Meatballs, meatballs, cutlets - delicious minced meat dishes loved by many. We suggest that you deviate a little from the usual recipes and cook something similar to the listed dishes, but slightly different from them, namely minced hedgehogs with rice in a pan.
The dish got this name because of its unusual appearance: first, meatballs are formed from minced meat, then rice grains are stuck into the meat balls, and stewed, baked, or steamed. But you can not complicate your life and mix minced meat with rice, it turns out no less funny and tasty. Let's get started?
Minced hedgehogs with rice in a pan - general cooking principles
Cooking hedgehogs is surprisingly simple and easy. All you need is minced meat, rice and sauce ingredients.
Ground meat you can buy a ready-made one or scroll it yourself. Pork, veal, turkey or chicken are also fine. Mixed minced meat is often used.
Rice you can take any, if the cereal will be added directly to the minced meat, or large, whole - if stuck into the meatballs.
Ready hedgehogs are spread in a frying pan greased with butter, lightly fried, then poured with sauce. Here you can not limit yourself in imagination: prepare a filling of sour cream, cream, cheese, tomatoes, pasta, sauteed vegetables, broth and any other products. It is important that the sauce covers the hedgehogs completely, so they turn out to be tender and juicy.
Minced hedgehogs are served with rice as an independent dish or with a side dish of boiled, baked, fresh vegetables.
1. Minced hedgehogs with rice in a pan
Ingredients:
Half a kilogram of minced meat (pork with beef);
Rice groats - 200 g;
3 onion heads;
Egg;
1 carrot;
30 g tomato;
Salt - 20 g;
Allspice powder - optional;
Flour for dusting.
Cooking method:
1. Pour the washed rice into a small saucepan and cook for 20 minutes. Throw in a colander, rinse.
2. Put the boiled rice in the minced meat together with two chopped onion heads.
3. Add the egg to the minced meat, salt, pepper, stir thoroughly and let it brew a little.
4. While the minced meat is infused, put the chopped onion head in a cast-iron pan, the carrot on a fine grater and simmer with vegetable oil over moderate heat for 3 minutes.
5. Form balls from minced meat, sprinkle with flour.
6. Put the meat balls in a hot frying pan with butter and fry until slightly crispy, turning over three times.
7. Put the fried "hedgehogs" into a cast-iron pan with stewed vegetables, stir well.
8. Fill with tomato puree diluted in water until almost completely covered, add a little salt, turn on low heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
9. Put the stewed "hedgehogs" on each serving plate, put mashed potatoes next to it, pour over the sauce.
2. Minced hedgehogs with rice in a pan in sour cream sauce
Ingredients:
600 g minced pork and beef;
1 carrot;
3 onion heads;
Chicken egg;
Sour cream - 300 g;
Several cloves of garlic;
Salt - 20 g;
Allspice - optional;
Long grain rice - 250 g;
Parsley leaves - 1 bunch;
A little oil for frying.
Cooking method:
1. Cut two onion heads into small crumbs, put in minced meat, add washed and boiled until half cooked rice, chopped garlic, parsley, an egg, add salt, pepper, stir well and let it brew for 25 minutes.
2. Prepare sour cream sauce: carrots - on a grater, the remaining onion - in small crumbs, put in a cast-iron pan and fry with a little oil.
3. Pour a little water into the sour cream, stir to a semi-liquid consistency and pour into vegetables, add salt, pepper and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Make balls of minced meat and pre-boiled rice, sprinkle with flour and put in a hot pan, fry in oil on all sides.
5. Put the fried hedgehogs in the sour cream sauce and simmer for 15 minutes.
6. When serving on a portioned plate, put 2 "hedgehogs" each, next to any side dish (boiled buckwheat, pasta or mashed potatoes), sprinkle with chopped parsley leaves.
3. Diet minced hedgehogs with rice in a chicken pan
Ingredients:
3 medium chicken breasts;
Rice groats - half a glass;
A piece of butter;
A couple of cloves of garlic;
3 onion heads;
1 carrot;
Olive oil for frying - 30 ml;
Low fat sour cream - 300 ml;
Parsley - 1 bunch;
Salt - 10 g;
Allspice ground pepper - 1 teaspoon;
Chicken egg.
Cooking method:
1. Separate the meat from the breast and scroll through a meat grinder, add 2 chopped onion heads, garlic, boiled rice, butter, egg, pepper, salt, mix thoroughly and leave for 20 minutes.
2. In the meantime, prepare sour cream diet sauce: cut 1 onion into small crumbs, carrots - on a grater, fry in olive oil for several minutes, pour sour cream diluted in water, stir well, add salt, simmer over moderate heat for 10 minutes.
3. Form small balls from the minced meat, sprinkle with flour, put them immediately without frying in hot sour cream sauce and simmer under a closed lid for 15 minutes.
4. Ready-made dietary "hedgehogs" are served on portioned plates with boiled buckwheat.
4. Minced hedgehogs with rice in a pan (with vegetables in meat broth)
Ingredients:
Any minced meat - half a kilogram;
Long-grain rice groats - 12 tbsp. spoons;
Meat broth - 2 cups;
A couple of onion heads;
1 carrot;
Sour cream - 30 g;
2 tbsp. spoons of tomato;
Allspice powder - 30 g;
Salt - 1 tsp.
