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These Make Ahead Meatballs are a life saver! Â Make a big batch and freeze them. Â Then at dinner time you just need to reheat and eat! Â Even better, they are Paleo, Gluten Free and Whole 30 compliant!
I am not lying when I tell you that these Make Ahead Meatballs are life savers. Â We all have those days where we don’t even think about dinner until dinnertime – and maybe we are tired or lazy or just don’t feel like cooking. Â And that is when the takeout usually happens. Â But if I have these Make Ahead Meatballs stashed in my freezer, dinner is saved! Â I usually make a batch of my Easy 20 Minute Marinara and throw a spaghetti squash in the microwave and then I have a low carb, homemade meal in 20 minutes. Â Of course if you are not going the low carb route you could make some pasta in the same amount of time, or serve the meatballs on crusty bread and make a meatball sandwich.
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I had been wanting to make a grain free meatball, and had played around with different binders – I even tried oats once!  I really wanted to have a meatball that was gluten free, paleo and Whole 30 compliant. Then I found this recipe from Noshtastic, and it worked so well! I just made a few small changes and these became my go-to meatball. I don’t miss the breadcrumbs at all, and the egg does a good job binding them together.
Discovering that they freeze well was a game changer.  After baking them, allow to cool completely.  We use our foodsaver  (affiliate link) to seal them into portions of 4 or 8 so that we can only thaw as many as we need per meal.  If you don’t have a foodsaver, I would recommend freezing them individually on a baking sheet and then sealing in a freezer bag in smaller portions.  We find that 2-3 meatballs per person is a good serving, but that may vary depending on the size of the meatballs and how hungry everyone is.
To reheat, I just throw the frozen meatballs into the marinara sauce and let them thaw and warm up as the sauce cooks. Â No need to remember to thaw them out in the morning!
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Make Ahead Meatballs (Paleo, Gluten Free, Whole 30)
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 pound ground pork
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.  Line two baking sheets with foil, set aside.
- Combine all ingredients until well mixed. Â Shape mixture into equal sized balls, about 2 tablespoons each (I used an ice cream scoop for easy portioning). Â When shaping balls, don't pack them too tightly or they may become tough.
- Arrange on the lined baking sheets, about 12 per sheet. Â Bake in oven for about 20 minutes, or until cooked through.
- Can serve right away or freeze for later. Allow to cool completely before freezing. After cooling, separate into desired portions and seal in freezer bags or food saver bags and freeze.
Notes
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Adapted from Noshtastic
Moisture can be added by adding some finely chopped mushrooms. For a sweeter flavor, a little unsweetened applesauce added is nice.
Great ideas! Thanks for sharing Colleen!
Hi! How much applesauce would you suggest?
Thank you!
I would start with 3/4 cup applesauce to 1.5 lbs. ground beef.
Thank you for this recipe. I just made them for my daughter who was just diagnosed with celiac. She (age 4), and her brother (8) both loved them! I did add a little extra s+p but left the red pepper flakes out.
Hi Emily – I’m so glad to hear that your kids loved them!
I wonder if I can place these into a crock pot in their raw state and cook in a sauce? The only thing I worry about is having a lot of fat in my sauce, only because if it is a lot of fat that cooks out then the sauce can get kind of weird. Any thoughts or has anyone tried it? Thanks!
Hi Kayley – I have never tried this so I can’t be sure! I know some people cook raw meatballs in sauce so I imagine it would work, but I can’t say for sure how they would turn out. If you do try it, let us know!
Hello trying to make for a friend that is gluten, egg & diary free. what can I use instead of egg? thanks
Hi Dee – you could try leaving the egg out. It is a binder, so they may not stay together as well, but I think they will still work. I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure. Let me know how they turn out!
Use uncooked brown rice.
My mom made them for me with out get but she boiled them they stayed together better than when they baked and she only used beef no pork I’m allergic to pork and gluten and egg. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Hi Arely, that is a great tip for making them without the egg! Thank you for your comment!
Flax egg to replace egg shoulwork the same . I sub this for many recipes but haven’t tried n this one yet. One tbsp of ground flax mixed in two tbsp of water Aleta it for a gel for about 10 minutes = one egg
Thanks Jennifer, great tips!
I was just wondering how many meatballs this recipe made….
Hi Merri,
It varies depending on how big you make them, but it makes approximately 24 meatballs. Hope that helps!
