These Cast Iron Meatballs are so juicy and easy to make! Make homemade keto meatballs in less than 30 minutes on the stove top!
Keto Cast Iron Meatballs
These low carb meatballs are great for a busy weeknight meal. Perfect for those comfort food cravings without breaking the bank!
These juicy meatballs are delicious no matter how you eat them! Whether you eat them with zucchini noodles, spaghetti squash with keto marinara sauce, in a meatball casserole, or make low carb meatball subs. You can’t go wrong!
These meatballs are great for a keto diet! Made with minimal ingredients, they’re naturally high in fat, moderate in protein and low in carbs! You might also like this bacon wrapped keto meatballs recipe.
These tender meatballs are naturally gluten-free because it uses almond flour instead of bread crumbs.
Why you’ll love this recipe
- High protein – 21g of protein for just 5 meatballs!
- Great for entertaining –This is a large recipe and makes 45 meatballs, perfect for serving a crowd
- Low in Carbs – Just 3 total carbs per serving (2 net carbs)
Ingredients for Keto Cast Iron Meatballs
This almond flour keto meatball recipe is made with all beef instead of a combination of ground beef, pork and or Italian sausage.
- ground beef – I use 80/20 ground chuck because I prefer a fattier meatball. You can also do half ground pork and half ground beef, or even ground turkey!
- eggs – large eggs and no need to be at room temperature
- onion – grated or minced. Just make sure they’re super small. We only use a small amount to add flavor since onions are moderately high in carbs
- fresh garlic – I love to add garlic to almost everything. You can substitute garlic powder if needed.
- fresh basil and fresh parsley – pop of flavor and color
- parmesan cheese – low moisture cheese to help bind and add flavor
- seasonings – coarse salt and ground black pepper, but feel free to add Italian seasoning and other seasonings as you like
- almond flour – used in this meatball recipe instead of bread or breadcrumbs to keep the carb content low
- heavy cream – helps with moisture and adds extra fat
- water – to add if you’re ground beef mixture needs a little more liquid to form into balls
- oil – I use avocado oil for cooking the meatballs
- homemade keto spaghetti sauce – or you can use a store bought marinara sauce like Rao’s if you don’t want to make your own
- Toppings: parmesan cheese and fresh basil
Tools to make this recipe
For this stove top cooking method, the only tool you will need for this recipe is a well seasoned cast iron skillet.
How to make keto meatballs in cast iron skillet
- In a large bowl add the ground beef, eggs, onion, garlic, basil, parsley and parmesan cheese.
- Mix until well combined.
- Then add the salt and pepper.
- Next add the almond flour and heavy cream. Mix until the meat mixture is easily able to form a loaf.
- If the mixture is too dry add the water 1 tablespoon at a time.
- Next form the meat into 2 inch balls. Place these aside on a large plate or tray.
- In a large cast iron skillet, heat up the avocado oil over medium heat.
- Add some meatballs but be sure to not overcrowd the skillet. Brown the meatballs on all sides and cook until the meatballs reach an internal temperature of 165F with a meat thermometer. Around 10-15 minutes.
- Transfer cooked meatballs to a paper plate and cook the rest of the keto meatballs. Once all have been cooked, add desired amount of keto spaghetti sauce and meatballs to the cast iron skillet.
- Cook until the sauce is warm. Top with parmesan cheese and fresh basil.
Recipe notes
- This recipe makes 45 meatballs. You can cut the recipe in half or you can make the entire batch, but freeze leftover meatballs raw. Leftovers means lots of tasty meals!
- How to freeze meatballs: Place raw meatballs on a parchment lined baking sheet and place them in the freezer until they are frozen. Then transfer the frozen meatballs to a glass container or large baggie.
- Cook from frozen: add an additional 10-15 minutes to the cooking time if you are cooking frozen meatballs in a cast iron pan. Make sure that none are stuck together and you cook them in a single layer.
- You can also cook these keto meatballs in an air fryer!
Substitutions
If you want to make this recipe Paleo, sub out the parmesan cheese for ground up pork rinds (1:1 ratio) and the heavy cream for almond milk or coconut milk (1:1 ratio). Don’t worry it’ll still have that traditional Italian flavor!
You can substitute half of the ground beef for pork, Italian sausage, turkey or your favorite ground meat. This will change the flavor profile slightly but they will still make a delicious dinner.
Update! If you want to use all ground turkey you’re in luck!
I’ve recently written a post on how to make keto frozen turkey meatballs, air fryer turkey meatballs and baked keto turkey meatballs.
How to serve
Serve the meatballs with a homemade keto spaghetti sauce or a store bought one like Rao’s Marinara. I’m partial to my homemade sauce 🙂
Serve with low carb noodles, zoodles, or palmini noodles for an easy meal!
If you loved this recipe, check out this air fryer keto meatballs recipe and this bacon wrapped keto meatballs recipe also made in the air fryer.
Easy Keto Cast Iron Meatballs Recipe
Easy Keto Cast Iron Meatballs
Equipment
- cast iron skillet
Ingredients
For the Meatballs
- 2 pounds ground beef I used 80/20
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup onion minced or grated
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 Tbsp basil fresh, finely chopped
- 2 Tbsp parsley fresh, finely chopped
- 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese shredded or grated
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 2 tbsp heavy cream
- 1-2 tbsp water
For Cooking
Toppings
- Parmesan
- Fresh Basil
Instructions
- In a large bowl add the ground beef, eggs, onion, garlic, basil, parsley and parmesan cheese. Mix until well combined.
- Then add the salt and pepper. Next add the almond flour and heavy cream. Mix until the meat mixture is easily able to form a loaf. If the mixture is too dry add the water 1 tablespoon at a time.
- Next form the meat into 2 inch balls. Place these aside on a large plate or tray.
- In a large cast iron skillet, heat up the avocado oil over medium heat.
- Add some meatballs but be sure to not overcrowd the skillet. Brown the meatballs on all sides and cook until the meatballs reach an internal temperature of 165F with a meat thermometer.
- Transfer cooked meatballs to a paper plate and cook the rest of the keto meatballs. Once all have been cooked, add desired amount of keto spaghetti sauce and meatballs to the cast iron skillet.
- Cook until the sauce is warm. Top with parmesan cheese and fresh basil.
Notes
Nutrition
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