Cooking method:
1. Pour raw rice into the minced meat, add the head of onion, cut into small crumbs, break the egg, add a little salt, pepper, mix everything thoroughly, let it brew for 25 minutes.
2. Prepare the gravy: finely chop the carrots and onions, put them in a deep cast-iron pan, combine them with sour cream and tomato puree, fill everything with meat broth.
3. Form the meat balls, sprinkle with flour and put them in the prepared vegetable mixture.
4. Put the pan on low heat, simmer with the lid closed for 25 minutes.
5. Put ready-made "hedgehogs" 2 pieces on a portioned plate with any side dish (you can also without a side dish), pour over sour cream sauce, and sprinkle with chopped parsley leaves.
5. Spicy minced hedgehogs with rice in a pan
Ingredients for minced meat:
Half a kilogram of minced pork and beef;
Incomplete glass of long grain rice;
Chicken egg;
Large onion head;
1 carrot;
A couple of cloves of garlic;
Dry basil, coriander - 20 g each;
Allspice powder - 30 g;
Salt - 1 teaspoon;
Floor of a bunch of parsley.
For the sauce:
Medium fat sour cream - 1 glass;
2 tomatoes;
Several cloves of garlic;
Flour - 10 g;
Incomplete glass of boiling water.
Cooking method:
1. Boil pure rice in slightly salted water for 10 minutes, put it in a colander to drain the liquid.
2. Scroll a small piece of beef and pork through a meat grinder with onions, carrots and garlic.
3. Add an egg to the prepared minced meat with onions and carrots, add salt, pepper, add basil, coriander or any other spices, stir thoroughly with your hands and leave to brew for 25 minutes.
4. After this time has elapsed, form small balls, put in a deep cast-iron frying pan.
5. Fill the "hedgehogs" with boiling water to half of their coverage, add a little salt again, and simmer under a lid over moderate heat for half an hour.
6. In the meantime, prepare the sauce with sour cream: wash the tomatoes, peel, grate and mix them with sour cream and chopped garlic, stir well, add salt, add a little flour, stir again so that no lumps form.
7. Pour an incomplete glass of boiling water into the sour cream and tomatoes, stir again well until a homogeneous thick consistency.
8. After stewing hedgehogs for 30 minutes, add sour cream sauce to them, and also add a little dry basil, oregano or other spices, simmer again over moderate heat for 20 minutes.
9. When serving, put the "hedgehogs" on a portioned dish, decorate with parsley and dill leaves.
6. Minced hedgehogs with rice in a pan with cheese
Ingredients:
Slightly less than a kilogram of low-fat minced chicken;
Rice groats - 7 tbsp. spoons;
Onion head;
Garlic - 4 cloves;
Parsley - 1 bunch;
Egg;
Salt - 20 g;
Nutmeg - 20 g;
Pepper - half a teaspoon.
For filling:
Hochland cheese - 2 pcs .;
Sour cream - 300 ml;
Cream - a little less than a glass;
Parsley leaves - half a bunch.
Cooking method:
1. Cook rice for 8 minutes, put it in a colander.
2. Break the egg into the finished chicken, add finely chopped onion, garlic, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, boiled rice.
3. Make balls of minced meat, in the middle of which we wrap 1 cube of Hochland cheese.
4. Put the "hedgehogs" with cheese in a cast-iron pan.
5. Prepare the sauce: put sour cream, 1 pack of Hochland cheese, cream in a blender container and mix well. Add chopped parsley leaves, add salt, pepper to taste, mix again.
6. Pour the "hedgehogs" with the prepared sauce, simmer over medium heat for 30 minutes.
7. Serve on a portioned plate, sprinkled with parsley.
Minced hedgehogs with rice in a pan - secrets and subtleties
To prevent the minced meat from sticking to your hands when forming hedgehog balls, do not forget to periodically dip your palms in cold water.
Cook, covering the pan with a lid, over low heat, otherwise the sauce will quickly boil away and the hedgehogs will not turn out so juicy.
You can add any other cereal instead of rice to the minced meat, for example, buckwheat or barley. They will also need to be preliminarily brought to half-readiness.
Each housewife has her own recipe, which is very popular in our latitudes, because almost everyone who has children cook hedgehogs from minced meat and rice. Due to the fact that the dish contains rice, meat, and vegetables, and also because of the ease of preparation, delicious hedgehogs are an ideal dish for children and adults in every family.
After the main recipe with a photo, you will find several of its options. They will come in handy if only because they will help to make a familiar dish new. And they will also be useful for those who do not like tomato juice. In any case, hedgehogs with rice are always tasty and satisfying.
