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Italian Meatball Casserole {Keto/Low Carb}

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Italian Meatball Casserole

I saw one of those recipe videos on Facebook one day last week for Italian Meatballs and I’ve been craving them ever since. Since I had made BBQ meatballs before, I knew it would be easy to make a couple of changes to the recipe to make keto/low carb Italian Meatballs. Since we were spending the day at home, I prepared the meatballs earlier in the day, fried them in oil on the stove to sear in the juices, then popped them in my crock pot with a jar of spaghetti sauce to simmer the rest of the day. Usually, Italian Meatballs are served over noodles, but instead of making a noodle substitute tonight, we just ate them right out of the casserole dish with a side of buttery broccoli. Having been following this way of eating now since May, I don’t even miss the noodles. Crazy huh? I have found it to be true that many of the cravings stop after your body becomes fat adapted. If you’d like to eat with a keto/low carb noodle substitute you could serve it over spaghetti squash (how to roast a spaghetti squash here) or with zucchini zoodles.

Italian Meatball Casserole

Here’s a little tip if you like to save as much time when cooking, don’t even worry about rolling out the meatballs. Just get a big cookie scoop or ice cream scoop and pack the meatball tightly against the side of the bowl before dropping it into the oil to fry. I can’t stand touching raw meat, so this is my lazy girl solution. Also, if you wanted you could skip the last step of browning the cheese in the oven by adding the cheese in the crock pot and allowing it to melt. Personally, I think cooking the meatballs in a casserole dish in the oven is worth it. There is just something about the cheese being all browned that makes it taste so much better.

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4.85 from 13 votes

Italian Meatball Casserole {Keto/Low Carb}

Servings: 6 servings
Author: Kasey Trenum

Ingredients

  • 1¼ lb Ground Beef 80/20
  • ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
  • ½ cup mozzarella cheese
  • 2 tablespoons coconut flour
  • 2 eggs
  • ¾ tsp salt
  • ¾ tsp minced onion
  • ¼ tsp Italian seasoning
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • ¼ tsp black pepper
  • 24 oz jar low carb spaghetti sauce
  • 2 cups mozzarella cheese
  • 1 teaspoon basil to sprinkle on top of cheeses

Instructions

  • Combine all ingredients except the last three ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine.
  • Heat a cast iron skillet on medium on the stove.
  • Cover the bottom of the skillet with ¼ inch coconut oil.
  • When the oil gets hot, scoop meatballs with a cookie scoop into hot oil and brown.
  • Once the meatballs are browned, place in the bottom of a crock pot.
  • Pour spaghetti sauce on top of the meatballs.
  • Cook on high for 2-3 hours or low 4-5.
  • Scoop out meatballs into a casserole dish.
  • Sprinkle mozzarella cheese then basil on top.
  • Broil in the oven on the top rack for 2-3 minutes or until the cheese starts to bubble and brown.
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Nutritional Information per MyFitnessPal app based on 6 servings – 485 calories, 34g fat, 36.9g protein, 5.6g carbs – 1.9g fiber = 3.7g net carbs

Check out all of my Keto Recipes in my Keto Recipe Index.

Yum!

keto / low carb / bread


Comments

  1. Josh says

    Nutrition on this? I’m keeping a carb count a day so I want to know how many carbs and the serving size. If it’s not too much trouble

    Reply

  2. Corrie says

    Just wanted to say how delicious this was!! Also, is the nutritional information for the entire recipe or per serving. Fitness pal says 1 recipe so i just wanted to clarify!!! Thank you!!!

    Reply

  3. FamgirlShay says

    I absolutely LOOVVEE this recipe, family asks for it multiple times a month!! I add fresh chopped onions and usually make larger portions because they devour it! Thankyou for sharing this!

    Reply

  5. Shawna B says

    I made this tonight and should have already though comments. I had forgotten this was a crockpot recipe so into the pressure cooker mine went to get the same outcome in less time. I cooked for about 20 mins on medium heat and it was all good and tender! GREAT recipe! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

      • Renee says

        I just baked this in the oven at 350° for about 30 min, then topped with the cheese and broiled as directed. The family loved it! Browning the meatballs first is key 😉

        I should note that I more than doubled the recipe, though — I used 3lbs ground beef and adjusted the recipe accordingly — so your cooking time may vary.

        Thanks so much for this recipe!

  10. Leslie says

    5 stars
    I didn’t read all of the instructions before beginning to make the meatballs that it was a crockpot recipe. Not having hours to spend – I decided to make it in my foodi ninja instead. I followed the instructions up to putting in the crock pot, I instead put them in my foodi. I also didn’t have spaghetti sauce so I used pizza sauce. I set the foodi to pressure cook on high for 15 mins. After it finished I did a quick release on the pressure. Then sprinkled the cheese (a mixture of provolone and mozzarella) and the basil on top and used the air fryer lid to broil it for 3 mins. It turned out PERFECT. Thank you for the recipe. The meatballs are great on their own but served over some zucchini noodles would probably make it that much better 🙂 DELICIOUS!

    Reply

  11. Lisa says

    This recipe is amazing! The entire family enjoyed it! I think it’s now my new favourite! Thanks for posting such great recipes!

    Reply

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