You can change the recipe to suit your tastes; use your favorite jarred sauce if you don't have any homemade, or use your own family's meatball recipe!
Ingredients
- lentils: 1 cup
- ⅓ quarts water: 1 piece (divided)
- uncooked long grain white rice: 0.66667 cup
- vegetable oil: 1 Tbsp
- ground beef: 1 pound
- egg, lightly: 1 piece (beaten)
- garlic: 2 clove (minced)
- Parmesan cheese: 1 Tbsp (grated)
- fresh parsley: 1 Tbsp (chopped)
- Italian bread crumbs: 3 Tbsp
- salt: (to taste)
- ground black pepper: (to taste)
- quart tomato sauce: 1 piece
- Parmesan cheese: 0.25 cup (for topping, grated)
Metric Conversion
Stages of cooking
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Place lentils in a pot with 3 cups water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and cook 20 minutes or until tender. Drain and set aside.
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Bring rice and 1 1/3 cup water to boil in a pot. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.
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Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. In a bowl, combine the ground beef, beaten egg, garlic, 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese, parsley, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper. Form ground beef mixture into 1 inch balls. Place meatballs in skillet and cook 5 minutes or until evenly brown.
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In a large pot, bring the tomato sauce and 4 cups water to a boil. Transfer the browned meatballs to the pot. Mix in cooked lentils and rice. Return to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese to serve.
