Italian meatballs are one of the classic Italian recipes. It is a great and mouth water recipe to enjoy. The low carb Italian meatballs have some changes to traditional meatballs as nowadays people prefer to have healthy weight and shape of the body. Therefore, beef lovers do not need to skip anything to become slim or lose weight. You can eat meatballs yet with low carbs.
These meatballs contain only 2-carbs in total, and they are gluten-free. You can enjoy meatballs with any meal, including side vegetables, salad, pasta, or even appetizer.
Why Low Carb Italian Meatball Recipe Works?
Table of Contents
- It is a keto meatball recipe containing blanched almond flour in place of breadcrumbs or bread. It makes your recipe suitable for people who eat gluten-free or following a low carb diet.
- This recipe contains no onion, which makes it countless carb. However, if you wish to add onion, then dice up the onion into small pieces and combine well with beef before rolling the meatballs.
- Note: In case you are counting carbs, you need to alter nutritional information in the recipe.
- You can fry or bake these meatballs. Follow the given below directions.
- You can store meatball in the freezer for easy meal preparation.
- Whether you prefer fried or baked meatballs, the low carb meatball recipe provides tasty Italian meatballs. These are tender and gluten-free for a low carb diet.
Low Carb Italian Meatballs Recipe
Equipment
- Oven
- Frying Pan
Ingredients
- 2 Pound Ground Beef
- ½ Cup Parmesan cheese (grated)
- 2 Small Eggs (beaten)
- ¼ Cup Fresh Parsley
(chopped)
- 6 Garlic Cloves Minced (medium size)
- Pepper (Adjust according to taste)
- Salt (Adjust according to taste)
- ½ Cup Olive oil (more if needed)
Instructions
- Mix ground beef, cheese, parmesan, eggs, parsley, and garlic in a large bowl.
- Mix all the ingredients by squeezing everything to combine.
- Make equal and small size divisions and roll on your palms.
- Make a round and solid ball. Likewise, make 24 meatballs.
- Heat half cup of vegetable oil in a medium pan or skillet. The oil should be 1/2 an inch above in the pan.
- After heating the oil, place all the meatballs one by one and fry them over medium flame until they become brown and crispy.
- If your pan is small, then make batches to fry the meatballs.
- Take out from oil after getting meatballs in brown color and place in low carb sauce of tomatoes.
Notes
- This recipe has nearly 3-net carb per serving.
- You can use beef with higher fat content to increase moisture but keep 73% lean.
- Avoid choosing whole red meat and choose with some fat.
- You can also follow other ways to create moisture, such as using shredded zucchini or cream. Don't make it complicated and keep the extra ingredients minimum.
- Use fresh cheese to make better meatballs. The dry things in your meatball mix make it grainy and dry.
- Expect something different because without using breadcrumbs, it not possible to make the same as Italian a traditional meatball.
- Frying and baking are good ways, but both methods give a slightly different texture.
- Use ice cream scoop to get an equal portion of meatballs.
- Make batches of meatball with enough space to make it crispy and avoid overcrowding.
Nutrition
- Calories: kcal
- Fat: 13g
- Protein: 16g
- Saturated Fat: 5g
- Cholesterol: 81mg
- Sodium: 128mg
- Vitamin A: 175IU
- Vitamin C: 2.1mg
- Calcium: 69mg
- Iron: 1.9mg
- Carbohydrates: 2g
- Potassium: 249mg
Nutrition Facts | Per Servings Recipe: 36
Serving Size: 1 serving
Amount Per Serving
- Calories – 50.0
- Total Fat – 3.4 g
- Dietary Fiber – 0.0 g
- Sugars – 0.4 g
- Protein – 3.5 g
- Saturated Fat -1.4 g
- Polyunsaturated Fat – 0.2 g
- Monounsaturated Fat – 1.4 g
- Cholesterol – 21.2 mg
- Sodium – 179.4 mg
- Potassium – 51.5 mg
- Total Carbohydrate – 1.0 g
- A Vitamin 0.9 %
- B Vitamin -126.2 %
- BVitamin – 62.1 %
- C Vitamin – 0.1 %
- D Vitamin -1.4 %
- E Vitamin – 0.2 %
- Calcium – 3.2 %
- Copper – 0.7 %
- Folate -1.1 %
- Iron – 2.0 %
- Magnesium – 1.0 %
- Manganese – 0.7 %
- Niacin – 3.2 %
- Pantothenic Acid – 0.8 %
- Phosphorus – 4.2 %
- Riboflavin – 3.4 %
- Selenium – 4.0 %
- Thiamin – 0.9 %
- Zinc – 4.0 %
- % DV is based on a diet of 2,000 calories. Your daily values may be lower or higher, depending on your calorie requirements.