Taste Info Second courses of meat
Ingredients
- Minced meat (pork or mixed) - 0.5 kg;
- Rice - 0.15 kg;
- Oil (sunflower or olive, refined) - 50-60;
- Juice (tomato, unclarified) - 0.4 l;
- Onions - 1 pc.;
- Carrots - 1 pc. (large);
- Salt - to taste, but not less than 0.5 tsp;
- Pepper (grated) - about 0.5 tsp;
Cooking time: 20 minutes + 40 minutes for stewing.
How to cook minced meat hedgehogs with rice
The recipe for minced meat and rice hedgehogs differs from similar meatballs in only one thing - for their preparation, rice is not pre-boiled, and therefore, after stewing, the rice sticks out funnyly from the meatballs, resembling the thorns of hedgehogs.
I took the minced meat for this dish - pork with chicken 2: 1. Ideal if you cook the minced meat yourself. So you will be sure of the quality of the meat, especially if the dish is prepared for children.
Peel the onions and cut them into small cubes. Pour 1/2 of the recipe for vegetable oil into the pan (I use refined, odorless sunflower oil for frying), place the onion in it and fry it until transparent. And then add the peeled, coarsely grated carrots and fry together until the carrots are soft.
Place prepared minced meat, dry uncooked rice, fried onion and carrot in a wide and deep bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste - it is better to use fresh, only ground salt and pepper, they brighten the taste of the dish.
Stir all the ingredients of our hedgehogs thoroughly. It is most convenient to do this with your hands, so you will feel very well how well the minced meat is brought to homogeneity. Some people add an egg to the minced meat to hold the ingredients together, but I do not use it, since the protein makes the hedgehogs harder. Minced meat is perfectly molded without adding eggs.
Heat the remaining vegetable oil in a skillet. With wet hands, form small balls 4–5 cm in diameter and place them in hot oil. Fry on one side over medium heat for 3-5 minutes.
Flip the future hedgehogs over and fry for another 3 minutes. We do this so that after stewing, the hedgehogs keep their shape and do not fall apart.
Place the sautéed hedgehog balls in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. If your pan is wide, you can stew hedgehogs in it.
Pour tomato juice over the balls, salt to taste.
Simmer the dish after boiling over very low heat for 40 minutes, the balls will increase in volume due to the fact that the rice absorbs the liquid.
Serve minced hedgehogs with rice in portions, hot, garnished with fresh or baked vegetables. Top with sour cream or your favorite sauce.
Hedgehogs with rice in the oven in tomato sauce
Here, instead of tomato juice, we will fill the hedgehogs with specially prepared sauce and simmer them in the oven. Our hedgehogs will be more "grown-up", since kids can't eat a lot of spices. But they taste amazing and they are very soft.
We will use the same amount of ingredients for the hedgehogs as in the main recipe.
But we will prepare the fill in a different way, for it you need:
- Tomatoes (canned, mild) - 1 can (0.4 kg);
- Pepper (sweet, preferably red) - 0.15 kg;
- Garlic - 2 cloves;
- Onion - 1 pc. (large);
- Greens (basil, dill, parsley, cilantro) - 1 bunch if not, you need to take - 1/4 tsp. each dry seasoning.
- Oil (olive, not refined) - 40 g;
- Broth (vegetable, which you like more) - 0.4 l.;
- Coriander - 1/4 tsp
- Salt, (at least 0.5 tsp), and black pepper - at your discretion.
Cooking method:
- Prepare the hedgehogs themselves as in the main recipe, and then prepare the sauce separately.
- And we do it this way: first, fry the garlic in well-heated oil, but not for 1 minute. Then add tomatoes and spices to it (if they are dry), coriander, salt, pepper, simmer for 5-7 minutes, then rub through a sieve and put it back in a hot pan, add finely chopped peppers to the mixture and simmer for another 7 minutes. of this we pour in 2 cups of vegetable broth and if our greens are fresh, then we put it, after chopping it.
- Now fill the hedgehogs with our sauce so that they are only covered. Put in the oven and simmer over low heat for no more than 40 minutes.
Serve the hedgehogs hot, pouring over the remaining gravy or sauce. It will be very tasty and spicy.
Teaser network
Hedgehogs with minced chicken rice with sour cream sauce
Not all kids love tomato paste, many refuse it. I suggest preparing tender hedgehogs with minced chicken and sour cream sauce for such fastidious. Minced chicken hedgehogs with sour cream sauce will turn out tender, juicy and incredibly tasty.
Ingredients for hedgehogs:
For sour cream white dressing you will need:
- Sour cream (not thick) - 150 ml;
- Broth (vegetable, thick) - 0.4 l;
- Flour - 20 g;
- Onion - half of a large one;
- Salt, spices at your discretion;
- Butter (butter) - 40 g.
Cooking method:
- Chicken fillet needs to be ground into minced meat, if you have ready-made minced meat, then you can take it. Add to the minced meat, pepper and a couple of tablespoons of sour cream, and the same amount of softened butter (preferably butter) and leave to stand.
- At this time, cook half the onion and carrots in a skillet. Fry them until golden brown.
- Now put the minced meat, onions and carrots fried in a pan, dry rice together. Salt everything and mix well, let stand for a while.
- Then roll up the balls with wet hands and fry in a skillet on both sides.
