Juicy and tender, these easy low carb meatballs with sauce are made in just a few minutes in your Instant Pot! These keto friendly Instant Pot meatballs are the perfect topping for cooked spaghetti squash or zoodles! A Hungry family favorite!
This week is all about low carb Instant Pot recipes, and will end with a collection of my favorite keto friendly Instant Pot recipes on Friday. I’m traveling in the states right now so hopefully I’ll be able to stay on schedule – if not I promise to post the rest next week instead!
It’s no secret that I love meatballs, so when I was brainstorming low carb recipes to make using the Instant Pot, this easy keto meatballs and sauce recipe was at the top of the list! It’s a variation of the basic meatballs from my popular low carb Meatballs alla Parmigiana recipe, and I was really hoping that cooking them in the Instant Pot would be easy and yield good results.
Having never used an Instant Pot to make meatballs before, I wasn’t sure that they wouldn’t just turn to mush, leaving me with meat sauce when I opened it after cooking. So it was with trepidation that I did the first test run, and I was ridiculously excited that they not only held together, but were so much juicier and more tender than my traditional method!
Usually it takes all day simmering in the sauce for them to get that gorgeous flavor and texture – but these meatballs cooked in my Instant Pot in just 10 minutes!
Typically I would saute my meatballs in olive oil to get a nice brown crust on them and then simmer them in my easy keto marinara sauce for a bit. I considered sautéing that first batch in a nonstick pan and then finishing them in the IP, but that kind of defeats the purpose of the ease of using my Instant Pot to make meatballs.
Because the Instant Pot comes with the saute feature, I tried browning the meatballs in a little olive oil in the stainless insert that comes with it. They stuck like crazy. So after the initial batch was browned and left a lot of meat stuck to the bottom, I just layered the rest of the meatballs in raw and poured the sauce over them.
After cooking the Instant Pot meatballs on low pressure for 10 minutes and releasing the steam, I really did expect to find a meat sauce in there, but the meatballs were fully intact. Be sure to leave space between them though and don’t jam them in too tight.
So you can brown the meatballs first, or not brown them first – the bottom ones that had browned didn’t taste any different than the others. That being said, the bits of browned meat from the process did melt into the sauce, and probably added another layer of flavor to it that cooking all of them raw in it wouldn’t have.
No matter which method you use to make these low carb Instant Pot meatballs, I’m fully confident they will be delicious!
Another point I want to add is that I used the equivalent of 85/15 lean beef and there was definitely an oil slick at the top of the sauce. I spooned some of it off and it wasn’t a problem.
You could probably get away with a leaner beef for this meatball recipe if you want to skip that step – I don’t know if it will make your meatballs less tender or not. I suspect you’ll be fine either way – you can even use ground turkey for these Instant Pot meatballs if you prefer.
If you don’t yet have an Instant Pot and are wondering what all the fuss is about, you can get more information on why I love them over on the IBIH Pantry Recommendations Page! It’s my hand’s down favorite appliance and I have gifted many of them to friends and IBIH readers at my own expense because of it!
Look for more low carb Instant Pot recipes coming soon!
Keto Meatballs in the Instant Pot Recipe Video
How to Make Meatballs in the Instant Pot – Low Carb
- Yield: 5 servings 1x
Description
Juicy and tender, these easy Italian meatballs and sauce are made in just 10 minutes in the Instant Pot! Low Carb and Gluten Free too!
Ingredients
For the meatballs:
- 1.5 lbs ground beef (85/15 or leaner)
- 2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- ¾ cup grated parmesan cheese
- ½ cup almond flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp dried onion flakes
- ¼ tsp dried oregano
- 1/3 cup warm water
To cook the meatballs:
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 3 cups easy keto marinara sauce (or any sugar free marinara sauce)
Instructions
- Combine meatball ingredients in a medium bowl and mix thoroughly by hand.
- Form into approximately 15 two inch meatballs.