Are Meatballs healthy?
Like other cuisine, meatballs have different versions, but most people enjoy Italian style, including tomato sauce and spaghetti. Meatballs provide healthy nutritional benefits. However, meatballs have sodium, and high-fat content, it also provides vitamins, minerals, and proteins. Try eating meatballs in moderation.
High-Fat Concerns
A 6-meatball serving of leading brand of meatballs contain weighs of 3.2 oz., 15 grams of fat, and 230 calories. These 15 grams of fat is too high for meatballs for a regular diet. Totally 58.7% of calories present in meatball come from fat. It hinders meatballs from food categories of USDA-Dietary-Guidelines-for-Americans, 2010 called nutrient-dense-foods with few calories with the high nutrition value and less natural or added fats.
High Sodium
Most Americans consume high sodium than the required amount. The 680 mg of sodium in the 6-meatball contains nearly 1,500mg sodium, which is a higher limit declared by American-Heart-Association.
Yet, sodium is important for the normal function of the human body. Consuming high sodium cause strokes, hypertension, heart problems, and kidney problems. Eating meatball free from processed ingredients can be healthful.
High-Quality Protein
Meatballs are not that bad for health. They provide high-quality proteins and necessary amino acids.
According to School-of-Biomedical-and-Molecular-Sciences at the University of Surrey, protein consumption helps to regulate body composition and promote bone health. It also regulates the gastrointestinal functions and helps to promote cell signaling.
Meatball Micronutrients
The beef content of meatballs provides sufficient micronutrients, including iron, zinc, and vitamin B12. Lack of zinc in the body many health problems. Nearly 12% of Americans have zinc deficiencies.
Zinc is a powerful antioxidant, which helps to prevent DNA damage.
The vitamin B12 deficiency also common in 10-15% of Americans in people with age 60 said by Linus Pauling Institute.
Iron is essential for oxygen storage and transport.
What Type of Meat To Use For Meatballs?
You can use whole beef to get a good taste. Some people prefer to include veal and pork. If you cannot eat only beef, then use Parmesan cheese.
Oven-Baked Meatballs or Pan-Fried Meatballs?
Italian cooks had a debate on cooking meatball in pan or baking.
Pan-frying meatball is a good idea that provides the best caramelization and tasty flavor in the outer crust, but their round shape may change.
For baking meatballs, you will need an oven. It should be baked at 400 degrees F for 18-20 minutes. While baking meatballs, you don’t need to stand by side, it will cook itself. But it will not get the browner color.
Joined Approach – Bake Then Brown
According to recent experiments, partially baking meatballs have round shapes, then the fried pan meatballs with browner color.
Oven-baked meatball keeps its shape but not get much brown. Again, you need to pan fry for extra browning.
Best way to make meatballs juicy and tender
Everyone enjoys eating juicy and tender meatballs. You can get juicy meatballs by using panade. A panade is a breadcrumb or paste of bread. You can also use crackers, cookies, and cake crumbs. It creates moisture and tenderness in the ground meat like meatloaf.
Remember, you cannot use bread and bread crumbs in low crab meatballs.
Health Benefits of Meatballs
Meatballs are mainly prepared with meat. Most of the meatballs are prepared using ground beef. Meat provides several essential nutrients that benefit for body functions and brain growth.