- While the minced meat is standing, prepare the sour cream sauce. For him, take an onion and fry it with oil in a skillet until transparent. Then grind the onion with flour and mix well, pour on top carefully, with a thin stream of sour cream and immediately add the boiling broth. Simmer everything in a skillet for 10 minutes over low heat. Put salt and spices only before removing.
- After the hedgehogs are fried on both sides, put them in a saucepan or cover them with sour cream sauce, and then simmer for 20-25 minutes over very low heat.
- Serve hot meat hedgehogs with rice, pour over the remaining sauce. If not, just pour sour cream. It will be delicious.
Hedgehogs with rice and gravy in a pan
If you don't feel like messing around with gravy too much, you can cook this option, it will make cooking shorter, and will require less time and effort.
Ingredients:
For homemade red gravy, you need:
- Tomato juice - 0.4 l;
- Onion - half, if large or 1 medium;
- Carrots - 1 pc. (small);
- Bulgarian pepper - 150 g (1 large);
- Salt - 0.5 tsp;
- Pepper (grated) - 0.5 tsp.
Cooking method:
For this recipe, we'll need a deep, heavy-bottomed skillet. It is important that our rice hedgehogs do not burn. And we can only cook hedgehogs as much as it fits in.
Cooking hedgehogs:
- First, fry the onion until transparent, then add finely grated carrots to it and also simmer in oil.
- Next, in a large bowl, mix the minced chicken, dry rice, frying and 2 tbsp. l softened butter. Salt the mixture and pepper. Let our minced meat stand.
- At this time, prepare a dressing in a skillet. To do this, fry the onions again and add the already coarsely grated carrots to it. Fry until golden brown.
- Then add the very finely chopped bell pepper and spices, salt the mixture. When the mixture starts to boil, reduce the heat slightly, to medium.
- Then we roll the hedgehogs from the meat mass and put them in our gravy in the pan. Now fry everything in a pan. Make sure that the seasoning does not burn.
- When the hedgehogs are fried on both sides, pour tomato juice into the pan and add spices, salt again to taste. You can put 1-2 tbsp. l. butter or olive oil.
- Now we close everything with a lid and simmer over low heat for another 30-40 minutes.
- Serve ball hedgehogs with gravy and hot.
Hedgehogs with béchamel sauce
If you decide to cook beef hedgehogs, then serve them with béchamel sauce.
This original sauce is very tasty in itself, and our hedgehogs with minced beef rice will get an exquisite taste with it. They can also be served at the festive table.
Children will also like these hedgehogs with sauce if you serve the sauce with meat broth. For adults, I recommend making mustard sauce.
Ingredients:
- Minced meat (beef) - 0.5 kg;
- Rice - 0.15 kg;
- Oil (vegetable) - 70-80;
- Sour cream (thick and fatty) - 60 g.;
- Onions (onions) - no more than half a large onion.;
- Carrots - 1 pc. (Medium size);
- Fill:
- Broth (we have meat, thick) - 0.5 l
- Spices at your discretion.
For the béchamel sauce we need:
- Milk - 0.4 l (necessarily boiled);
- Flour - 80 gr.;
- Butter (butter) - 50 g.
- Pepper (black, grated) - 0.5 tsp;
- Walnut (nutmeg) - 1/4 tsp.
Add to the finished sauce at will:
Cooking method:
- Prepare the ground beef and add sour cream and salt to it, let it stand for a while (10 minutes) and put in the rest of the ingredients: dry rice, fried onions and carrots. Then we form balls and fry them in refined vegetable oil.
- After that we put it in a saucepan with a thick bottom and fill it with meat broth with spices (for your taste, I put bay leaves, celery and a mixture of peppers). Or we prepare a dressing from 0.5 liters of boiled water, butter and olive oil and pork fat (in total we take 3 tbsp. L.) And 1 tsp. salt. We also put spices in the water.
- Then, we put our hedgehogs in the oven and simmer for 30–40 minutes at 160–180 C. You can also cook on the fire, but you need a saucepan with a thick bottom or a non-stick coating. The fire is weak here.
- When the hedgehogs are ready, remove them from the heat.
Bechamel sauce
- Melt butter in a deep skillet and remove from heat. Now add flour to it and mix well. Put the milk on the fire again and cook until our sauce begins to thicken, now add the remaining milk and put pepper (ground), salt, nutmeg (grated). Let it boil and remove it from the heat. During cooking, the sauce must be stirred all the time, and it is cooked only over low heat.
- And you need to take milk already boiled, so it will not run away.
- After removed from the heat, the sauce must be transferred to a dry bowl and allowed to cool. And only then add a choice of table mustard, tomato paste or meat broth. It is not necessary to bring the sauce to a uniform consistency. Let it be with beautiful red or mustard stripes.
Serve your hedgehogs and pour our sauce over them. It will be both beautiful and tasty.
Cooking tips:
- Always simmer hedgehogs until all the water has evaporated. They will be tight and will not fall apart.
- Be sure to let the moisture evaporate without burning the balls or mixture.
