These amazing Italian meatballs without breadcrumbs are pillowy soft and juicy, keto, low-carb and gluten-free! This versatile meatball recipe is easy to make in the air fryer, pan-fried or oven baked!
(Start this step early to solidify the gelatin) Fill a medium bowl with 3/4 cup beef stock, and sprinkle in 1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin powder. Wait for a couple of minutes to hydrate. Mix the gelatin with a fork. If not fully dissolved/lumpy, take it to the microwave in few seconds increments, until it's completely liquid. Do not boil the mixture.
Add the 3/4 cup almond flour to the dissolved gelatin, and mix it well.
Refrigerate it until solid (about 2 hours)
Slice up the hard gelatin, making many cuts with a knife, and crush it with a fork until it turns into soft crumbs.
Keto meatballs
In a saucepan, add 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 medium onion and 4 to 6 garlic cloves and sweat in medium heat until they are translucent. Then turn down the heat and continue cooking until they are a deep golden brown color. Let them cool.
Mix 2 pounds ground beef, 1 egg, 1/2 tablespoon salt (or to taste), 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper, 2 teaspoons oregano, 1 teaspoon basil, 1 teaspoon thyme, the almond flour and gelatin "breadcrumbs" and the cooked onion and garlic.
Form the meatballs, shaping them by hand. You can make about 24 ping-pong size meatballs from one recipe. Do not press them hard, just enough to keep the shape.
Meatball cooking instructions
Air fried
Preheat the air fryer to 200 °C (400 °F). Spread the meatballs in the basket in a single layer, leaving some space in between them for the hot air to circulate.
Cook each batch of meatballs until they are lightly browned and cooked through, about 10 to 12 minutes (add 4-5 minutes if cooking from frozen).
Pan-fried
Add a thin layer of olive oil or another fat (like lard) to a nonstick saucepan.
Cook the meatballs on medium-high heat until they are browned (about 10 minutes) flipping them every couple of minutes so that they will cook evenly and to avoid burning.
Oven baked meatballs
Preheat the oven to 200 °C (400 °F), static. For a fan oven (convection), decrease the temperature to 190 °C (375 °F).
Line the baking pan with foil or parchment paper, and spray with olive oil. Place the meatballs on the pan leaving some distance between them for even cooking.
Bake the meatballs for about 20 - 22 minutes, until browned.
Notes
If using ground beef only, an 80% lean to 20% fat ratio will make more flavorful meatballs than 90/10. Adding ground pork adds fat and flavor, so you can use leaner beef if combining the two.You can substitute the oregano, basil and thyme for 1 1/2 tablespoons of Italian seasoning ready mix.If you prefer, use stock cubes dissolved in water for the broth. If you don't have any, just dissolve the gelatin in plain warm water, but you'll need to increase the salt in the recipe by about half a teaspoon.You can freeze these meatballs and cook them from frozen, see instructions for freezing meatballsIf checking doneness with a meat thermometer, the inside temperature of meatballs should read a minimum of 71 °C (160 °F) for food safety reasons.Nutrition information is based on 4 out of 24 lean beef mince meatballs. 4 meatballs contain 3.5 net carbs, 1.8 of which come from the small onion. You can omit the onion to further reduce the carb content.