What are porcupine meatballs made of?

Porcupine meatballs are ground beef-rice balls cooked in tomato sauce . The meatballs, a staple during the Great Depression because of the few ingredients required to make them, get their name from their appearance to porcupines (the rice makes the balls appear prickly).

How many calories are in porcupine meatballs?

Porcupine balls with tomato-based sauce contains 269 calories per 176 g serving . This serving contains 11 g of fat, 18 g of protein and 24 g of carbohydrate. The latter is 5.3 g sugar and 1.1 g of dietary fiber, the rest is complex carbohydrate.

Why do my porcupine meatballs fall apart?

It's important to let the rice cool a bit before adding it to the meat so that it does not release any excess moisture and make the meatballs fall apart. Another important element to getting the right texture is to not overwork the meat when mixing.

What kind of meat is porcupine?

Suttle and very similar to pork or chicken . Porcupines are mostly fat, and best harvested by a blow to the head. Skinning the “quill pig” is tedious, and the flesh is covered in fat. The last one we harvested was around 40 lbs live weight, and yielded about 3 lbs of meat once it was boned and trimmed.

Why are they called porcupine meatballs?

The name comes from the appearance of the meatballs, which appear prickly when the rice pokes out of them as they cook, resembling a porcupine . Porcupine meatballs can be made in the slow cooker or baked. They can be served with relish such as red cabbage or radish and mashed potatoes.

What side goes with meatballs?

10 Side Dishes to Pair With Meatballs Besides Spaghetti Jen's Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes. Tasty Spicy Rice Pilaf. Fried Cabbage and Egg Noodles. Peperonata. Peanut Butter Noodles. Tasty BBQ Corn on the Cob. Disney's Ratatouille. 8. ' Chinese Buffet' Green Beans. More items... Jul 30, 2019

Are frozen meatballs high in fat?

There are 243 calories in a 3 oz (85.000g) serving size of Meatballs, frozen, Italian style. The calorie breakdown is 70% fat , 11% carbs, and 20% protein.

Is porcupine good meat to eat?

At home, you can cook porcupine much like you would venison or small game. It's versatile and delicious . Regardless of whether you're in a survival situation, you'll want to eat everything, especially the organs and brain. I like to fry up the liver, heart, kidneys, and lungs with some fat and eat them first.

Is porcupine meat illegal?

Of the five species, only the Sunda porcupine Hystrix javanica is currently protected and that too, as recently as 2018. However, there are no harvest quotas for any porcupine species which makes all hunting and trade in porcupines illegal .

What are authentic meatballs made of?

Traditional Italian meatballs are made with a mix of ground beef, pork and veal with soaked stale bread squeezed dry and chopped for tenderness .

Skinny CrockPot Porcupine Meatballs | Weight Watchers Recipe (2024)

Jump to Recipe

I've got an updated, blast from the past (my past anyway) recipe for you today: Healthy Slow Cooker Porcupine Meatballs.

Do you remember "porcupines" - ground beef, raw rice and seasonings formed into balls and then cooked in tomato sauce, or soup, in a skillet or baked in the oven?

WW Slow Cooker Porcupine Meatballs

My old Betty Crocker Cookbook (affiliate link) (1978) has a good recipe for this old-fashioned family-friendly favorite.

But the inspiration for these skinny slow cooker gluten-free porcupine meatballs came from another source: 4 Ingredients: More Than 400 Quick, Easy, and Delicious Recipes Using 4 or Fewer Ingredients (affiliate link), a basic little paperback of easy everyday recipes by a pair of Australian moms, that I discovered in a London bookshop a few years back.

Recipe Notes

The original 4-ingredient recipe called for just ground beef, cooked rice, egg and canned condensed tomato soup.

I added a little dried onion, garlic powder, salt and pepper to the mix.

Mixing and Rolling Porcupine Meatballs

And instead of plain condensed tomato soup, I opted for a can of Amy's Organic Chunky Tomato Bisque (affiliate link) which is slightly sweet, a little creamy, and full of fresh tomato flavor.

I carefully placed the uncooked meatballs in my 4-Quart oval slow cooker (affiliate link), poured the soup on top and let them cook on LOW for about 4-½ hours.

If you prefer, you could bake them in a 350F degree oven for about one hour instead.

Served with mashed potatoes and broccoli, these slow cooker porcupine meatballs received an enthusiastic thumbs up from both of us.

Which just goes to show dinner doesn't have to be complicated to be satisfying, especially when you like old-fashioned comfort food the way we do.

How Many Calories and WW Points in these Slow Cooker Meatballs?

According to my calculations, each generous serving has about 278 calories and

6 *SmartPoints (Green plan)
6 *SmartPoints (Blue plan)
6 *SmartPoints (Purple plan)
7 *PointsPlus (Old plan)

To see your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, Click here!