- If the hedgehogs burn, then you have too high a fire or a thin bottom in the pot. Put a layer of grated carrots on the bottom of the pan, and put the balls on it, so they will not burn.
- Cooked balls with tomato paste or sauce can be served without gravy or sauce, but those with sour cream dressing are always served with herbs or green onions.
- Pour the dressing so that it covers the hedgehogs by 1 cm. When the rice has absorbed half of the liquid, place a piece of butter on top of each hedgehog. It will be delicious. Instead of butter, you can put a heap of grated hard cheese, which will then melt and the hedgehogs will turn out to be even tastier.
A classic of Russian and Soviet cuisine that will never go out of fashion - delicious minced hedgehogs with rice. The dish comes out light, nutritious and juicy, does not require a side dish, which is also good, and most importantly, it is suitable for the whole family. Most recipes do not involve frying, but stewing or boiling hedgehogs with steamed rice, therefore, with all their usual taste, these meatballs come out dietary.
Unlike simple meatballs, the recipe for hedgehogs includes raw rice, which swells and is cooked already during stewing, and the taste of the dish comes out more intense. It's time to bring back the dish that has been adored for dozens of generations into fashion!
Recipe 1. Hedgehogs from minced meat and rice, steamed
Hedgehogs according to classic recipes actually bear little resemblance to the outwardly cute animals, after which they are named. Traditionally, raw minced meat is simply mixed with rice, and ordinary round meatballs are obtained, but this recipe will make the dish truly original.
What products do you need
- Chicken fillet without skin - 400 g;
- White onion head - 1 pc .;
- White loaf (crumb) - 80 g;
- Basmati rice (long grain) - 5-6 tbsp. spoons:
- Salt and pepper to taste.
How to cook minced hedgehogs with rice, steamed: a step-by-step recipe with a photo
- Chicken fillet must be washed, dried and scrolled through a meat grinder with a fine fraction or grind into minced meat with a blender. You can take ready-made minced meat, but it will probably contain a certain amount of fat, which will reduce the dietary intake of hedgehogs as a result. Grind the soaked bread crumb and onion together with the chicken breast, salt, pepper and mix the mass.
- Take Basmati rice and rinse it under running water three times, then dry it. It is not recommended to take other varieties of rice if you want to get hedgehogs, as in the photo, because they will react differently to steam, and "thorns" will not work.
- Place a bowl of cold water next to you. Dip your hands in it and roll the ball-shaped meatballs with wet palms and put them in rice.
- Hedgehogs need to be properly rolled in rice so that the grains stick to the meat.
- Place in a drip tray. This can be a double boiler, multicooker or a simple saucepan with a special attachment.
- Steaming hedgehogs with rice takes about 40-45 minutes. After this time, both the meat balls and dry rice will be completely steamed and saturated with moisture, so that in the end the meatballs will turn out to be very tender.
Serve steamed hedgehogs with Basmati rice best with fresh vegetable salads and yogurt-based sauces or sour cream with garlic and herbs.
Recipe 2. Traditional hedgehogs with rice and tomato gravy
Recipes from childhood always find a warm response in the soul of those to whom they return. Delicate and juicy hedgehogs with rice in tomato and vegetable sauce - this is exactly the kind of dish that gives comfort and good mood.
What products do you need
- Minced meat from 2-3 sorts of meat (it tastes better) - 400 g;
- Long grain rice - a handful or half a glass;
- Onions - 2 pcs.;
- Fresh carrots - 1 pc.;
- Homemade tomato (can be replaced with diluted paste) - 250 ml;
- Sunflower oil - 3-4 tbsp spoons;
- Salt, pepper, bay leaves and meat spices to taste.
How to cook minced meat hedgehogs with rice in gravy: a recipe with a step by step photo
- In the minced meat mixture, add a meat grinder rolled through a fine mesh or a smaller onion, salt, spices and washed rice. Thoroughly mix the minced meat with the additives and wet hands to form hedgehogs the size of a large walnut.
- Heat the sunflower oil in a heavy-bottomed pan or skillet with high sides. Fry the onions, add the carrots, and after 5 minutes - the tomato, and stew everything a little.
- Put the hedgehogs to the sauce so that they are almost completely immersed in it. If necessary, you can add a little boiling water. Add bay leaf and black pepper here.
- Place a lid on the saucepan, reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. The finished rice will start sticking out in different directions, like the thorns of a hedgehog, hence the name. Serve hot, sprinkle with gravy and herbs. Garnish for such meatballs is optional.
It is this recipe that is considered classic, but no one bothers to make their own edits and additions to it. For example, in addition to basic vegetables, bell peppers or cauliflower will look harmonious in the sauce, and instead of rice, you can use other cereals.
Recipe 3. Hedgehogs with couscous without steamed rice for children
As popular as the rice hedgehog meatballs are, they can feel overwhelming because the cereals are cooked with the meat and soaked in broth, sauce, or gravy. However, the legendary dish can be prepared without rice, if you want it to be softer and lighter.