Oh this is great! My husband can’t have gluten and I have an urge this week to make meatballs (i haven’t made them in a long time). I’m going to make them ahead tonight so we can enjoy them Thursday. Thank-you for the recipe.
Hi Sandy – Yay, so happy you are making them! I hope you love them!
Awesome meatballs – made them tonight and freezing for the week.
any chance you have the nutrition facts per meatball? i’m adhering to a pretty strict calorie and carb diet at the moment. I’ll try to work it out as well.
Thanks again!
Hi Logan, I’m so glad you loved the meatballs! I don’t currently have nutrition info for this recipe, but if you are on a strict diet it is probably better for you to do the calculations on your own anyway. The nutrition information can vary so greatly depending on the exact ingredients, brands and amounts you use, plus all nutrition calculators will vary a bit due to their own algorithms. My Fitness Pal or Lose it! are great, free nutrition calculators that I have used to figure out nutritional info. Hope that helps!
Delicious! Just made them as you said paying attention to fatter meats…and added sautéed onions. Yummy. Thank you!
Yay! So glad to hear that! The onions sound like a great addition!
These Make ahead meatballs could come so handy for a quick dinner!
These look perfect for dinner! Yum!
Definitely going to have to make these for my daughter!
Make ahead meals make things so much easier!
Thanks Megan!
I made these.. and the flavor was good, but despite my attention to packing the loosely they were still very stiff and tough. any tips on making them more tender?
Hi Lisa – the lack of breadcrumbs make them a little tougher. The best way to deal with that is to add more fat. So you can increase the ground pork to a 2-1 ratio (2 lbs pork to 1 lb beef) Also be sure you are using a higher fat beef like an 80/20 instead of a low fat ground beef. I also really like to simmer these in marinara sauce as a way to reheat them, it makes them much juicier. Here is my easy marinara sauce recipe that I always use with these: https://www.staging.foxandbriar.com/twenty-minute-classic-marinara-sauce/ – I hope that helps!
What about turkey burger? I cannot eat red meat so we always use turkey. I never really tell a difference between ground beef and ground turkey anymore, but I see all the meatball recipes call for both beef and pork. I was just curious as to why they need both and if it would make a difference using just ground turkey.
Hi Sarah – you can definitely try it with ground turkey, but turkey usually has less fat and that tends to make the meatballs dry. I haven’t tried it myself but I think it would work (although, as I said, the meatballs may be a bit dry). You may even think about adding an extra egg to make up for some of the fat lost. Let me know how it turns out!
I use chopped up green bell peppers in my turkey burgers which makes them less dry.
That sounds like it adds great flavor too!
To prevent dry meatballs, try adding some finely chopped mushrooms. They have a lot of moisture.
Thanks so much for your incredible recipes! I was only looking for “healthy” marinara sauce but found the meatballs and printed both.
Hi Cookie, Yay! Thank you so much for your comment! I hope you love both of the recipes, they are regulars in our house!
appreciate your testing this recipe with egg binding, I was curious to see what might work without the bread binder, also great tip about freezing ahead of time, especially since I like meatballs for a lot things, even on their own!
Thanks Sabrina! I hope you enjoy them!
What kind of ground pork? Like ground Italian sausage?
Hi Catey – I just used regular ground pork in these – no flavorings. But I’m sure they would be good with sausage too!
When you freeze these how do you reheat/cook them from frozen to fresh?
Hi Katie – I usually reheat them in marinara sauce. I just toss them in the sauce while they are still frozen and simmer for about 20 minutes.
Yum! I can’t wait to make these, since beef and pork has been part of my pregnancy cravings these days. Is there a particular type of marinara sauce you like to use?
Hi Sarah! Yay, I am so glad you are making them! I always use my Easy 20 minute Marinara Sauce, linked at the bottom of the recipe or here: http://www.foxandbriar.com/twenty-minute-classic-marinara-sauce/ Let me know how they turn out!
Oh wow, this recipe comes at a PERFECT time for me. Earlier this week, I made spaghetti & meatballs for my husband’s dinner. He was surprised that I “knew how to make meatballs”…..until I sheepishly pulled the ready-made Kroger meatballs out of the fridge. He eats meat, I don’t, and I’m always iffy on how to cook it for him. But now I can whip up these lovingly-made meatballs, without worrying that I’m gonna mess it up.
Aww, Annie! I still think you are the best wife ever for making your hubs meaty dinners when you are a vegetarian. I hope he loves these!