Can food have a personality? Meatballs seem like fun food. They’re always the life of the party. I’m bringing you one version of Polish Meatballs – Klopsiki today.
In the many meatball recipes that Chrome translated for me on Polish food blogs, I saw one that spoke of boiling the meatballs in water. I could hear my friend Erich saying, “I don’t like to cook with water unless I’m boiling pasta; it dilutes flavors.”
Wanting to try something new and with Erich’s inspiration in mind, I boiled the meatballs in beef broth until they floated as the author had suggested. The meatballs float at 117°, so they’re only halfway cooked at this point.
I finished them off in the oven, and we loved them. There is nothing unusual about the ingredients, other than the onions are cooked. I wish I could tell you what makes these so special.
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They are moist and so full of flavor. Is it the breadcrumbs soaking up the beef broth, or that the meatballs are so well hydrated that they don’t dry out in the oven? I really can’t say, maybe all of the above.
How to serve Polish Meatballs – Klopsiki
I’ve made this recipe twice and finished the meatballs off in three different ways.
The first time, we baked them in tomato sauce laced with brown sugar (see recipe notes below).
The second time, we split the meatballs into two batches. Half of them went into a sour cream-mushroom sauce (details in the recipe notes) and the second half we just topped with jarred spaghetti sauce because Ed was given a beautiful spaghetti squash from the garden of one of his golf students.
To cook spaghetti squash (or butternut or acorn), I cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, put them cut-side down on a foil lined cookie sheet and bake at 350° until I can insert a fork through the skin and into the flesh easily, about 30 for an acorn squash, closer to an hour for butternut or spaghetti squash.
If you haven’t been given a spaghetti squash, these meatballs in any of the sauces or plain would be delicious alongside your favorite starch, noodles, buckwheat kasza, mashed potatoes.
I do most of my cooking on the weekends. With just two of us at home, this recipe will make two suppers for us, and one of us might get leftovers for lunch one day. I love to have something ready to serve quickly on a weeknight.
If you’re feeding more than two, try making a double or triple batch to ensure leftovers. Pop the extras in the fridge or freezer. That means multiple meals with only one meatloaf mixing bowl to wash, one pan for sauteing onions, one knife and cutting board to wash. You’re ahead of the game!
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There are so many variations of Polish meatballs – klopsiki, and I’ll address others in the future. One very American sauce that we served with meatballs at our going away party in Poznań was met with rave reviews from our Polish and international friends. Heat a bottle of Heinz chili sauce or ketchup meksykański (spicy ketchup) with a jar of jam, jelly, or can of cranberry sauce. Add meatballs. My favorite jam/jelly flavors to use are grape, apricot, or lingonberry. It’s quick and easy to make and gives you a thick, tasty, sweet and sour sauce.
Smacznego!
Lois
Polish Meatballs – Kolpsiki
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Cook Time: 45 min
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: about 2 dozen meatballs 1x
- Category: Main dish
- Method: Boil and Bake
- Cuisine: Polish
Description
Tender and delicious Polish meatballs
Ingredients
1 medium onion, finely diced
2 tablespoons butter
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon pepper
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
6–8 cups beef broth (bouillion cubes and water or stock)
See notes for the sauce ingredients, sour cream-mushroom or tomato sauce
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350° F
Saute onion in butter over medium-high heat until translucent, stirring occasionally, cool
While the onion is cooking, combine the two meats with eggs, bread crumbs, milk, and seasonings
Heat beef broth to a simmer
While the broth heats, add cooked onions to the meat mixture and shape into meatballs, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, about the size of a golf ball
Drop meatballs into simmering broth, you may need to do a few batches, remove with a slotted spoon when they float to the top, about 5 minutes
Consult notes to finish with sour cream – mushroom sauce or tomato sauce
Bake until the meatballs reach an internal temperature of 165° or 20-25 minutes
Notes
For meatballs in sour cream-mushroom sauce (klopsiki w sosie śmietanowo – grzybowym), I added the meatballs after baking to my creamed mushroom sauce, made with 1 cup sour cream rather than heavy cream. The sour cream makes a thicker sauce, so add additional broth as needed until you have your desired thickness.
