Baked Gluten Free Meatballs

These delicious homemade baked gluten free meatballs are egg free and breadcrumb free! You can quickly throw these together and have a home cooked Italian meal with ingredients on hand.

All of my meatball making life I thought eggs were an essential ingredient when it came to making meatballs. Of course, my first meatball recipe I ever made many years ago was Betty Crocker, and if Betty says, well then it must be the only way.

But I have learned Betty has steered me wrong. Really wrong friends. Because the recipe I have for you today will hands down beat ANY egg meatball recipe you can throw at me.

In fact this meatball recipe was inspired by a recipe I saw in an old cook book by Emeril Lagasse.

So what is this mysterious meatball secret with no eggs? It is to use slices of bread and soak them in your milk of choice. The milked soaked bread makes the most tender oven baked meatball I have ever eaten.

The texture of these meatballs is perfect. Like you must try these meatballs asap....stat...rn, friends.

Plus these super tender, most tasty gluten free meatballs are baked in the oven.

Now I like a baked meatball for a number of reasons.

First of all it isn't messy. Frying meatballs makes a gigantic mess. Second of all it is hands off once I roll the meatballs. I can pop them in the oven and make the rest of dinner. I also think they are easier to cook with out overcooking.

Panade for Baked Gluten Free Meatballs

Fun fact, did you know the binder you make with a starch and liquid to bind your meat together is called a panade? I am not a chef, so I get pretty excited to learn anything new when it comes to the culinary world. I also love to pass on what I learn, hence the name of the blog 😉

So as mentioned earlier to make our panade for these meatballs we are going to use 2 slices of gluten free bread. You can use your favorite brand, but both times I made this recipe I used Canyon Bakehouse. The first time I used their new Hawaiian style bread. The second time I used their White bread.

To make the panade you will combine your two slices of bread with your milk of choice. When testing this recipe the first time I used coconut milk. I used the full fat, milk from can. It did not affect the flavor of the meatballs. The second time I tested the recipe I actually used water! I didn't want to open a can of coconut milk and the water worked just as well.

The bread soaked in the liquid will be mashed into a paste with a fork. The paste then becomes your binder for the meatballs.

Ugh! I can't even, with how good these meatballs are!

How to serve gluten free meatballs

There are so many meals you could make but to name a few, you could

• make spaghetti and meatballs- my favorite!
• have a baked ziti and meatball casserole
• meatball hoagies with gluten free bread
• a low carb dinner with meatballs and a salad on the side
• a low carb casserole with meatballs, marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese loaded on top.

Ingredients

To make these meatballs you will need

• ground beef
• gluten free bread (be sure if there is an egg allergy you choose a egg free bread as well)
• milk of choice
• dried parsley
• salt/pepper
• grated parmesan

How to make gluten free meatballs from scratch

1. Binder- Start with making your bread and milk panade. Tear your bread into pieces. If the crust is hard remove super hard pieces or break really small. Place bread in a shallow bowl. Pour milk over the bread and let sit for 5 minutes. After five minutes use a fork to mash the bread into a paste. Do this by placing the bottom side of the fork on top of the bread pieces and dragging and scraping the fork across the break until a thick paste. You may have a few chunky pieces and that is ok.
2. Meatballs- In a large bowl add your ground beef, bread mixture, salt, pepper, parmesan and parsley. Use your hands to mix these ingredients together well. Once evenly combined roll the meatballs into balls with your hands. The size of the meatball will affect your cooking time. I made 2 inch meatballs.
3. Bake- Place your rolled meatballs on a baking sheet. I lined mine with parchment paper for easy clean up. Place meatballs atleast a ½ inch apart so they are sure to brown on all sides. Bake meatballs at 425°F for about 17 minutes. Use a meat thermometer to check doneness. Meatballs should be 160°F internally at the center when checked with a digital thermometer.
4. Let rest- Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. Add to sauce at this time if making spaghetti and meatballs.

Make ahead

You can make these ahead of time and stick them in the freezer. Just make the meatballs as directed and then let them cool all the way. After they have cooled you can begin to freeze.

When you go to freeze them leave them on a baking tray. Let them freeze for about an hour on the baking tray. Then you can remove them and stick them in a freezer bag or container of choice and freeze the remainder of the way. But freezing them on the cookie sheet will keep them from sticking together 🙂

Dearest friends who read this blog. First of all, thank you for coming by today. I truly do love when you stop by. Second of all let me know if you make these! I wanna see so tag me on instagram @sweetrusticbakes.

Love this recipe? Check out these two Italian favorites on the blog!

Italian chicken roll ups

Chicken pepperoni cauliflower casserole

Now go make some meatballs!! Woot woot.

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