Meatballs! Can I hear an Amen?

Let me tell you something about meatballs.  I don't make them often. But I have never had a meatball, homemade, restaurant or store bought, this good before.  

I was craving meatballs.  Glorious & delicious meatballs.  I have a recipe for them that's pretty good.  But I wanted something great that fit into my new way of eating.  So I was on the hunt for the perfect recipe.

The first step in this process was figuring out what I was going to use instead of flour, breadcrumbs or oats to hold them together.   I started searching far and wide and finally found a picture of a recipe in a Paleo Recipe Book for Herb Meatballs. It mentions using almond meal.  OF COURSE I said.  Why hadn't I thought of that before?   Of course I have quite a few walnuts, leftover from December, so why not make walnut meal?  

The second step was finding a recipe.  But wait...remember that picture?  It's from this awesome looking book I'll end up buying eventually, but for now, I took a screen cap and printed it out. 

After buying the ingredients, it was time to start.

Making walnut meal is pretty easy.  Just use a food processor and pulse the walnuts to a nice "meal" substance.  Doesn't have to be too over-done.  I made a bunch so I could have more, if needed (it was), and also to refrigerate for use later.

To make almond meal, it's a little trickier because it will turn to almond butter very easily.  Use this handy guide and you'll be set.   From what I can tell (the internet doesn't lie, does it?) they can be easily swapped but walnut meal has a stronger flavor.

Then I followed the recipe:

Fresh Herb Meatballs

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef

1 lb ground pork

1/2 onion, minced

1/2 cup fresh basil, finely minced

1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely minced

1 cup spinach, finely minced

4 eggs

1/2 cup almond meal (or walnut meal..)

1 tbsp dried oregano

4 cloves garlic, minced

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Preheat over to 350 F

2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well with your hands to combine.  You can use a food processor to reduce the basil, parsley and spinach to a finer mixture before adding it to the ground meat.  Season the mixture to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

3. Make small balls the size of a golf ball and place them apart on a baking sheet, then place them in a preheated oven to cook for about 25 minutes, until well cooked.

The ONLY issue I had was I actually needed nearly a cup of the walnut meal to get the meat mixture to stick together with the best consistency.  But other than that they were amazingly perfect.  I also used hot Italian pork sausage to give them a kick.

I served them with marinara sauce and spinach.  I also had fresh steamed broccoli on the side. I also made some spaghetti noodles for my husband and step-daughter.  The next time I'll make homemade red wine marinara (so much better).   

See how I slipped in an extra?  Tomorrow is Vegetarian Day....