Eating meat 3-4 times is recommended by doctors as it provides protein, vitamins, irons, and other nutrients. You can eat meatballs as a substitute and instant snack when made and store properly.
Meatball is very beneficial and favorite of many people because of its taste. The culinary venture prospects are more profitable. Here are the health benefits of eating meatballs.
Body growth
Protein present is meatballs that helps to promote human body structure. Like vegetable protein, animal protein also helps indigestion. In living organisms like humans, proteins are an important component for body growth such as skin, muscles, lungs, and heart.
Brain intelligence
People who consume regular meatballs increase their intelligence in comparison to people who don’t eat meatballs. Because meatballs provide various benefits to brain health.
Power booster
The fat content of meatballs is helpful for instant energy. It works as a solid source of energy in the human body. The fat content also creates longer satiety in the human body.
Beef Provides L-Carnitine
Beef provides L-carnitine, which is an essential health-promoting product. It is a part of meat metabolism. This L-Carnitine helps to transport the fat into mitochondria for burning.
Heart Health
According to a meta-analysis of random trials tells that L-carnitine helps to promote patient outcomes. Especially, it prevents the effect of oxidative stress, hypertension, inflammation, and nitric oxide.
Diabetes
Eating beef also helps to manage diabetes. The higher content of L-carnitine consumption in the patient of type-2 diabetes helps to boost fasting blood glucose levels and improve cholesterol profile.
Weight Loss
According to meta-analysis and systematic review of 9-random trials the presence of L-carnitine in beef helps in weight loss.
Master Antioxidant-Glutathione
Glutathione is commonly known as a master antioxidant that benefits conditions, including anti-aging, promote longevity, prevent illness, lower the risk of chronic disease, and promote the immune system.
It helps to save every cell in the body against cellular damage, which can lead to different diseases.
Having glutathione deficiency causes oxidative inflammation and stress. Therefore, glutathione consumption is important for entire health.
The amino acids present in beef, also known as glutathione, and these are important for dietary glutathione.
Beef is Rich in Minerals
People with a mineral deficiency can consume meatballs as the beef provide enough minerals. The beef has nutrient-dense in the minerals. Beef contains enough amount of zinc, iron, and magnesium.
Prevent Iron Deficiency Anemia
Iron deficiency and anemia are also one of the health problems that need attention. Anemia problem is growing these days due to iron deficiency. In advance growing countries like the United States, nutrient deficiencies should not be a reason for death, yet thousands of people die every year because of anemia.
There are two kinds of iron found in foods, such as heme and non-heme iron.
Heme iron is a bio-available type of iron, and animal meat holds it more.
Non-heme iron is available in plant foods like vegetables, fruits, and nuts. It is hard for the body to absorb this iron.
Beef Provide Carnosine
Beef also produces carnosine, which is a synthesis created by the combination of histidine and amino acids. It performs an important role in the human body functions. Beef produces a high source of carnosine that is higher than other animal meat. Carnosine holds anti-glycosylation qualities, which helps to reduce glycation damage.
Glycation is vital for the aging process and increasing harm to the body. It potentially results in atherosclerosis and different chronic disease.
Additionally, carnosine promotes the immune system and lower the inflammation. The presence of compounds in carnosine helps to limit the lipid peroxidation in the cells.
Beef is Affordable
Beef is affordable, then plant-based foods, and vegetables. In a comparison of broccoli, beef is more expensive. However, the calculation is somewhat insincere. Broccoli is cheaper than beef, but how about the energy it provides?
Per 200 grams of beef provide 550 calories, and 200 grams of broccoli offer only 70 calories. It means beef is eight times more energetic than broccoli. In other words, each calorie of beef is cheaper than broccoli.
With the above information, you know that meatballs are highly nutritious for health. It’s delicious taste and benefits also helpful in business but requires maintaining hygiene and quality. Make sure to remember health while making meatballs satisfactory.