MEXICAN CHEESE
MEATBALLS IN TOMATO SAUCE
It is a very easy meatball recipe and totally worth the effort of making little Mexican meatballs. You could serve these fun and tasty meatballs with guacamole and a large dollop of sour cream.
I didn't add cumin to the meatballs, but you could if you like. You are welcome to change up the spices with whatever you have on hand such as oregano, chili powder, etc. but make sure you add good spices during this prep time to enhance the flavor of the meatballs. Stir all the seasonings into the eggs.
You could use a mix of ground beef and ground pork in this recipe to make the ground beef mixture more flavorful yet. You could cook chorizo sausages and crumble it using a food processor. To make these tex mex meatballs spicier, you could add chipotle chiles to the tomato sauce for a chipotle tomato sauce with a kick.
I always use lean ground beef in my meatball ingredients. These meatballs can be kept in the freezer for another day. I cook my meatballs in the oven instead of a large skillet in this instance. Place in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake on medium-high heat.
Normally you would serve these over rice but cauli rice would be just as good.
INGREDIENTS:
2 lbs ground beef (0.9 kg)
1 cup grated Mexican cheese (250 mL)
1/2
cup Gluten-Free Bake Mix 2, OR (125 mL)
almond flour, OR 2 tbsp coconut flour (30 mL)
2 large eggs
2 tbsp dried parsley (30 mL)
2 tsp minced garlic (10 mL)
11/2 tsp salt (0.7 mL)
1/2
tsp black pepper (2 mL)
1/2
tsp onion powder (2 mL)
Tomato Sauce:
1 tbsp light olive oil (15 mL)
1 tbsp minced garlic (15 mL)
14.5 oz Roma tomatoes, blended in blender
1/4
cup tomato paste (60 mL)
2 tsp sweetener, optional (10 mL)
1/2
tsp salt (2 mL)
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In large bowl, combine ground beef, Mexican cheese,
Gluten-Free Bake Mix 2, OR almond flour, OR coconut flour. In medium bowl, whisk eggs together with
dried parsley, minced garlic, salt, black pepper and onion powder. Mix well into the ground meat. Use a small cookie scoop to make meatballs (2
tbsp; 30 mL) and place on prepared baking sheet. Bake about 20 minutes until no longer pink
inside. Pour Tomato Sauce over the
meatballs and garnish with grated Mexican cheese
Tomato Sauce: In deep frying pan in light olive oil and
over medium heat, sauté garlic 1 minute.
Add blended tomatoes, tomato paste, sweetener and salt. Cook 3 minutes and reduce heat. Simmer until desired thickness.
Yield: 30 meatballs
3
per serving
104.8
calories
7.6
g protein
7.5
g fat
0.5 g fiber
1.3 g net carbs