, toss in the meatballs and make sure everything is fully coated before serving.

Questions : 

• Additional Sweet and Sour Meatballs Ingredients
  • Make this even sweeter by adding a hint of acidity to cut through the saltiness and oil by adding pineapple chunks when simmering the sauce to make “Sweet and Sour Meatballs with Pineapple” also known as  “Hawaiian Sweet and Sour Meatballs” which some also popularly call “Chinese Sweet and Sour Meatballs”
  • “Sweet and Sour Meatballs with Jelly” has become popular recently especially for those who love a sweet and slightly savory sauce. Add ⅓ – ½ cup of grape jelly into the sauce, simmering these together before adding the vegetables.
  • The “Sweet and Sour Meatballs with Cranberry sauce” differs from grape jelly since cranberry has a brighter, more tart flavor that’s only slightly sweet compared to the grape jelly.
  • A healthier version would be “Sweet and Sour Meatballs with Sauerkraut” which adds sauerkraut, chili sauce, some sugar, and cranberry into the pot to make the sauce. Some also make it more savory by adding spaghetti or simple tomato sauce.

• Other ways of cooking Homemade Sweet and Sour Meatballs
  • Pressure cooker Sweet and Sour meatballs – add the frozen meatballs into the pressure cooker with all the sauce ingredients except the bell peppers. Cover and seal, cook for 5 minutes, release pressure once the pot is ready. Carefully take off the lid, cook in the bell peppers, add slurry to help thicken the sauce and you’re done.
  • Microwave Sweet and Sour Meatballs – place the meatballs on a microwavable container and cover this with a microwavable plate or cling wrap. Cook for 2 minutes at a time, flipping if needed. This is cooked once you poke the balls with a toothpick or knife and no blood comes out. Then place these in the cooked sauce. Or cover the meatballs with the sauce and microwave once again for 2  – 3 minutes. 

• Freezing the meatballs
  • How to freeze uncooked meatballs? Once you finish rolling the ground pork into medium-sized balls, place this in an airtight plastic container or tupperware. Cover and keep in the freezer, thaw out or fry right away when needed.
  • Freezing cooked meatballs with the sauce – once cooked, let this rest until it only feels slightly warm or at room temperature. Then place this in an airtight container and freeze. Thaw and place in the microwave or in a pan to reheat.
  • Making “Sweet and Sour Meatballs with frozen meatballs”? Simply bake, fry or saute the meatballs according to the package instructions. Then following the sauce recipe below, add in the meatballs and mix these in until fully coated. You can also let this simmer for 1 – 3 minutes to really let the sauce infuse with the meatballs.

Try our other Yummy takes on Meatballs!

• Misua Soup with Meatballs
• Microwave Meatballs
• Vegetable Balls
• Beef Nuggets
• Teriyaki Tofu Balls

Homemade Sweet & Sour Meatballs Resipi: (Tagalog version)

Para sa Meatballs:

• 1 kilo giniling na baboy
• Asin panlasa
• Paminta pansala
• 1 malaking sibuyas ( hiniwa )
• 1/4 tasa dahon ng sibuyas ( hiniwa )
• 1/2 tasa breadcrumbs
• ¼ tasa kintsay ( hiniwa )
• 1 maliit na karot ( hiniwa )
• 1 malaking itlog
• 1 tasa harina o cornstarch
• Mantika panprito

Para sa Sarsa:

• 1/3 tasa pineapple juice
• 1/3 tasa ketchup
• 3 kutsarang suka
• 1 kutsarang soy sauce
• 2 kutsarang asukal
• Asin panlasa
• Paminta panlasa
• luya ( hiniwa )
• 3 butil ng bawang ( tinadtad )
• 1 malaking ibuyas ( hiniwa sa apat )
• 1 maliit na karot ( hiniwa )
• 3 pula at berdeng paminta
• 1/2 tasa tubig
• Slurry (1 kutsaritang. cornstarch 2 kutsarang tubig )

Paano Lutuin :

Para sa Meatballs

1. Haluin ang giniling na baboy, asin, paminta, sibuyas, dahon ng sibuyas, breadcrumbs, kintsay, karot, at itlog. Haluin ng mabuti.
2. Bumuo ng mga bola. Takpan ang mga ito ng cornstarch. Sa kawali na nasa katamtamang init, mainit ng mantika, iprito ang mga ito ng 8 – 10 minuto.
3. Pag baliktarin para maluto ang bawat gilid. Tanggalin sa kawali at itabi.

Para sa Sarsa

1. Sa mangkok, haluin ang pineapple juice, ketchup,suka, soy sauce, asukal, asin at paminta. Itabi.
2. Maginit ng mantika sa kawali, lutuin ang luya, bawang, at sibuyas. Haluin ang carrot at mga paminta ng ilang segundo. Haluin dito ang ginawang sarsa.
3. Ibuhos ang tubig at haluin ng mabuti. Pagkumulo na ito, haluan ng slurry. Pakuluan ng 2 minuto bago isama dito ang mga meatballs.
4. Ihalo hanggang matakpan ang mga meatballs ng sarsa. Opsyonal: dekorasyonan ng mga hiniwa ng dahon ng sibuyas bago ihanda.