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Minnesota Porcupine Meatballs

Prep Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Cook Time: 22 minutes
Servings: 22 Meatballs
It’s funny and it may just be that I’ve lived in Minnesota way too long, but I always thought Porcupine Meatballs were made with wild rice! It’s the official grain of Minnesota and to me, it reminds me more of a porcupine than white rice would, but hey, that’s probably just me. I researched some recipes for Porcupine Meatballs and since they all had white rice in them I decided to make mine with a good Minnesota/Midwestern twist and use wild rice.
Wild rice in Minnesota is a little different than other parts of the country I think. First of all our wild rice is usually pretty gray, not black like I see in a lot of stores. It also cooks so much quicker than the stuff you see at normal grocery stores. We met a Native American man at a farmers market that said “do you know how to tell when that store-bought wild rice is done?” and we said “no, how?”, and he said, “you put a rock in the pot as your cooking it, once the rock is soft you’ll know the rice is done!”. We laughed and laughed! It does take a little longer to cook the store-bought black wild rice but for this recipe, I think it works because it gives the meatballs a little texture and reminds me more of a porcupine!
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Ingredients

Meatballs

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 1 cup Italian breadcrumbs
  • 2 tbs Worcestershire Sauce
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 3/4 tsp onion powder
  • 1 1/2 cups cooked wild rice
  • salt & pepper to taste

Simple Tomato Sauce

  • 1 small onion diced
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 2 tbs butter
  • 1 can tomato sauce
  • 1 can diced fire roasted tomatoes
  • 1 tbs sugar
  • 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
  • 1 1/2 tbs Italian Seasoning
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Instructions

  • Start by cooking the wild rice according to the package instructions. When I cooked mine it took about 45 mins to get it to the consistency that I wanted for these meatballs.
  • Once the wild rice is cooked and cooled off add the wild rice to the bowl and combine the ground meat, breadcrumbs, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, paprika, onion powder, eggs and season to taste with salt and pepper.
  • Grab a scoop of the meatball mixture and form a ball in your hand by rolling the meat around gently.
  • Place your meatballs on a greased baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake for 22 mins.
  • While your meatballs are cooking you can throw together the sauce. In a medium sauce pan add the onion, garlic and butter. Sauté these on high for 5 mins.
  • Add the tomato sauce, fire roasted diced tomatos, sugar, balsamic vinegar, Italian Seasoning, and cayenne pepper and let the sauce simmer until the meatballs are done
  • Once the meatballs are out of the oven and drained, put the meatballs in the sauce. You can let them simmer in the sauce until you are ready to serve them.