These sweet and sour meatballs are simmered in an irresistible sauce with pineapple and bell peppers for an easy weeknight dinner better than takeout!
If you love sweet and sour sauce, try sweet and sour chicken, too!
Table of Contents
Easy Sweet and Sour Meatballs Recipe
The beauty of delicious sweet and sour meatballs with pineapple and bell peppers is just how easy it comes together to bring you a dish with such complex flavors! It’s ready in just 25 minutes and one of our favorite weeknight dinners.
This recipe can be made with frozen or homemade meatballs, chunks of red bell pepper and pineapple smothered in an authentic Asian-inspired sweet and sour sauce for meatballs. Add some coconut rice and it’s a meal your family will love!
Ingredient Notes
Find the full printable recipe at the bottom of this post.
- Meatballs: Keep it easy with your favorite store-bought frozen meatballs or use any of my meatball recipes. I prefer ground pork meatballs or ground beef meatballs.
- Pineapple chunks: From a can works best for this recipe.
- Bell Peppers: Any color of bell pepper will work. Red bell peppers are my favorite but green bell peppers will remind you of Chinese take out!
- Sweet and sour sauce: Pineapple juice, light brown sugar, rice vinegar, ketchup, soy sauce, ginger, salt, cornstarch and water.
How To Make Sweet and Sour Meatballs with Pineapple
In a large skillet over medium heat, stir together the pineapple juice, sugar, vinegar, ketchup, soy sauce, salt, and ginger. Simmer until sugar has dissolved then lower the heat and thicken the sauce with a cornstarch slurry.
Add cooked meatballs to the sauce. They can be frozen or thawed, it’s up to you. Cover with the lid and cook for 10 minutes until heated through. If frozen, tack on 10 extra minutes. Stir in pineapple chunks and season to taste.
How to Serve Sweet and Sour Meatballs
- We love these sweet and sour meatballs with pineapple overtop coconut rice or pineapple fried rice garnished with green onions.
- Enjoy them over fried rice, cauliflower rice or plain white rice. For that, I have both an Instant Pot rice recipe and a stovetop rice recipe for you.
- When serving them as an appetizer, all you need are some toothpicks and napkins! Guests love them!
Tips and Variations
- Different meat: Make turkey meatballs with ground turkey or these chicken meatballs instead.
- Add some spice: Add red pepper flakes into the sauce or you could also add a dash of sriracha sauce like with my firecracker meatball recipe.
- Use leftover sauce: Drizzle it over meatloaf or use it as a dipping sauce for egg rolls or cream cheese wontons. Coat chicken and vegetable stir fry or use it as a glaze for grilled salmon.
- To thaw meatballs: If you want to cut down cooking time when they’re frozen, allow them to thaw at room temperature for 30-60 minutes ahead of time.
- Crock pot: Add meatballs to crockpot, combine sweet and sour sauce ingredients, pour over meatballs and cook on low for two hours. Cook an additional hour on high to thicken the sauce.
Make Ahead and Storage
- Make ahead: Prepare or thaw meatballs ahead of time, chop peppers and make sauce without the cornstarch and water.
- To store: Keep them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- Reheat: Reheat in the microwave until warm, or use an oven or skillet to heat them all the way through. If I have leftover sweet and sour sauce, I’ll add a bit more so they don’t dry out when reheating.
More meatball recipes to try include honey garlic meatballs, Hawaiian meatballs and Asian meatballs.
More Meatball Recipes
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Sweet and Sour Meatballs with Pineapple
Video
Ingredients
Sweet and Sour Sauce
- ½ cup pineapple juice , can use juice from canned pineapples
- ¼ cup light brown sugar , packed
- 2 Tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 ½ Tablesoons ketchup
- ½ Tablespoon soy sauce
- ⅛ teaspoon Kosher salt
- Dash ground ginger
- ½ Tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 Tablespoon water
Meatballs
- 25 meatballs , homemade or store-bought
- 1 red bell pepper , cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 cup pineapple chunks , drained or reserve juice for sauce
- Salt , to taste
- Ground black pepper , to taste
For serving: Cooked rice, Sliced green onions
Instructions
Sweet and Sour Sauce
- In a large skillet, stir together 1/2 cup pineapple juice, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 Tablespoons vinegar, 1 1/2 Tablespoons ketchup, 1/2 Tablespoon soy sauce, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and a dash of ginger over medium heat. Simmer, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
- In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 Tablespoon cornstarch and 1 Tablespoon water. Stir into the sauce. Turn the heat to low and whisk until it is well combined and the sauce is slightly thickened.
Meatballs
- Add 25 meatballs and 1 red bell peppers to the sauce. Cover with a lid and cook 10 minutes, or until heated through. Stir in 1 cup pineapple and season to taste. Remove from heat.
- Serve meatballs and sauce over rice with green onions sprinkled on top.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition provided is an estimate. It will vary based on specific ingredients used.
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below!
Categorized as: 30 Minute Meals, 30 Minute Meals, Appetizers, Asian, Beef, Dairy-Free, Dinner, Mini appetizers, Nut-Free, Stovetop
Jamielyn Nye is the founder and recipe creator at I Heart Naptime. She is the author of the I Heart Naptime Cookbook and shares easy family-friendly recipes and desserts for every occasion.
nice sweet and sour meatballs
nice sweet and sour
nice sweet
Delicious,only way to make them!!
Awe, thanks so much for a great review! I am glad that you love these meatballs.
We fell in love with this recipe! I didn’t change anything in the recipe and I’m glad I did that.
Happy to hear you loved it, Natasha! Thanks for your comment and review :)
I usually use green pepper in my sweet and sour meatballs, but I loved the color and flavor of the red peppers. Going to make them this way from now on!
Sometimes we love to do a mix of both. So delicious!
These meatballs are so delicious and an incredibly easy dish to pull together!
Let us know if you give them a try :)
Amazing meatballs!
Enjoy!