What products do you need
- Chicken fillet - 400 g;
- Couscous - 5 tbsp. spoons;
- Onions - 0.5 pcs.;
- Chicken egg - 1 pc.;
- Salt, pepper, other spices - to taste.
How to make hedgehogs with couscous without rice: recipe with step by step photos
- Grind the chicken breast fillet into minced meat using a meat grinder or blender. Salt and pepper a little, if desired.
- Grate half of the onion on a fine grater.
- Pour couscous with a glass of boiling water and let it brew for 20 minutes so that the cereal swells and softens enough. Combine all the rice-free hedgehogs ingredients: minced chicken, egg, onion and couscous
- Mix the minced meat well until smooth. If the dish is prepared for children, you should not be zealous with spices, but for adults, you can add your favorite seasonings.
- With hands dipped in cold water, roll into balls of meat the size of a large walnut or chestnut, then freeze a little so that the shape is preserved during cooking.
- Put the hedgehogs in the bowl of a steamer or multicooker, cook, depending on the size, for 25-35 minutes (in a multicooker - the "Steamer" mode), then garnish with steamed vegetables and herbs.
Such hedgehogs without rice with couscous are very tender and healthy, high in protein, and low in carbohydrates and fat. They will be an excellent addition to the menu for children, people with a dietary table or a follower of proper nutrition.
Recipe 4. Delicious minced chicken and rice hedgehogs in a creamy sauce
According to this recipe, traditional hedgehogs will not turn out to be spicy, as traditional cooking requires, but very tender, creamy, literally melting in your mouth.
What products do you need
- Minced chicken breast - 500 g;
- Rice - 1 glass;
- Cream with 10% fat content - 250 ml;
- White onions - 1.5 pcs.;
- Carrots - 1 pc.;
- Egg - 1 pc.;
- Vegetable oil - 1.5 tbsp. spoons;
- Salt to taste.
How to make simple hedgehogs with chicken and rice in a creamy sauce: step by step with a photo
- Rice should be rinsed under running water until it becomes transparent, boiled in slightly salted water until half cooked and cooled.
- Cut one onion into medium pieces - about a quarter of a ringlet, and grate the carrots on a coarse grater. Fry the vegetables in vegetable oil.
- Drive an egg into the minced chicken, add half onions, salt, pepper and cooled rice, chopped into small cubes.
Meat hedgehogs are one of the favorite dishes of children and adults. However, not everyone knows the recipes and rules for their preparation. In fact, hedgehogs were so named because their rice sticks out like needles. These cooking recipes came to us from the ancient Chinese cuisine.
In the 18th century, hedgehogs were prepared as a full-fledged dish for Chinese citizens, because meat was a very expensive pleasure for ordinary people in China. Now, of course, this dish is available to everyone. Such recipes can be found in different books, but each housewife does it all the same in her own way. 
Stewed meat hedgehogs in tomato sauce
This recipe is quite common in our country. This recipe is shared by both grandmothers and mothers, it is passed down from generation to generation.For cooking, we need: 1 kg of minced meat, 150 g of raw rice, 1 egg, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, a pinch of pepper, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil for frying in a pan.
For the sauce: 2 large carrots, 2 onions, 3 large tomatoes, a pinch of salt, herbs (parsley, green onions, dill). You can also take dried greens if it's winter outside.
Minced meat is best done by yourself, but if you don't have time for this, you can buy it ready-made on the market. In the store, it usually lies for a long time, so it is stale, and in the market for 10 rubles you can ask to twist the meat into minced meat.
Rice must be boiled until half cooked. Take uncooked rice, add to a small saucepan and add 1, 5 portions of water. Rice does not need to be rinsed; stores usually sell steamed rice. As soon as the water boils, reduce the heat to low and cook until the water evaporates. You don't need to salt. The rice comes out a little undercooked, which is good. After all, we will then stew our hedgehogs and the rice should reach readiness already inside the minced meat, then they will swell and stick out like needles.
When the rice has cooled down, you need to mix it with the minced meat, add salt and pepper to taste. Add 1 egg so that the hedgehogs do not fall apart in the pan. Then we form the hedgehogs, and while we are sculpting them, turn on the pan to fry them a little. Pour a small amount of vegetable oil into a frying pan and put our meat hedgehogs in a frying pan. You can also use butter, but it is full of carcinogens, therefore, on the advice of nutritionists, we will fry them in vegetable oil. We fry them for about 5 minutes on each side. The main thing is to form a golden crust. As soon as the hedgehogs are fried, put them in a small saucepan.
Now you need to prepare the sauce. To do this, we take carrots, grate them three, chop finely onions and tomatoes. Fry the carrots and onions in a skillet, and then add the chopped tomatoes there and simmer until the tomatoes are completely soft. At the very end, you need to add the chopped greens and simmer for another 5 minutes. Now we mix all our frying, you can add it to the hedgehogs. We pour in water so that the hedgehogs are completely in the water. We put to put out on low heat. We simmer for about half an hour. The hedgehogs are ready! The recipe prescribes serving hedgehogs with potatoes and gravy from under them. 
