Baked Meatballs

Baking meatballs are so much easier and less time consuming than frying them. And there is no mess to clean up afterwards.

These baked meatballs are easy make and are packed full of vegetables too.

You can eat these with a side salad, thrown into a rich tomato sauce with pasta or they make a great little snack to take to the beach or a picnic. They taste great cold too. These are always a winner with our family. I have tried these with beef, lamb and pork mince and they all taste delicious.

You can also serve these baked meatballs with resistant starch rice. Check out my recipe here.

Ingredients

500g beef, lamb or pork mince

1 onion chopped

1 tsp fennel seeds

½ cup chopped fresh parsley, stalk and leaves

1 carrot, grated

1 zucchini grated (squeeze out moisture)

¼  cup parmesan, grated

1 tsp dry oregano

2 tbsp olive oil (to be added to mixture)

1 tsp celtic sea salt

1 egg

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Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 150ºC.

2. Use a large glass baking dish such as a pyrex. If you don’t have a large dish then 2 baking trays will work but you will need to line them with parchment paper.

3. Heat a small pan with oil and sauté the onion and fennel seeds until the onions are light and translucent.

4. In a bowl grate the zucchini and carrot. Squeeze out the excess moisture from the zucchini.

5. Add the rest of the ingredients, including the onions and fennel seeds.

6. With your hands, gently mix all the ingredients until well combined.

7. If you have time place the mixture in the fridge for an 1 hour as this will make it easier to roll into balls and for all the flavours to come together.

8. Make medium size balls with an an ice cream scoop if you have so they can be all the same size and cook evenly.

9. Pop them onto the baking trays or baking dish and drizzle with some extra olive oil.

10. Cook for 15 minutes, turn them over and cook for another 10-15 minutes.

11. Serve hot or cold.