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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Liz Chase says
Got the burn notice, and then read through the comments. Wish I did that first. To avoid ruining dinners, the author should revise the recipe to have you had the sauce first (and probably make it a little thinner), and then add the meatballs.
Annette says
You would have to layer, add water not mentioned, meat top off with a sauce. Do not stir. This needs to be played with.
Tomato burns in the instant pot. I had always heard to add at end, but some you can layer, water first.
I think this recipe was a thought, not correct for what it says.
K says
I ended up making two batches of these because I had so much meat. The first batch I followed the instructions of placing the raw meatballs in the instant pot and covering with sauce. I ended up with a burn notice twice. After the second burn notice, I just left the instant pot to finish cooking the meatballs. Since I had to stir the meatballs to get rid of the burn notice, these ones fell apart slightly. In frustration I placed the remainder of formed meatballs in the fridge over night and read on another blog to add the sauce first in saute mode until warm, then placed the raw meatballs in and covered with sauce as needed. This system worked without the burn notice.
Mellissa Sevigny says
Thank you for sharing that method – I haven’t gotten a burn notice but this seems like a good way to do it anyway!
Jackie says
Want to try these… but I am on low salt/no salt diet. Do you have that nutritional info for sodium? Already using salt substitutes like mrs dash etc
Paleo Man says
This was the first time that I cooked with an Instapot. These were the best meatballs that I have ever made. My wife even ate them. Resturaunt quality.
Mellissa Sevigny says
Thanks so much!
Steve says
AMAZING! I used venison, which is very lean and falls apart very easily. In fact, browning venison meatballs is problematic, so I went the raw route. I too thought I would open the instant pot to meat sauce. But low and behold, the venison was cooked through and the meatballs held together!
Best meatballs I ever had. Whomever developed this recipe deserves the Pulitzer price. Or a genus reward or something.
I did get the burn thing, but I was able to fight through it. Best meatballs ever!!
Mellissa Sevigny says
That’s fantastic Steve, thanks for letting us know that this recipe works with Venison too!
Justin says
I followed the recipe down to every detail and after a few minutes I got a burn notice. Has anyone found the secret trick to avoid this? Upon inspection the meatballs are cooking but the sauce has lightened and looks more like a vodka sauce. I am trying again with less time, hopefully they don’t fall apart. On the bright side it smells amazing in here right now!! :)
Carolyn says
I have read on the Instant Pot website that when using a tomato based sauce you still need the additional recommended 1 cup of water/broth to avoid a burn notice. I think the tomato sauce is just too thick and does not work by itself when it is trying to come up to pressure. If you don’t want your sauce to be super runny then maybe just add the 1 cup liquid and just a little sauce and once the meatballs are cooked you can move them in a pot on the stove to warm with the rest of the sauce.
Annette says
Exactly.
Nicole says
My family and I have tried many other keto meatball recipes and this, by far, is our favorite. I have been on keto for many months now and absolutely felt as if I was indulging in the real thing. No dry meatballs here! Also, I enjoyed that fact that the flavor of the almond flour wasn’t apparent at all. I also have to admit that I didn’t read the instructions well….I put my instapot on high pressure for 10 minutes but they came out intact and wonderfully moist! This was a Sunday dinner to die for. YASSSSSS!
Julie says
Hi there
Wondering if tapioca flour would work? I am gluten free and just use regular all purpose gluten free flour?
Mellissa Sevigny says
Regular flour won’t work the same – typically bread crumbs are used in meatballs so if you have gluten free bread crumbs then that would be a good substitute.
Nikki says
Well they are cooking now. 5 minutes in I got a burn notice so I added water and restarted. Fingers crossed ? I hope it turns out they look so good!!!
Naomi says
I don’t have an IP but another brand of electric pressure cooker. It doesn’t have a low pressure option, would cooking it on normal high pressure be ok? May I ask why you didn’t use the normal high pressure function??
Mellissa Sevigny says
High pressure would likely turn these to mush.