Meat hedgehogs in the oven with white sauce
This recipe is considered more sophisticated because this recipe is based on a sauce that is not easy to make. To cook hedgehogs in the oven, you need the following products: 1 kg of minced meat, 150 g of raw rice, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 150 g of cheese for the crust.For the sauce: 1 tbsp. a spoonful of flour, 1/2 l of meat broth, a pinch of coriander.
We also take minced meat, add rice already cooked until half cooked there, sculpt hedgehogs. We put them in a baking dish. Turn on the oven 180 degrees. And we begin to prepare the white sauce.
2 tbsp. We need to fry tablespoons of flour in a dry frying pan until the flour acquires a beautiful copper hue. Now pour the meat broth into it and stir thoroughly so that no lumps form. When the sauce begins to thicken a little, add a pinch of coriander to it. And we simmer this sauce until it acquires the consistency of thick sour cream.
Now pour the sauce over the hedgehogs and put the dish in the oven for about 40 minutes. Sprinkle grated cheese on top 10 minutes before cooking. As soon as a golden crust appears on top, the hedgehogs are ready! They can be served with stewed vegetables, and with fresh salad, or as an independent dish. When serving, you will definitely need to pour the sauce over the hedgehogs right on the plate: then the taste will be even softer, and the hedgehogs will be even more aromatic. And do not forget to sprinkle greens on the hedgehogs, and the more, the better. This will not spoil the taste at all.
Meat hedgehogs stewed in a creamy garlic sauce
And this is the easiest and fastest recipe for hedgehogs.You will need: 1 kg of minced meat, 150 g of raw rice, 1 egg, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, herbs (dill and parsley), 500 ml of fresh cream (preferably village), 2 cloves of garlic.
We do everything in the same way as the previous recipes dictated to us, that is, we cook rice until half cooked, mix it with minced meat, add an egg, form our hedgehogs. Fry them in a pan for 5 minutes on each side.
Next, we need to chop 2 cloves of garlic very finely or grate on the finest grater, add the chopped garlic to the cream and mix thoroughly. Then we pour all this splendor into the frying pan for the hedgehogs. And we simmer our dish for 20 minutes. At the end, add chopped greens and simmer for another 5 minutes. Serve such hedgehogs with gravy too!
Filling for hedgehogs is the simplest combination you can imagine, but what delicious dishes you get when you put your whole soul into them. But there are also hedgehogs in mushroom sauce, and hedgehogs in sour cream sauce, and much more. Usually, the recipes for their preparation differ little from those that were written above. The point is that you always need to add different sauces for them.
And making sauces is a whole art! Especially if you are sure exactly what ingredients are suitable for a particular sauce. And if you constantly experiment, try new recipes, read recipes on the Internet, collect recipes from friends, then you can be considered the most enviable chef who can turn even such a simple dish as ordinary meat hedgehogs into a culinary masterpiece!
Once, with someone's light hand, ordinary meatballs turned into ... "hedgehogs". Thus, bringing true pleasure not only to gourmets, but also to those who are not indifferent to the aesthetic serving of dishes.
To make ordinary meatballs look like hedgehogs, those products are added to the minced meat that do not mix with the minced meat during the heat treatment and keep their shape well. Delicious "hedgehogs" are obtained from minced meat and cabbage, minced meat and carrots, but most often they are prepared from minced meat and rice.
Minced hedgehogs with rice: the subtleties of cooking
- For the preparation of "hedgehogs" you can use any meat - beef, pork, chicken - or mixed minced meat.
- It is advisable to take long-grain rice so that it stands out effectively against the background of minced meat. For the same reason, it is not worth boiling it, as is done for ordinary meatballs or meatballs. It is enough to rinse the rice well in several waters, and then soak for 1-2 hours. During this time, it will swell well, therefore, during the cooking process, it will not actively absorb the gravy.
- Some housewives add an egg to the minced meat. It is, of course, a connecting link, but the main effect on the appearance of products is provided by properly mixed minced meat, as well as the proportions of meat and rice.
- To prevent "hedgehogs" from falling apart during cooking, turning into porridge, the minced meat must be knocked out especially carefully. It should be so dense that it looks like a single whole.
- You should not put a lot of rice in the minced meat. Firstly, a large amount of rice will make the minced meat loose and, as a result, the hedgehogs will fall apart. Secondly, the rice will drown out the taste of the meat.
- After combining the minced meat with rice, the meatballs are rolled into balls.
- "Hedgehogs" can be cooked in a pan, in the oven, in a double boiler, in a slow cooker, in a microwave oven. It all depends on the taste preferences of the hostess and her household. In a frying pan, the dish turns out to be more high-calorie than in the oven, and in a double boiler it comes out almost dietary, because the meatballs are steamed without adding oil.
- The hedgehog gravy can be prepared to your liking using the foods and vegetables that are available. It can be sour cream, tomato, with the addition of various spices and herbs. Density of the gravy is given by flour, which is added in the process of frying vegetables or diluted with water and then poured with it already browned vegetables.