If you like these old-fashioned slow cooker porcupine meatballs, be sure to check out my other easy healthy Weight Watchers friendly meatball recipes including Easy Slow Cooker French Onion Meatballs, Weight Watchers Spaghetti and Chicken Meatballs, Slow Cooker Hawaiian Meatballs, Slow Cooker Cranberry Meatballs, Easy Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour BBQ Meatballs and Instant Pot Italian Turkey Meatballs

InstantPot Italian Turkey Meatballs

Weight Watchers Friendly Slow Cooker Porcupine Meatballs Recipe

Lightened up slow cooker porcupine meatballs, an old-fashioned family friendly recipe updated for today - easy, healthy and deliciously comforting served with mashed potatoes or noodles and your favorite green vegetable.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time6 hours hrs

Total Time6 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

Servings (adjustable): 4

Calories: 278

Author: Martha McKinnon | Simple Nourished Living

Ingredients

▢ 1 pound 95% lean ground beef
▢ ½ cup cooked rice
▢ 1 egg
▢ 2 tablespoons dried onion flakes (optional)
▢ ¼ teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
▢ Salt and pepper, to taste
▢ 1 can tomato soup (I used Amy's Organic Chunky Tomato Bisque (affiliate link))

Instructions

Ideal slow cooker size: 4-Quart.
In a bowl, combine the ground beef, rice, egg and seasonings in a bowl and mix well.
Roll mixture into 16 balls (aka "porcupines").
Place meatballs in the slow cooker, trying to keep them in a single layer if you can.
See Also
60+ Most Loved Thanksgiving Sides Recipes You Ought To Try - RecipeMagik
Pour on the soup. (If you are using a condensed soup you'll want to thin it with ½ can of water before pouring on.)
Cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 6 hours, or until the meatballs are cooked through.
Alternatively, you can place the meatballs in a single layer in a casserole dish (affiliate link), pour on the soup and bake in a 350F degree oven for about 1 hour, until the meatballs are cooked through and soup/sauce is bubbly.

Equipment

4-Quart Slow Cooker

Mixing Bowls

Recipe Notes

Click here to see your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site.

6 *SmartPoints (Green plan)

6 *SmartPoints (Blue plan)

6 *SmartPoints (Purple plan)

7 *PointsPlus (Old plan)

Nutrition Facts

Weight Watchers Friendly Slow Cooker Porcupine Meatballs Recipe

Amount Per Serving (1 /4th recipe)

Calories 278Calories from Fat 90

% Daily Value*

Fat 10g15%

Carbohydrates 20g7%

Fiber 1g4%

Protein 26g52%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Course: Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: meatballs with rice, slow cooker meatballs

Did you make this recipe?Mention @simplenourishedliving on Instagram and tag #simplenourishedliving - we love to see your creations!

Source: inspired by 4 Ingredients: More Than 400 Quick, Easy, and Delicious Recipes Using 4 or Fewer Ingredients (affiliate link) by Kim McCosker and Rachael Bermingham

*Points® calculated by WW. *PointsPlus® and SmartPoints® calculated by Simple Nourished Living; Not endorsed by Weight Watchers International, Inc. All recipe ingredients except optional items included in determining nutritional estimates. SmartPoints® values calculated WITHOUT each plan's ZeroPoint Foods (Green plan, Blue plan, Purple plan) using the WW Recipe Builder.

This video shows how easy it is to make your own crock pot porcupine meatballs at home:

More Weight Watchers Recipes for Meatballs:

Easy Low Calorie Sriracha Meatballs
Easy Slow Cooker French Onion Meatballs
5-Ingredient Low Calorie Lemon Pepper Meatballs
Low Calorie Thai Green Curry Turkey Meatballs
Turkey Meatball Stroganoff (SkinnyTaste)
Light Italian Meatballs (LaaLoosh)
Buffalo Chicken & Quinoa Meatballs (SlenderKitchen)
Skinny Greek-Style Meatballs (SkinnyKitchen)
Slow Cooker Cranberry Meatballs

Martha is the founder and main content writer for Simple-Nourished-Living.

A longtime lifetime WW at goal, she is committed to balancing her love of food and desire to stay slim while savoring life and helping others do the same.

She is the author of the Smart Start 28-Day Weight Loss Challenge.

A huge fan of the slow cooker and confessed cookbook addict, when she's not experimenting in the kitchen, you're likely to find Martha on her yoga mat.

More about Martha McKinnon

This post contains affiliate links to products I like. When you buy something through one of my Amazon links or other (affiliate links), I receive a small commission that helps support this site. Thank you for your purchase!

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Skinny CrockPot Porcupine Meatballs | Weight Watchers Recipe (2024)

Recipe Notes

How Many Calories and WW Points in these Slow Cooker Meatballs?

Weight Watchers Friendly Slow Cooker Porcupine Meatballs Recipe

Ingredients

Instructions

Equipment

Recipe Notes

More Weight Watchers Recipes for Meatballs:

Subscribe to Get: Top 10 Reader Favorite Recipes

FAQs

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