Keto Cheese-Stuffed Meatballs

These keto cheese-stuffed meatballs are my favorite variation of Italian-style meatballs. They are loaded with flavor, perfectly tender, gluten-free, and insanely low-carb. Moreover, these meatballs are stuffed with mozzarella cheese and topped off with some pizza sauce and grated parmesan.

I chose ground pork for this recipe, but you can take any meat that you prefer, whether it is beef, veal, or chicken. Since I tried to make these meatballs as low carb as possible, I omitted the breadcrumbs and flour.

Depending on your preferences, you can cook these keto cheese stuffed meatballs in the oven, in an air fryer, or in an Instant Pot cooker. For this recipe, I usually go with frying on a skillet since I am most comfortable cooking the meatballs this way, and they always end up extremely juicy.

Table of Contents

• Tips for Making the Low-Carb Meatballs
• Cooking Options
• How to Store Them
• Serving Ideas
• Recipe

Tips for Making the Low-Carb Meatballs

The process of cooking these cheesy keto meatballs is pretty simple. If you’ve made any type of meatballs at least once in your life, you’ll handle cooking these ones just fine. 

First of all, you’ll need to combine all of the needed ingredients into one meat mix that you’ll use to form the meatballs—ground pork, egg, milk, garlic clover, onion powder, salt, ground pepper, and Italian seasoning.

Then, you should form the meatballs, put a cheese cube inside, fry the meatballs until brown, add some water and cook until almost ready, then put the pizza sauce on top and sprinkle with grated parmesan. 

To make sure that you get everything right, here are some tips:

• If you don’t like ground pork, you can substitute it with any other ground meat type—veal, beef, chicken, or turkey.
• Use a small cookie scoop or a teaspoon to make same sized meatballs. 
• When forming the meatballs with your hands, wet them with cold water so that the meat doesn’t stick to your hands.
• If the meat mixture is too runny and it is hard for you to form the meatballs, add some almond flour.
• Fry the meatballs until brown before pouring in the water and cooking completely. This will make the meatballs incredibly juicy.
• Make sure that you choose an appropriate pizza sauce. It should be low on carbs and have no sugar in it.

Cooking Options

I like to cook the meatballs on a skillet since this way they turn out very tender, and I spend just 20 minutes cooking them. But there are some other ways that you can choose to cook the low-carb meatballs:

1. Oven. Place a piece of parchment paper on a baking pan, form the meatballs, and place it on the baking pan. Cook them in an oven preheated to 425 F for 10 minutes, then take the baking pan out of the oven. Cover the meatballs with the pizza sauce or parmesan, and cook for 2-3 more minutes.
2. Air fryer. Form the meatballs then air fry them for about 15 minutes at 375 F. Top them off with the sauce and parmesan, then air fry for 5 more minutes.
3. Instant Pot cooker. Form the meatballs and cook on the Sauté mode until they turn brownish. Add the sauce, parmesan, water, and choose the Pressure Cook button. Cook for 8 minutes, then quickly release the pressure, and open the lid.

How to Store Them

You can keep the meatballs refrigerated for up to 5-6 days. Whenever you wish to serve them, simply reheat in the microwave for about 1 minute.

What I like the most about this recipe is that it is perfect for freezing. I usually double or triple the ingredients, cook the meatballs and then freeze most of them. Before serving, you should thaw them in the fridge overnight or in the microwave if you’re in a hurry.

Sometimes I choose to form the meatballs and freeze them uncooked. This method is much better since the meatballs turn out as if they were never frozen. If I freeze them raw, I cook them in the oven without defrosting.

Serving Ideas

These keto meatballs will make up a perfect breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even a snack. But usually, I serve them for dinner.

The meatballs perfectly go with the keto alfredo zoodles. But if you like cauliflower mash better than the zucchini noodles, these meatballs served in such a way will taste amazing as well.
When I have some meatballs leftovers, I usually chop them up and use them as filling for the keto cheese shell tacos or the breakfast cheese wrap.

Recipe