Can anyone recommend a non-tomato sauce for meatballs?

[ChildOfThe70s]

The DCs normally love meatballs, but DS1 has now decided he doesn't like the tomato sauce I usually do. Can anyone tell me how to make a gravy-type sauce instead please?

Thanks!

A bog-standard onion gravy is nice
I like doing a mushroom sauce too made with a tin of campbells condensed mushroom soup for a change

Thanks for this - I made the usual tomato sauce for DS2, and an onion gravy for DS1 - he loved it! He's never been keen on gravy before so I was glad it worked. DS2 however has now decided he likes tomatoe sauce but has gone off meatballs ... sometimes you just can't win!!

I have a recipe for 'Green Dragon Meatballs' - which is sort of Chinese. The sauce is soy sauce based. You serve it with rice or noodles.

Will type it out for you if you're interested?

Green Dragons plentiful in SW London ... !

Green Dragon Walnut Meatballs (A Josceline Dimbleby recipe)

For the meatballs:

1 large green pepper
1lb/450g beef or pork mince
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
3oz/75g walnuts, chopped
1 tablespoon/15ml tomato puree
2 tablespoons/30ml soy sauce
1 teaspoon/5ml ground ginger
3-4 pinches of chilli powder
1 tablespoon/15ml caster sugar
1 tablespoon/15ml sunflower oil for frying
salt

For the sauce:

1.5 tablespoons/1-2 x 15ml spoons soy sauce
4.5 tablespoons/4-5 x 15ml spoons water
3 teaspoons/15ml wine vinegar
1.5 teaspoons/1-2 5ml spoons caster sugar
4-5 spring onions, chopped finely

1. Cut the green pepper in half and take out the seeds and stem. Bring a small pan of walted wwater to the boil, put in the pepper, cover the pan and boil for 6-8 minutes until soft. Drain and chop finely.

1. Put the mince in a bowl and add the chopped pepper, garlic, walnuts, tomato puree and soy sauce. Then add the ground ginger, chilli powder, caster sugar and a good sprinkling of salt. Mix everything well together with a wooden spoon and then, with wet hands, form the mixture into small balls, each about the size of a ping pong ball.

1. Heat the sunflower oil in a large frying pan and fry the meatballs over a low to medium heat, turning to brown all over, for about 20 minutes. transfer with a slotted spoon to a serving dish and keep warm in a low oven.

1. Pour most of the fat out of the pan but leave the residue of meat juices. Add the soy sauce, the water and the vinegar. Stir in the caster sugar and dissolve over a low heat. then bubble fiercely for a minute or two until you have a thick, dark and syrupy sauce. Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped spring onions. Spoon the sauce over the meatballs and serve immediately.

If I remember rightly, I usually make double the quantity of sauce.

Ikea do a nice creamy sauce with their restaurant meatballs, which you can also buy in the shop

I can't remember what it is called though, but it's basically in dried form in a packet, and you add either milk or cream to it. Very yummy!

I don't see why not - that's how I usually cook meatballs as it's much less of a faff!

oops x post tells self to read the posts first!

In Jamie's America book he does a 'Mountain Meatballs' which has a sort of hot and sour sauce. It is divine. Will hunt down the recipe for you if you want.

Onion/mushroom/cream to make a 'poor man's' Stroganoff.

Bachelors condensed soups are a good base (either onion, mushroom or celery).