It’s good to have a few recipes you can whip together that aren’t dependent on fresh food. The pantry or the freezer or some combination can be a lifesaver on busy nights. Cheap. Fast. Good! came to my rescue last night with this meatball stew. I had just bought a bag of pre-made meatballs at Costco and it was nice to have a new way to use them.

I made a few substitutions. Their recipe calls for fresh mushrooms; I used canned, eliminating the dependency on fresh produce. You could also just leave them out. Their recipe also calls for a packet of brown gravy mix, which I very rarely have. At one point I did buy the large container of it at Costco but after a couple of years I’d used less than half and threw it out, thinking to buy a new one but I haven’t gotten around to it. (Sometimes it’s still cheaper to buy their large containers even if you throw some away!) I was just going to make a white sauce and use that to thicken the stew but then I saw the small bottle of Kitchen Bouquet Browning & Seasoning Sauce so I used that to make up a bit of gravy, using butter as the fat. I served this over rice.

1 pound frozen mixed vegetables or about 3 cups leftover cooked vegetables
24 meatballs (already cooked)
1 -2 tsp olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
small can of mushrooms or 8 ounces fresh, sliced
1/4 cup Madeira or Marsala wine (optional)
1/2 cup water
2 cups beef broth
1-2 cups beef gravy

If the vegetables are frozen, put them in a colander and rinse them under cold water.
If the meatballs are frozen, pop them in the microwave for a few minutes to defrost.
If you’re serving over rice, start the rice cooking.

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or 4 quart soup pot. Cook the onion and garlic a few minutes of medium heat, stirring periodically. Add the mushrooms and cook a few more minutes. You want the onion to be softened and the mushrooms to be lightly cooked.

Stir in the wine, water, broth, meatballs, and vegetables and bring to a boil. Reduce to a moderate boil and cook, with the pot partially covered, until everything is heated through, about 8-10 minutes. Meanwhile, make your gravy if you need to.

Stir in the gravy and cook another minute, stirring, to thicken the stew. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until ready to serve.

I served it over steamed rice and it was fantastically good. It makes a lot! The recipe says serves 6 generously and I think that’s pretty accurate. I wanted leftovers this time so I didn’t try to downsize the recipe. Next time, I’ll play with the portions and use fewer meatballs and more vegetables.