Confession: if I could eat meatballs every single day of my life, I would. In particular, I would eat these meatballs every day, especially when paired with zucchini noodles!
Being two broke 20-somethings living on Long Island means we’re on a super budget, so the thought of investing in a fancy spiralizer was just not an option… but my god we wanted to make some vegetable noodles! Luckily, a good friend introduced us to the world of julienne peelers
And so we decided our first adventure would be to conquer zucchini noodles, paired with savory meatballs and this low-carb marinara sauce
Follow the simple step-by-step instructions below & find the print-friendly recipe at the bottom of this page!
First thing’s first: make those meatballs! In a large mixing bowl, add your ground beef, egg, almond flour, chopped onions, Worcestershire sauce, Gravy Master, and seasoning. Then, wet your hands a bit and dig in, making sure you mix all the ingredients evenly.
For those of you who get grossed out at the thought of diving hand-first into raw meat, if you psych yourself out into thinking it’s just pink play-dough… well, it helps!
Next, make your balls! Roll them into golf-ball sized balls and place in non-stick muffin tins. Sidenote, we need to invest in more silicone baking equipment! Pop those babies into a 400°F oven and set your timer for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, put your sauce on the stovetop on low heat. Low and slow, that’s the way to go! Stir occasionally as you prepare the rest of the meal.
Next, we’re going to tackle the nood–er, rather zoodles. Wash your zucchini well and cut off their nubby ends. Grab a wide open bowl (we ended up just using the pan we’re going to cook them in) to julienne your zucchini into, since it tends to get everywhere if you’re not super careful (and who has time for that?).
Now it’s time to get peeling! Use your julienne peeler to create your noodles. You only want to go as far as the seeds when peeling. You’ll be surprised how many noodles you can make from 1 zucchini!
Once you’re done julienning, dump your noodles onto a couple sheets of paper towel and squeeze the moisture from them. Trust us, these babies retain a ton of moisture, which is no good when you’re trying to fry.
Take a second to peek in on your meatballs. They should be smelling real nice right about now!
Next we’re going to tackle the noodles! In a medium pan, add your noodles and drizzle with a bit of vegetable oil. We used Extra Virgin Olive Oil, but Organic Coconut Oil would also be an awesome choice! Toss in a bit of salt and pepper and saute on medium heat for about 3 minutes if you like an “al dente” style or 5 minutes for softer noodles.
Remove your meatballs from the oven and take a moment to revel in their aromatic goodness. You can even pat yourself on the back. It’s okay, we did!
Finally, the plating! We watch way too much Chopped pretty much all the time, so making the final product look mouthwatering on the plate is pretty much as important as the flavor… and Alex ensures me that we would win the $10,000 grand prize for this one!
The Recipe!
Meatballs & Zoodles
Ingredients
For the Meatballs
- 1 lb ground beef (80%)
- ~1/4 sweet onion
- 1 egg
- ~1/4 cup parmesean cheese
- 1/4 cup almond flour
- ~1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- ~1/4 teaspoon Gravy Master
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon parsley flakes
- sprinkle of salt & pepper
- sprinkle of crushed red pepper
(optional)
For the Zoodles
- 1-2 zucchini squash (green and yellow for fun colors!)
- ~1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil for sautéing (Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Coconut Oil
)
- salt & pepper, to taste
- ~2 cups low-carb marinara sauce
Steps
- Preheat oven to 400° F. Add all meatball ingredients to a large mixing bowl.
- Wet hands slightly. Thoroughly mix all meatball ingredients together. Roll into golf-ball sized meatballs and place in non-stick/greased muffin tins. Bake in oven for ~20 minutes.
- Heat marinara sauce in a pot on low heat. Stir occasionally.
- Wash zucchini and cut off ends. Using a julienne peeler or spiralizer, make zucchini noodles, making sure to stop before the seeds. Squeeze between paper towels to remove as much moisture as possible.
- Add noodles to sautéing pan and drizzle with oil. Season with salt & pepper. Saute on medium for 3 minutes for al dente noodles or 5 minutes for soft noodles, stirring occasionally.
- Serve and enjoy! We plated our meatballs and zoodles then topped with the marinara sauce, but you can also mix them all together in a big bowl and enjoy it the old fashioned way! Try topping the meatballs with some shredded mozzarella cheese!
So, spill it! How did yours turn out??
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The Keto Kitchen 