March 24, 2022

Oven-Baked Whole30 Meatballs with Mom's Gravy

Made By Whole30Made By Whole30

Oven-Baked Whole30 Meatballs with Mom’s Gravy

Ingredients  

Meatballs

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • ½ lb ground Italian pork sausage
  • 1 tbsp dried minced onion
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp ground black pepper
  • ¼ tsp kosher salt
  • ½ tbsp coconut aminos
  • 1 egg
  • ½ tsp fish sauce
  • ½ tsp distilled white vinegar

Gravy

  • Pan drippings
  • 1 cup beef broth
  • ¼-½ tsp Kosher salt (Start with 1/4 tsp and add more slowly if desired)
  • ¼-½ tsp ground black pepper (Start with 1/4 tsp and add more if desired)
  • ¼ tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tbsp cassava flour
  • ½ cup water

Instructions

Meatballs

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  • In a bowl, mix together all meatball ingredients and roll into about 1.5″ balls. Mine usually makes 14 meatballs
  • Take a few spoonfuls of cassava flour and spread out on a plate. Roll each meatball in the flour, making sure they are just lightly coated.
  • In a medium sized skillet, heat up 1 Tablespoon of avocado or olive oil to about medium heat (You want your pan to sizzle when you add the meatballs)
  • Add in enough meatballs that you’re not crowding your skillet, and brown on all sides. You’re not cooking them through, but browning them. This takes about 5 minutes per batch. Work in batches until all of your meatballs have been browned. If needed, add more oil to your pan if it gets dry during the process
  • Placed browned meatballs into a casserole dish with a lid. Mine is a 2.5 quart and fits everything nicely.

Gravy

  • Keeping your pan drippings after browning the meatballs, add beef broth, kosher salt, ground black pepper, and garlic powder. Bring to a nice simmer and allow to cook for about 5-6 minutes
  • While that is simmering, mix 2 Tablespoons of cassava flour with 1/2 cup of warm water to make a “slurry”.
  • Turn up the heat on the gravy and slowly pour in the slurry while constantly whisking. Your gravy will start to thicken. Remove from heat when you've reached a nice thick consistency.
  • Grab your immersion blender and place it in the gravy and blend until the gravy is a nice thick creamy light brown color. Tip: You may have to tip your pan a bit to pool the gravy enough to get it to blend. Just keep your blender head flat to the bottom of the pan if you do this.
  • Pour the gravy over the meatballs, cover, and bake in the over for 30 minutes.
  • Remove from the oven and allow to rest about 20 minutes before serving (They will be piping hot!) Tip; Your gravy may seem thin when you remove the dish from the oven. It will thicken back up as it rests and cools a bit.
  • Serve over mashed potatoes. Enjoy!

Lindsay Rhodes

Lindsay Rhodes currently lives in Chicago. She attended Butler University where she received her B.S. in Marketing and a minor in Strategic Communication. Previously, Lindsay has worked for management consulting firms as a marketing consultant and as a campus recruiter.