Calorie-Friendly Meatball Salad
I love meatballs. A lot. Usually, I use a three part combo of veal, beef and pork. I add buttermilk to the mixture as well. Link to My Favorite Meatball Recipe. However, this particular recipe includes just 90% lean premium angus beef, (Getting it from the butcher counter is so worth it in this situation. Those prepackaged ground meats at 90% will just not cut it.) gluten-free panko breadcrumbs, as well as fresh parsley to keep the meat extra moist. I love putting the meatballs over a salad with a light Italian Vinaigrette. The warm meatballs and sauce juxtaposed with the cold, crispy salad is so satisfying!
PrintMeatball Salad
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 24 meatballs 1x
Description
The acidity of Ken’s dressing and the cool, crisp lettuce mixes wonderfully with the warm tomato sauce and meatballs.
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 2 pounds 90% lean angus grade ground chuck
- 1–2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic minced (4 cloves if they are smaller in size)
- 1 tsp. red hot pepper flakes
- 1/3 cup gluten-free panko breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 2 Tbsp. finely grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup freshly chopped parsley
- 2 eggs
- salt and pepper to taste
Salad
- Romaine Lettuce
- Sliced tomato, onion (any salad fixings you prefer)
- Ken’s Italian Dressing
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 330 degrees.
- Place meat in large bowl.
- Liberally salt and pepper the meat. Note: If you think you’ve salted the meat enough, go ahead and salt it some more.
- Add 1-2 Tbsp. of olive oil and onions into large pan and cook until onions are translucent.
- Add in garlic and red hot pepper flakes. Cook until fragrant. Salt the mixture liberally. Turn off heat and let cool.
- Mix breadcrumbs with milk, and add to bowl with meat.
- When onion/garlic mixture has cooled, add it to bowl with meat along with the parmesan, parsley and eggs. Mix with hands until combined. (If you’re in a rush and don’t have time for onion mixture to cool, make sure you combine meat and onion mixture first, to cool it down, and then add the egg. You don’t want the egg to scramble prematurely!)
- Form the meatballs, roughly 1-1/2 inches in diameter.
- Place meatballs on foil-lined baking tray, and bake for 18 minutes at 33o degrees. (My trick for not having dry meatballs is to keep cutting sample meatballs open before they are done, ensuring they are just past med. rare. Otherwise, they loose their juices and become dry. The low temperature of the oven also ensures this moisture retention.
- Add to sauce, serve with salad and enjoy!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