For meatballs in tomato sauce (klopsiki w sosie pomidorowym), stir 1/4 cup brown sugar into 2-15 ounce cans of tomato sauce, pour over meatballs and bake as called for in the recipe.
Keywords: Polish meatballs in sauce, kolpsiki
An accountant by trade and a food blogger since 2009, Lois Britton fell in love with Polish cuisine during the years she lived in Poznań, Poland. As the creator of PolishHousewife.com, she loves connecting readers with traditional Polish recipes. Lois has a graduate certificate in Food Writing and Photography from the University of South Florida. She is the author of The Polish Housewife Cookbook, available on Amazon and on her website.
Donna
From the recipe: “While the broth heats, add cooked onions and shape into meatballs, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, about the size of a golf ball”
Question? How do you make broth into meatballs? Even with onions it will still be liquid.
Wouldn’t it be better to add onions to meat mixture, while the broth heats, and form that into meatballs?
polishhousewife
Thanks for catching that, Donna.
Barbara
I saved the beef broth/bouillon to use later as the base for a beef, barley, vegetable soup/stew. It was too good to just pour down the drain.
★★★★★
polishhousewife
Excellent idea, Barbara!
Anita
I see the amount of sour cream in the sour cream-mushroom sauce but nothing about amount of mushrooms or what you do with the mushrooms. Do you saute the and add them to the sour cream/broth mixture and then bake? Thank you in advance for your reply.
Anita
polishhousewife
Hi Ania, my apologies for the confusion. There’s a link to the creamed mushroom recipe in the recipe notes. That’s where you can find all the details for the mushroom sauce. It used a pound or 500 g of mushrooms.
COLETTE STOVER
I love your recipes an would like to have you send me more.@cc70358@yahoo.com…..Thank You
polishhousewife
I’d love to, Colette. You might want to sign up for my newsletter. There’s a space to submit your first name and email at the top of my website. Thanks!
Barbara Pisani
I love your recipes , please send me your newsletter and recipes.
★★★★★
polishhousewife
Consider it done!
Susan K
Made these tonight- delish!!
polishhousewife
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Susan. Thanks for letting me know.
Susan
Love your recipes. I have tried a few. All turned out delicious. Lots of old comfort foods from my childhood.
polishhousewife
I’m happy to hear that, Susan. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Karrie
Thank you for putting this together. You make a lot of people happy!
Kerry Bryant
Hi Barbara
I haven’t tried any of your recipes as yet but am about to cook up these delish sounding Polish Meatballs . I would love to sign up for your newsletter as well if that is ok? Also somewhere I think I saw a recipe book for sale. Is that yours as if so I would love to purchase one please .
Thanku,
Kerry
polishhousewife
Hi Kerry, I hope you found my newsletter subscription in the header of my website. My cookbook can be found here: https://polishhousewife.com/store
Thanks for your kind words.
Helena Polizzotti
I will definitely be making these. I have a question, are you using plain bread crumbs in recipe.
★★★★★
polishhousewife
Hi Helena, I use plain or herb-flavored. Either works well.
Helena Polizzotti
Just got done having this for supper. I did use the seasoned bread crumbs. My whole family loved this. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
★★★★★
mollie duvall
I will be making these tomorrow but, I have a question. I am only cooking for two and, this sounds like a good recipe for the freezer. I will fully cook and bake enough for our meal tomorrow night. I am thinking of preparing the meatballs through the cooking in broth. I would like to cool them and freeze them at that point and bake them off, when needed. Have you done this? Really looking forward to trying this technique!
polishhousewife
I don’t recall freezing the meatballs, Mollie, but I think it would work well for the meatballs themselves. The mushroom sauce maybe not.