Egg-Free Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Eggs are quite often used in recipes for meatloaf and meatballs because they are just such a great binder. You can get away with just leaving the egg out, but the end result is a bit too crumbly for my taste, so instead I pull out my favorite flax trick that I'm sure you are now sick of hearing about. I have found that this works a lot better for smaller things like meatballs than for a whole gigantic meatloaf, though. This recipe has been one of our favorites for a long time. You can use the same recipe for the sauce to make sweet and sour chicken or pork that I think is far better than you can get from any Chinese restaurant!

Egg-Free Sweet and Sour Meatballs

For the meatballs:
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
3 tablespoons hot water
2 lb ground beef
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup milk (use water to make dairy free)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

For the veggies:
1 green pepper, cut into large chunks (I used a red pepper in the batch pictured above because it's what I had.)
1 onion, cut into large chunks
2 carrots, thinly sliced
1 pineapple cut into chunks (can use canned pineapple chunks)

For the sweet and sour sauce:
2 cups ketchup
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 teaspoons mustard
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Zest and juice of 1 orange

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the flaxseed and hot water, set aside for at least 5 minutes. (I usually will let it sit while I gather the other ingredients and chop all the veggies.) After it has been allowed to sit, mix together all meatball ingredients, shape into small balls and place on a cookie sheet. Heat a cast iron or nonstick skillet on medium high (this needs to be a fairly large skillet). Add enough olive oil to the pan to coat the bottom. Working in batches, sear the meatballs on all sides, returning them to the cookie sheet once seared. (Food safety police, I know it's bad to put cooked meat back where the raw meat was, but chill, we're not done yet.) Once all the meatballs are seared, place in the preheated oven and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until done. While meatballs are finishing, add more oil to the pan and cook the green pepper, onion and carrots. When they are soft add the pineapple and cook for another 3-4 minutes, stirring often. Add the veggies to the cookie sheet with the meatballs in the oven while you make the sauce. In a bowl, combine all the sauce ingredients and whisk together. In the same pan where you cooked the meatballs and the veggies, turn the heat to low and add the sauce, whisking vigorously. Make sure you get up all the yummy bits left in the bottom of the pan by the meat and the veggies. Turn the heat back up to medium and stir often until sauce is thick. Serve over rice.