- Coat the bottom of the Instant Pot insert with the olive oil.
- If you wish to brown them, turn on the saute function and brown on both sides – or brown in a separate nonstick pan first.
- Layer the browned or raw meatballs in the Instant Pot, leaving 1/2 inch of space between them. Don’t press down.
- Pour the marinara sauce evenly over the meatballs.
- Seal the Instant Pot according to the manufacturers instructions.
- Set the Instant Pot to Manual.
- Select low pressure.
- Set the cook time to 10 minutes.
- Once the timer goes off (it will be longer than 10 minutes total due to preheating time,) turn the valve to vent and allow the steam to dissipate completely.
- Remove the lid and serve the meatballs with sauce over zoodles or spaghetti squash if desired.
- Category: Low Carb Instant Pot Recipe
- Cuisine: Italian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 3 meatballs, 1/2 cup sauce
- Calories: 455
- Fat: 33g
- Carbohydrates: 5g net
- Protein: 34g
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Kari says
Has anyone tried them without the cheese?
Stephanie says
I havent but I’d recommend adding more almond flour to substitute cheese if you do. Cheese acts as a binding agent in this recipe.
★★★★★
April says
This recipe was so good! I loved the combo of spices. I didn’t have almond flour so just used oat flour and about the same amount of water. Cooked without sauce (kids added after) and they were perfect in 7 min on high pressure. Thank you for this yummy recipe😄
★★★★★
April says
Used 1 cup of beef broth instead of sauce for above and it turned out great!
Kari says
sooooo happy with this! It was strange using low pressure but no burn notice and fully cooked. I use a higher fat burger, they are moist and flavorful. Thank you!
★★★★★
Meghan says
I got the burn notice and had to turn the pot off. After doing some further investigating… every other recipe says to put the sauce down first so it doesn’t burn. My meatballs are now meat sauce. Very disappointing
Lori says
I’m going to try this way tonight.
Lori says
I’ve been making your meatballs forever. However I get the overheat notice EVERY SINGLE TIME. I’m following the recipe to the t. I have to depressure , scrape the bottom and then repressure and it will work. Such a pain though! Thoughts??
Lori says
I tried putting the sauce in first but it overheated TWICE. 🤷🏻♀️ This one just isn’t meant for the IP I think.
Barbara says
Did you use low pressure? I missed that in the directions when I made it and though I didn’t get a burn notice it was counting down yet wasn’t at pressure. I restarted it and noticed at the end it was doing the same thing again. They were really good anyway. I think the low pressure will probably fix the issue for me :)
Merrilee says
I honestly can’t tell you how many times I’ve made these!!! I LOVE THEM SO MUCH and easy peasy to make. I’m vertically challenged so the saute thing in the instant pot doesn’t work well but with a non-stick fry pan I just use the meatball scooper and into the fry pan they go. I’ve also made them without browning and it didn’t make much of a difference. Thank-you so much for the keto meatballs! My son eats the leftovers in a meatball sub with mozzarella & extra sauce on top. These also freeze well so I get 2 meals out of it. I always make a batch of hard-boiled eggs first and then onto the meatballs so I only have to clean the instant pot once. Lazy tip?!
★★★★★
Annette says
This should not cook correctly. Anytime you cook with tomato in the instant pot it will burn.
You can only use on saute mode at the end.
★
Sami says
It works. It’s amazing!
★★★★★
Taz says
I only had 1 lbs of meat so I used less almond flour and only one egg…they were really dry…
Lisa says
got the burn notice so I took them out and finished cooking them in the oven. Still not confident with the InstaPot…but working on it.
This meatball recipe is the BEST I’ve ever cooked.
First bite: I couldn’t believe I made something so good!
I felt like I was eating from a restaurant. I’m not kidding.
Thank you for my new fav meatball recipe.
★★★★★
Mellissa Sevigny says
I couldn’t ask for better feedback Lisa, so happy you loved them!