Gluten-Free Freezer Meatballs {recipe}

I have a recipe for freezer meatballs that I used for years and years.  And then I had to go gluten-free…and then nightshade-free, and I couldn’t eat them anymore.  This took several recipes out of my overall repertoire, because they relied on the meatballs!  I recently adapted that recipe to create a gluten-free freezer meatballs recipe.

Gluten-Free Freezer Meatballs

Gluten-Free Freezer Meatballs

 

Author: Rachel Ramey

Recipe type: Building Block

Allergy Info: Gluten-Free

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These freezer meatballs are gluten-free, grain-free, egg-free, and nightshade-free.

Ingredients

• 4 lbs. ground beef
• 1 c. almond flour or almond meal
• 8 oz. sweet potato baby food (or other sweet potato purée)
• ½ Tbsp. pepper
• ½ Tbsp. garlic powder

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix all ingredients together thoroughly with your hands.
3. Roll mixture into balls approximately 1" in diameter. (Mine are usually a tad bigger than this.)
4. Place on rimmed baking sheets. (A single batch will fill 2 jelly roll pans.)
5. Bake for 20 minutes. (If you've made them much bigger than 1 inch, you might need to cook for a few minutes longer.)
6. Flash freeze*, then divide into bags and put in freezer for up to 6 months.

Notes

*Flash freezing is freezing a food individually, or spread out, until solid, to prevent sticking. Once the food is solid, you can dump it together into freezer bags or containers.

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More About the GF Freezer Meatballs

Due to the lack of egg, these are slightly more fragile than the original meatballs.  They hold together pretty well, except if they stick really badly to the pan — which they have an added propensity to in areas where the grease doesn’t settle, because the sugar from the sweet potatoes caramelizes to the pan.  So, where I usually just grab the original ones with my fingers and “pop” them off of the pan, it’s really better to scrape these loose with a spatula first.

Normally, I don’t worry too much about the layer of grease in the pan when I’m flash-freezing.  I just break it apart when the meatballs are ready to go into the pan. This beef must have had a higher fat content, though, than what I usually use, and there was a lot of grease, so I removed the meatballs and placed them on a fresh, clean baking sheet before freezing.  That’s tidier, but makes for extra dishes.

Freezer Meatballs Step by Step

After preheating your oven, start the meatballs by putting all of the ingredients in a large bowl. (I’ve photographed them here in sections, so you can see them all, but I actually recommend spreading the ingredients around so you’re less likely to end up with a big spot of unmixed pepper or something.

You can use any sweet potato purée you want, but for reference, this is what I used:

Mix the ingredients thoroughly with your hands.  Then roll it into balls about an inch or so in diameter and place them on rimmed cookie sheets.

You don’t want them to be actually touching, but you don’t have to spread them out a lot, either.  They won’t spread like cookies.

Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through.  (If you’ve made them more than a tad larger than an inch, they may take a few extra minutes.)

(For some reason, the meatballs this time seem to have floated around on the mass of oil and moved out of their original locations.)

Gently loosen the meatballs from the baking sheets.  If desired, transfer to clean baking sheets (or pour off the grease and put them back on the original ones), and then place in the freezer to flash-freeze (freeze until solid).

Once again loosen the meatballs from the pan, and place them in a labeled freezer bag.

Seal up and freeze until needed.