Italian Meatballs (Gluten free, Dairy free option)
Who doesn’t love a meatball? On top of spaghetti (sing along with me now…), in a crusty hoagie roll (yes, there are gluten free ones in the grocery store now), on the ends of little toothpicks with a yummy sauce at your party. Meatballs are awesome. Yes, you can sometimes find gluten free meatballs in the frozen section section of your grocery store, but they’re tough and not nearly as good as this. Trust me.
Make up a big batch and freeze them for quicker meals down the road.
Italian Meatballs
A simple dish with lots of flavor and lots of possibilities
Ingredients
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup milk (almond or coconut work well)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp. salt or to taste
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese optional, omit for dairy free
- 1 lb. grass fed ground beef
- 1 lb. breakfast sausage
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 8 oz. cremini mushrooms
- 1/2 large onion
- 2 cloves garlic
Instructions
- To a large mixing bowl, add almond flour, milk, eggs, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and Parmesan, if using. Mix well. Set aside.
- Add olive oil to a heavy skillet and heat over medium to medium high.
- Chop mushrooms, onions and garlic finely. I like to use my mini food processor* for this.
- Add vegetables to skillet and cook, stirring regularly, until much of the moisture has cooked out of them. Once cooked, remove to a bowl and set aside to cool slightly. I usually just pop mine in the freezer for a few minutes.
- Add the meat to the mixing bowl and gently break up and mix in with the wet ingredients. Once the vegetables have cooled slightly, mix those in as well.
- Reheat that skillet you used earlier, add a touch of oil and cook a small amount of your meatball mixture so you can taste for seasoning. Adjust as needed. You can add more salt or pepper, if you feel it needs more onion or garlic, easily add in garlic or onion powder.
- Form mixture into balls whatever size you like. Sometimes we eat these as appetizers for Super Bowl parties and so I make very small meatballs. Sometimes I use them for meatball subs so I make medium sized meatballs. Sometimes I want spaghetti and meatballs and make them a little larger. It's really entirely up to you! I always use **these scoops so my meatballs are all the same size. Scoop out the meat onto a tray or just your counter. Then wet your hands with cold water and roll them into a neat ball shape. The cold water keeps them from sticking to your hands.
- Preheat your oven to 425. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment or foil (this just makes clean-up easier). Spray with avocodo or olive oil spray a cooling rack that fits inside your baking sheet. Be sure to spray that top and bottom of the rack.
- Space out your meatballs on this rack and bake until done. For medium sized meatballs, think the size of a golf ball, mine took 18 minutes to cook through.
- Alternatively, you can fry these in a skillet in some olive oil and they will taste amazing, but I have found that baking my meatballs helps them to stick together better. They tend to fall apart with all the flipping around in a skillet. Baking is also very hands off, which I appreciate.
- Serve with your favorite pasta sauce, over zucchinin noodles or however you like!
- These freeze beautifully! I froze mine uncooked for three months, thawed overnight in the refrigerator and they cooked up just the same as fresh.