Cranberry-Glazed Meatballs
with Mashed Potatoes & Roasted Carrots
- Milk
- Wheat
Flavorful beef meatballs made with Vidalia onion, garlic, and panko breadcrumbs are the star of these simple, hearty plates. You’ll sizzle them up in a hot skillet, then finish with a tangy-savory-sweet cranberry glaze. Awards for supporting roles go to: sweet roasted carrots and buttery mashed potatoes swirled with sour cream.
Ingredients
3 tablespoon
Sour Cream
(Contains: Milk)
½ ounce
Vidalia Onion Paste
10 ounce
Ground Beef
1 unit
Chicken Stock Concentrate
2 unit
Cranberry Jam
¼ cup
Panko Breadcrumbs
(Contains: Wheat)
9 ounce
Carrot
1 teaspoon
Garlic Powder
6 unit
Potatoes
Not included in your delivery
2 teaspoon (tsp)
Salt
2 teaspoon (tsp)
Cooking Oil
1 tablespoon (tbsp)
Butter
(Contains: Milk)
teaspoon (tsp)
Black Pepper
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
-
Adjust rack to top position and preheat oven to 425 degrees. Wash and dry produce.
-
Trim, peel, and cut carrots on a diagonal into ½-inch-thick pieces. Toss on a baking sheet with a drizzle of oil and a pinch of salt and pepper.
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Roast on top rack until browned and tender, 20-25 minutes.
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While carrots roast, dice potatoes into ½-inch pieces. Place in a medium pot with enough salted water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, 10-15 minutes. Reserve ½ cup potato cooking liquid (¾ cup for 4 servings), then drain.
-
Return potatoes to pot and mash with sour cream and 1 TBSP butter (2 TBSP for 4) until smooth and creamy, adding splashes of reserved potato cooking liquid as needed. Taste and season with salt and pepper if desired.
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Keep covered off heat until ready to serve.
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Meanwhile, in a large bowl, gently combine beef*, panko, garlic powder, Vidalia onion paste, and ½ tsp salt (1 tsp for 4 servings).
-
Form into 10-12 1½-inch meatballs (20- 24 meatballs for 4).
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Heat a drizzle of oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add meatballs and cook, turning occasionally, until browned all over and mostly cooked through, 4-6 minutes. TIP: If there’s excess grease in your pan, carefully pour it out.
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While meatballs cook, in a small bowl, whisk together jam, stock concentrate, and ¼ cup water (⅓ cup for 4 servings).
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Pour jam mixture into pan with meatballs. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to low. Cover and cook until meatballs are coated and cooked through, 5 minutes. TIP: If glaze seems too thick, add a splash of water.
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Divide mashed potatoes, carrots, and meatballs between plates. Spoon any remaining sauce from pan over meatballs and mashed potatoes. Serve.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Sep 2026- Flavor: The cranberry glaze brings a pleasant sweet-savory balance, though many wished the cranberry flavor came through more strongly.
- Ease of prep: Straightforward to make, though rolling meatballs and managing multiple components simultaneously adds more time than the recipe suggests.
- Suggestions: Use less water in the glaze — or add a small amount of cornstarch — to help it thicken and coat the meatballs properly. Adding an egg to the meatball mixture keeps them moist and helps them hold together during cooking.
- Leftovers: Meatballs reheat reasonably well, though a few found the texture suffered the next day.
- Portions: Carrots consistently ran short — often barely enough for one serving — while potatoes tended to be plentiful; more carrots would better balance the plate.
Reviews from our home cooks
I found that the meatballs were a bit salty when used with the cranberry glaze. So, cut back on the salt when mixing the chopped meat. Meatballs were moist. For the mashed potatoes: Use a chicken bouillon in the water to make it more flavorful. Add some fresh chopped parsley. Carrots were not too fresh and flavorful. I used a toaster oven, since it's silly to turn on the oven for a few slices of carrots. More time needed to be added for roasting the carrots.
Meatballs were very good. I added a little jalapeño juice to spice up the cranberry glaze and cut the sweet. Rice might have been a better option instead of mashed potatoes to pair with the meatballs.
Made this for my mom to thank her for helping me with something recently, and this meal is like IKEA food court had a glow up. This is an easy meal to make and the roasted carrots were so sweet. My only comment was that the glaze didn't reduce enough so I had to cook the meatballs for longer and the rest of food got cold but we reheated it and it was still great!
So good. The glazed meatballs were definitely sweet but I loved the balance between the mashed potatoes and carrots.
Wish the cranberry glaze was more of a sauce and not cooked in with meatballs because it seems like all the cranberry flavor evaporated
We loved this. The meatballs were special. I did serve boiled potatoes instead of mashed. It seems like too many recipes have mashed potatoes. The carrots were so fresh and we liked the roasted flavor.
We loved the cranberry glaze on the meatballs blended beautifully with the carrots and mashed potatoes. Very good
Meatballs took just a little longer to cook than the instructions said but it was a nice recipe the cranberry sauce pairs well for the fall
The cranberry glaze meatballs was so good! I shed a tear of joy when it touched my taste buds. 10/10!
I would use russet potatoes instead next time, the mash was yummy but not as creamy as we like! Otherwise, the flavor of the meatballs with the cranberry was fantastic
