This recipe offers a full one-pot meal of chicken meatballs with spinach and rice in tomato sauce, described as healthy, satisfying and kid-friendly. The rice makes the dish filling, the spinach adds nutrition, and the sauce keeps the meatballs moist. Because the rice is already inside the meatballs, no side dish is needed, and the recipe is suited to batch cooking and freezing for quick reheating later.
The meatballs are made with 500 grams of ground chicken, one cup of frozen spinach medallions, one grated carrot, two garlic cloves or 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, one L egg, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, optional parsley, 1/2 cup round rice, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 2 to 3 tablespoons breadcrumbs. The sauce uses 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 white onions, 2 celery stalks, 1 parsley root, 2 to 3 fresh tomatoes or one can of finely crushed tomatoes, 1 tablespoon sweet paprika and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
To prepare, the spinach is microwaved for 1 to 1.5 minutes, squeezed dry and mixed with the chicken and the rest of the meatball ingredients, then chilled for 30 minutes. Separately, the onions, celery and parsley root are sautéed for 10 minutes, the tomatoes are added for 2 more minutes, and then paprika, salt and enough boiling water to cover the meatballs by about 6 centimeters are added and cooked for 10 minutes.
The shaped meatballs are placed in the sauce and cooked with the lid mostly closed for 30 minutes, then uncovered for another 20 minutes until tender. The recipe was first published at 00:00 on 24 June 2026.
