This simple rissole recipe is one of my go-to prepare ahead meals, that can also be a finger food lunch. I usually make this after making my hommus dip (also a go to prepare ahead dip for snacks, dinner and lunchbox). I call this a sanity meal and use it on a night where I know I am going to be rushed.
I make the hommus, scoop out the dip, leaving a small amount of dip in the food processing bowl. Then I don’t even bother about washing up the food processor bowl, I throw in the onion and garlic, then mince it in the same bowl. I use this mixture in the rissole recipe – it adds extra flavour and also reduces the washing up. Of course, you don’t have to make the hommus, you can just follow the recipe below.
These simple rissoles are so easy and versatile. I use this mixture to make larger hamburger shapes for dinner, smaller rissoles as finger food for the lunchbox, and small meatballs to throw in a bolognaise sauce for a different evening meal. You don’t need to have lots of ingredients to be able to make lots of different meals. It’s all in how you present them – hamburgers tonight, meat balls tomorrow night in bolognaise sauce, finger food rissoles in the lunchbox – no one will know it’s the same meat mixture. Winning!
Ingredients
- 1 small brown onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- 500g beef mince
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 tblspn tamari
- 1 tblspn chia seeds
- salt & pepper to taste
- coconut oil to lightly fry rissoles
If your family like a bit of chilli, add in some chilli flakes or mince some fresh chilli too.
Method
- Mince the garlic and onion in your food processor (use the same bowl you’ve made hummus in for extra flavour)
- Place the beef mince in a bowl, add the rest of the ingredients
- Use your hands to mix everything together until well combined
- Then shape the mixture into whatever shapes you want (see photo below for ideas)
- Pop the shaped mixture into the fridge for 10 minutes to allow the flavours to marinate and for the mixture to firm up
- Warm a frying pan over medium heat, add a little coconut oil, add the rissoles and cook each side for about 3 minutes
Freezing / storage
You can prepare these rissoles in advance and freeze them. You can freeze them before you cook them or after. If I freeze them, I do so in batches suitable for a meal or lunch (e.g. 12 finger food sized rissoles for lunchboxes).
2 Other Ways
Ramp up the nutritional value by adding in:
- finely grated carrot, zucchini and cauliflower. If you’re kids don’t like seeing the veggies, throw in the carrot, zucchini and cauliflower in with the onion and garlic, and mince them all together.
- some brown rice or quinoa that has been cooked in bone broth.
Story behind this recipe
Star 106.3 Townsville reached out to us when they heard we were bringing The Root Cause Australian Tour to Transform Children’s Health to Townsville. They hosted us to run 6 workshops at Stockland Shopping Centre. 3 sessions were focussed on key elements of The Mad Food Science Program™ for kids, and 3 were focussed on demonstrating to busy mum’s how to make a few simple real foods. The hommus dip and these simple rissoles were two of the recipes demonstrated. They have long been a go-to prepare ahead meal for us. Our favourite way of eating them is in crisp lettuce cups with diced salad.
Just a reminder, you don’t need to be a master chef, or have a big spotless kitchen to make awesome nutritious meals or snacks for your family.