Everyone is so excited about the recipe this week. The pick was made by Amanda at Oddball Oven Mitt. Check out her site, although she may be in the middle of a big move so this weeks recipe might be a day or so late. The other CEimB bloggers will help her out until she’s up and running. Their sites can be found by clicking…CEimB.
On with the show…
I made a marinara sauce on Sunday and will use 32 oz of that as my base. It varied very little from the recipe found on page 164 of “The Food You Crave”, only a few variations in spices. In adding to it, I did the following:
- 1/2 of a chipotle chile in adobe sauce, chopped fine.
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 chopped fresh tomato
I let the pre-made sauce (you can see that recipe here) and the additions above come to a boil, reduced to a simmer while everything else was prepared.
The only change to the meatball recipe for Ted was to use Panko instead of whole wheat bread. Although adding carrots to meatballs was a new one on me, it was worth a try even though the thought of having to grate more carrots was a little off putting. Is Ellie a little “grated carrot happy” or what?! Anyway…since I had to get the food processor out to make “mince meat” out of my turkey-quorn (see below), the carrots were a breeze. The food processor turned out to be really handy for grating the Parmesan cheese as well.
As for Joanne’s meatballs, I cooked a “Quorn” Turkey Roast the other night so I ground that up and formed my own “turkey” balls. Same mixture, no meat. Added EggBeaters instead of real eggs, 1/2 a cup (equivalent of 2 eggs). Notice much difference? The real turkey is on the left, the Quorn is on the right.
In regards to the Spaghet…we didn’t have any. I gave it to my niece and nephew over Easter thinking Ted and I would never use it. Instead, I had this in the pantry…Spelt Udon Pasta.
Spelt is considered an heirloom grain that is easier to digest than modern wheat. You prepare it by adding it to boiling water for 8 – 10 minutes. Drain, toss and serve.
The ingredients in this pasta are Stone Ground Organic Spelt Wheat, Eden Sea Salt. That’s it.
Wondering about the nutrition values: Per 1/2 cup serving.
- Calories=200
- Total Fat=1g
- Sodium=75g
- Potassium = 45mg
- Carbohydrates = 39g
- Fiber=2g
- Protein=8g
Ted was outside still trying to win the war against the bamboo type stuff growing and blocking our view of the waterfall, so there was no cooking help for the Apple Crumbles cook tonight. Even Shane said “I’m outta here” (sounded like… “WOOF”).
Ted did however come in just in time for clean up. Hurray!
The result of the dinner: Ted says “They’re not Grandma’s meat balls.” Joanne says “The Quorn meatballs came out pretty tasty.” We both thought that the spiciness of the sauce gave the dish the flavor it needed. It was good but since we are not big on pasta, not sure this one will be made again. I would add some olive oil to the turkey meatballs so they wouldn’t be quite so dry for Ted.
Joanne's Quorn Balls with Spelt Pasta
Good job Amanda on a pick that is sure to be a hit with a lot of CEimB cooks.
Ted's Turkey Meatballs in Spicy Marinara Sauce
What a fun twist on a classic dish.
I love a little spice in my spaghetti sauce!
Interesting substitutions, I wonder how much better the dish really is for you with them (I’m sure AT LEAST some). Really cool play on S&M.
Your dish looks quite good!
Hahaha, I said S&M.
You know I was talking about spaghetti and meatballs… right? RIGHT!?
Wow, you can really do anything with this quorn stuff. It looks pretty good. I guess if you both are not huge spaghetti eaters, this would not be a favorite, but I am glad you tried it out 🙂
I love your photos! Fabuloso!!!! And your huge meatballs look really delicious.
The meatballs look fabulous and so do your noodles. Good job!
What a gorgeous spaghetti it looks so mouth watering! I use spelt and I love the taste of it.
I will give the pepper a try the next time around. Have you ever tried the tofu shirataki noodles? I’ve wanted to, but can’t find them around here, so they would have to be mail ordered. Just looking for an opinion on them before I bought and I thought maybe you had tried them.
Anyway, nice job on the dish! I though the meatball pic from above was just a meatball cut in half! They looks so similar.
Thanks for all your comments.
Not sure about the pros in regards to using the Spelt Udon over regular whole wheat pasta because I didn’t have the nutritional comparisons available (too rushed to engage in a web search). But for anyone wanting to offer, I’d love you to comment.
This looks fabulous, and the Quorn version looks even better than the turkey (somewhat surprisingly!) Your photos are beautiful!
I would never be able to tell apart the quorn from the turkey meatballs based on the pics alone – both look great! Glad you liked the sauce. Your pictures are fantastic – they make me want to dig in again, and I’m now on three straight meals of the stuff!