Minced hedgehogs with rice: in a pan
Ingredients:
- mixed mince (beef and pork) - 0.5 kg;
- onions - 2 pcs.;
- dry rice - 0.5 tbsp.;
- salt to taste;
- ground black pepper - a pinch;
- tomato paste - 1 tbsp l .;
- small carrots - 1 pc.;
- flour - 1 tsp;
- eggs - 1 pc.;
- sugar - 0.3 tsp;
- water;
- vegetable oil - 1-2 tbsp. l.
Cooking method
- Rinse the rice, soak for 1-2 hours. Throw on a sieve, dry.
- Peel both onions, rinse with cold water. Cut into small cubes. Divide in two. One part of the onion will go into minced meat, and you will use the other part to make gravy a little later.
- Peel the carrots, wash, grate on a medium grater or cut into very thin strips.
- Put finely chopped onion, egg, salt and pepper in the minced meat. Knead thoroughly with your hands until smooth and uniform. Add rice and knead again.
- Separate pieces the size of a small apple from the minced meat, roll tight balls out of them. To prevent the minced meat from sticking to your hands, periodically moisten them with cold water.
- Heat oil in a skillet. Spread the onions and carrots on it until soft. Add tomato paste, stir.
- Dilute flour with a little water. While stirring continuously, pour the flour mash into the vegetable skillet. Add salt, sugar and pepper. Add enough water to make the sauce you want.
- Put the hedgehogs in a saucepan (preferably in one layer). Fill with gravy. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Place the lid on the saucepan and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add hot water as needed.
- Put the finished hedgehogs on a plate, pour over the gravy. It turned out to be a completely independent dish, but if you want it to be more satisfying, you can serve them with any side dish.
Meat hedgehogs with rice: in the oven
Ingredients:
- any minced meat - 0.5 kg;
- onion - 1 pc.;
- long-grain rice - 0.5 tbsp.;
- salt to taste;
- ground coriander - 0.5 tsp;
- tomato paste - 1 tbsp l .;
- sour cream - 1 tbsp. l .;
- vegetable oil - 1 tbsp. l .;
- sugar - 0.3 tsp;
- garlic - 2 cloves.
Cooking method
- First, rinse the rice, cover it with cold water for one hour. Then fold it over a sieve to dry out the grains.
- Chop the onion and garlic in a blender, add to the minced meat, add salt, pepper and coriander. Knead the minced meat very well, since the fate of the future "hedgehogs" will depend on it: will they fall apart during the cooking process or not.
- Combine minced meat with rice and knead again. Roll up round meatballs.
- Pour oil into a heat-resistant dish, put “hedgehogs” in one row.
- Prepare the fill. To do this, put tomato paste and sour cream in a bowl, mix well. Dilute with a little warm water to achieve the desired consistency. Salt to taste, add a little sugar. Stir.
- Cover with "hedgehogs" fill. Do not fill them completely, otherwise they will just cook. For a light crust to form on them, they should protrude halfway over the sauce.
- Cover the dishes with a lid or foil and send them to the oven, preheated to 200 °, for 40 minutes. Remove the foil 15 minutes before cooking so that the hedgehogs are browned.
- Serve hedgehogs with any side dish or vegetable salad.
Meat hedgehogs with rice: in a slow cooker
Ingredients:
- minced meat - 0.5 kg;
- rice - 0.5 tbsp.;
- medium onion - 2 pcs.;
- garlic - 2 cloves;
- tomatoes - 4 pcs.;
- sugar - 0.3 tsp;
- small carrots - 1 pc.;
- dried basil - 0.3 tsp;
- black pepper - to taste;
- salt;
- vegetable oil - 1 tbsp. l.
Cooking method
- Rinse the rice in several waters, soak for 1 hour.
- Peel and wash onions, garlic and carrots. Chop one onion with garlic in a blender, and grate the carrots on a fine grater. Finely chop the second onion.
- Cut the tomatoes into several pieces, cut the stalks. Grind in a blender until puree.
- Combine vegetables with minced meat. Add salt and pepper. Knead the minced meat until smooth. Add half of the rice, stir well again. Roll the minced meat into balls the size of a medium apple.
- Dip the meatballs in the leftover rice, making sure to use up all of it.
- Pour oil into the multicooker bowl, heat it in the "Frying" or "Baking" mode. Put in the leftover onion. Save until soft. Add tomato puree, stir. Pour in enough water to make the sauce you want. Boil for 1-2 minutes. Add salt, pepper, sugar, basil. Turn off the multicooker.
- Grease a container for steaming with oil, put the hedgehogs in it, taking care not to damage the rice breading. Dip the container into the multicooker. Close the cover. Set the "Steam cooking" mode. Cook for 40 minutes.
- Put the "hedgehogs" on a plate, pour over the prepared sauce.
Note to the hostess
Some housewives roll raw "hedgehogs" in flour breading and then fry in a pan. Of course, it turns out delicious, but the crust that forms on the surface prevents the rice from straightening, thereby making this dish look like ordinary meatballs.
To diversify the taste of "hedgehogs", you can add not only onions to the minced meat, but also other vegetables.
Any sauce is suitable for "hedgehogs": tomato, sour cream, vegetable.