These hearty and naturally gluten-free meatballs will quickly become a favorite at your house! The combination of beef, pork, mushrooms, and scallions is full of flavor, perfect for dousing in tomato sauce or your favorite BBQ sauce.
I love meatballs. There’s something so comforting about serving up a big pot of meatballs doused in flavorful tomato sauce or swimming in savory gravy. It’s such a filling meal without being overly complicated.
My family loves them, too. It seems that there are never enough of these meaty balls of goodness.
Over the past few months I’ve been experimenting with making a naturally gluten-free version. I have plenty of friends and family who avoid gluten for various reasons, so I wanted something in my arsenal that was full of flavor without having any gluten or other funky gluten-substitutes.
I’m pleased to say these meatballs are a success!
Do meatballs have gluten?
They do, yes. Normally, the meatball mixture has breadcrumbs as a binder. Now you can buy gluten free breadcrumbs, but these meatballs are made gluten free a different way.
Instead of using gf breadcrumbs, coconut flour, or a nut meal, I leaned on mushrooms. Chopped fine, mushrooms add substance without tasting mushroomy. My mushroom haters devour these meatballs, so I really wouldn’t worry about folks turning up their noses. Promise.
(Just don’t tell them. I think people are afraid of the idea of mushrooms, not the mushrooms themselves.)
These gluten-free meatballs are perfect if you’re gluten-free, paleo, Whole 30, or just don’t want the extra bread crumbs. I promise you won’t miss them.
What can I serve these gluten free meatballs with?
Anyway, another thing that meatballs have going for them is how versatile they are. Once you have a bulk batch cooked, you can doctor them up for serving in so many ways!
- with pasta/spaghetti squash/zoodles and red sauce
- with noodles/mashed potatoes and gravy
- on the grill with BBQ sauce
- in a sub with marinara and cheese
- in a pita with a yogurt-dill sauce
- on rice with a sweet and sour sauce
- simmered in tomato, mushrooms, and olives and served over boiled potatoes
I love to bake big batches of these and stash them in the freezer for quick meals. So good!
Tools I use to make this easy:
- stainless steel mixing bowl
- food processor
- plastic cutting boards
- good chef’s knife
- quick-release scoop
- wide stockpot
- cooking tongs
- 8 ounces mushrooms
- 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
- 1 pound ground pork
- 2 eggs beaten
- 1/3 cup chopped green onions
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- optional: 1 1/2 teaspoons herbes de Provence or Italian herb blend
- olive oil for frying
- Place the mushrooms in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse until finely chopped. You can also chop the mushrooms by hand, but this ensures a very fine chop.
- In a large mixing bowl combine the mushrooms, beef, pork, eggs, green onions, salt, pepper, and optional seasoning. Mix well to incorporate all the ingredients well.
- With a quick release scoop, form the meat mixture into golf ball-size portions. Once all the balls are formed, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in the bottom of a large skillet or 5-qt pot. In batches, fry the meatballs in the hot oil, turning to brown all sides of the meatballs.
- Alternatively, you can bake the meatballs on a lined baking sheet for 25 minutes in a 400 degree oven.
- Once the meatballs are cooked, they are ready to serve or package for freezing. To freeze, cool the meatballs completely and place in freezer-safe containers or ziptop freezer bags. Chill thoroughly before storing in the freezer. To serve, reheat completely in a pan on the stovetop, in the slow cooker, on a hot grill, or in the microwave.
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Funny you should post this today! Last week I tried our regular “porcupine” recipe (meatballs made with meat, rice, onion, water, and spices and cooked in tomato + worcestershire sauce) with mushrooms and it was delicious! I used 1/2 lb of mushrooms in addition to the lb of meat to stretch it a little farther (and did 1.5 times the sauce), and my kids gobbled it up. I have a pampered chef slap chop and it works really well to chop them fine too. I bet green onions are a delicious addition!
Yes, the green onions add some really good flavor, different than regular onions, and no chunky bits for onion haters.
Yum! Another way to make GF meatballs is to use potato flakes – I got that tip from America’s Test Kitchen. Bob’s Red Mill makes them and they also sub well for breadcrumbs, since GF bread does not work for making a panade.
Potato flakes are a great idea!
I use oatmeal in my gluten free meatballs and meatloaf.
Yes, I’ve done that, too, with good results. I wanted something that paleo/Whole30 friends could enjoy as well, so these are them.
I just made a batch with grated zucchini instead of the mushrooms. Mushrooms would be delicious. I will definitely try that my next round of meatballing!
Interesting! Did the zucchini add much water or was it okay?
The zucchini does add water when you’re forming the meatballs, making them a little more…squooshy. Wet hands help during this step. The upside of the added moisture is that the extra moisture makes for a meatball that’s nearly impossible to overcook. Alternatively, you can saute the shredded zucchini (carrot and mushroom are also nice) until they dry out a bit–I do this in place of breadcrumbs for meatloaf as the sauteed veggies really boost the flavor.
Good to know. Thanks for the tips!
This was so good. I used lots of onions, and added oregano and parsley. Excellent. Thanks for sharing.
So glad you liked it!
These look good but nobody has mentioned something that struck me immediately when I read the recipe. These would have a lower carb count than the traditional meatball made with breadcrumbs or oatmeal. That I think would be a real blessing to folks who struggle with diabetes or metabolic syndrome and have to count carbs carefully. Maybe I am more sensitive to the issue since I have two sisters with type 2 diabetes and I occasionally cook for them.
Yes, they should have a lower carb count than regular.
Yum!! These sound absolutely delicious 🙂 Putting them on the menu this week!
Let me know what you think!
I’ll have to try the mushrooms but I’ll have to make them in secret cause my kids won’t eat anything mushroom. I usually make about 10# of ground beef at a time and bake them then freeze them for nights we need a quick dinner. I usually can get about 3-4 meals worth (feeding 7-9 teens/ adults).
I’ve done plenty of mushroom smuggling in my time. 😉
Love meatballs but hate the mess! I put mine in the oven and bake at 400 for about 40 minutes. No frying less calories. Spray sheet pan w non stick cooking spray! Yummy
Made these last night for my family of 4. Both my boys (18 yrs & 14 yrs) are picky eaters and tend to not like the same things, so meal planning is difficult and making a good meal is often met with some resistant. I have to say, thank you! These were a hit with both of them!! I followed the recipe exactly. Half of them I baked and the other half I did in the pan. I served them with the option of spaghetti & red sauce. I liked the oven ones better with the sauce and the pan ones plain. ( I also dipped them in your salsa verde sauce from your creamy chicken salsa verde recipe… so YUM!). I was hoping to be able to freeze some from this batch, but there were none left! I guarantee that if I doubled the batch, they would all be eaten & I’d still have no extras, so I’ll have to wait until they’re out & about to make & freeze them. This is the second recipe of yours that I have tired and I am sincerely impressed. Thank you, a thousand times, thank you!
Yay! So glad to hear it! Your salsa verde sauce combo sounds super yum! Will need to try that soon.