Venison Meatballs
Venison Meatballs
I had gotten some ground venison from a friend a while ago and finally decided how to cook it. Thanks to Tracey and Jeff Bales for sharing it with me. 🙂 I ended up making meatballs and they were fabulous. The meat was very lean so I added oil to the pan when cooking them. My friend Jonathan was coming over and I knew he loved venison so it seemed the right time to make the meatballs. He loved them. Served them over pasta with sauteed greens. Really tasty.
Venison Meatballs with Greens and Pasta
1 recipe venison meatballs-recipe follows
oil
1 large onion, chopped
8 cloves whole garlic, peeled*
8 cups chopped greens- I used a combination of kale and collards
salt and pepper to taste
Hot sauce to taste
 hot cooked pasta
Prepare venison meatball recipe. Heat oil in skillet and brown the meatballs on all sides over medium heat. Cover the skillet and allow the meatballs to cook through over medium-low heat. While the meatballs are cooking in another skillet heat more oil and saute onion until wilted. Add garlic cloves and cook several minutes longer. Add greens and cook, stirring, until greens are wilted. Cover pan and allow greens to cook until just tender- about 10 minutes. Adjust seasonings. While greens are cooking cook pasta. Combine greens with meatballs and stir to combine. Spoon over hot pasta on a large serving platter. Serves 6.
Venison Meatballs
2 lbs. ground venison
2 eggs
1/2 c. bread crumbs
1/4 c. dried minced onion or 1/2 c. minced fresh onion
2 t. minced garlic
2 t. salt- or to taste
1 t. ground ginger
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
hot sauce to taste
In a large mixing bowl combine all ingredients with your hands and form into balls. Try to handle the mixture as little as possible to keep the meatballs tender. I took a small amount of the mixture and cooked in in a skillet to check seasoning levels before cooking the whole batch.
* the reason I used so many whole cloves of garlic is that Jonathan really likes a lot of garlic. By leaving the cloves whole I could flavor the dish- but make it easy for him to eat the garlic and me to avoid them. Feel free to just add the amount of garlic you like.
