Low-Carb Sweet and Sour Meatballs in Sauce Recipe

Susie T. Gibbs September 19, 2019 Beef Main Dish Recipes, CarbSmart Magazine, Main Dish Recipes, Menu Planning, Pork Main Dish Recipes, Recipes, Side Dish Recipes Leave a comment 1,185 Views

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Sweet and Sour Meatballs in Sauce Recipe by Susie T. Gibbs

Originally published in the October 2013 issue of CarbSmart Magazine, Updated 09/17/2019.

Low-Carb Sweet and Sour Meatballs in Sauce is the perfect mix of protein, sweet and sour. The addition of 1 teaspoon of Sambal Oelek Sauce or Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce spices up this incredible side dish or meal.

Serving Size: 8-12 small meatballs, ½-¾ cup sauce Yield: 4-6 Servings
Preparation Time: 20 Minutes
Cooking Time: 5 Hours
Start to Finish: 5 Hours 25 Minutes

Low-Carb Sweet and Sour Meatballs in Sauce Recipe

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Author: Susie T. Gibbs
Prep Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 5 hours
Total Time: 5 hours 20 minutes
Yield: 8-12 small meatballs, ½-¾ cup sauce Yield: 4-6 Servings 1x

Ingredients

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For Meatballs:

1/2 cup onions, chopped fine
1/8 cup cilantro, chopped fine
1/8 cup Italian parsley, chopped fine
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped or pressed
1 tablespoon ginger root, grated
1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder
2 tablespoons gluten-free tamari soy sauce, or coconut aminos
1 teaspoon Sambal Oelek Sauce or Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce (may add a couple grams of carbs from sugar)
salt and pepper
1/8 cup ground flaxseed, ground almond flour, or 3 tbsp coconut flour
1/4 cup Bacon’s Heir Pork Panko 0 carb pork rind crumbs
1/8 cup dry sherry, or 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
2 large eggs
3/4 pound ground chuck, 80/20, raw
3/4 pound ground pork
2 tablespoons olive oil

For Sauce:

1/2 cup reduced sugar ketchup (or try Dana Carpender’s Low-Carb Ketchup recipe)
1 cup beef broth or beef bone broth or chicken bone broth stock
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped or pressed
1 tablespoon ginger root, grated
1/4 cup gluten-free tamari soy sauce, or coconut aminos
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, custom, Bragg’s preferred
1/2 cup pineapple, chopped finely
1 teaspoon Sambal Oelek Sauce, or Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce
12 drops EZSweetz Liquid Sweetener or EZ-Sweetz Liquid De-Bittered Stevia Sweetener (to taste)
1 cup red and green bell pepper, seeded and cut into large chunks
1 cup onion, cut into large chunks
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon glucomannan powder or your favorite low carb thickener

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Instructions

Finely chop onions, cilantro leaves and Italian parsley.
Pour onion mixture into a large mixing bowl and combine with finely chopped or pressed garlic, grated ginger root, five-spice powder, tamari or coconut aminos, Sambal Oelek Sauce (found on the Chinese food isle of most grocery stores next to the soy sauce) or Sriracha Hot Chili sauce, salt and pepper.
Stir to combine.
Add ground flaxseed (or ground almond flour or coconut flour), pork rind crumbs, dry sherry and lightly beaten eggs.
Stir until mixture is evenly combined.
Crumble ground chuck and pork into mixture.
Use the tines of a fork turned upside down so the tines point away from you and fluff meat into mixture until well combined.
Use a side-to-side motion.
This keeps the mixture from compacting and keeps the meatballs very tender.
Roll into balls using about 2-4 tablespoons per meatball–about 30-56 meatballs. 30 meatballs is about a 1 ounce meatball. Roughly double the quantity of meatballs produced if you want smaller meatballs.
Preheat oven to 400°. Place meatballs on a 14×18 baking sheet.
Drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil.
Roll the meatballs around to lightly coat with olive oil-butter mixture. (Use your favorite olive oil, but it does not have to be extra virgin. We use Bertolli Extra Light for this because the smoke point is slightly higher–but it is more processed than EVOO).
Bake 20-25 minutes, turning once. Meatballs should become brownish. Remove from oven.
In a large crockpot, whisk beef broth into ketchup until smooth.
Add garlic, ginger, tamari or coconut aminos, fresh chopped pineapple, sambal oelek or Sriracha sauce, concentrated stevia drops (or EZ Sweetz) and mix well.
Drop in roughly cut red and green bell pepper and onions (in about 1 inch chunks). Stir.
Pour meatballs and pan juices into the crockpot.
Stir gently to cover in sauce.
Turn on low, cover and cook 5-8 hours.
Try not to stir very often–it will make the meatballs break up.
If you have a bit more in your budget, you can also add an extra ¼ cup of dry vermouth.
When you are ready to serve remove meatballs to a serving bowl.
Add sesame oil (which should only be added at the end of Asian dishes to keep the oil intact) and add your favorite thickener to the gravy until it reaches a preferred consistency. It might not be necessary! Your choice. (We use 1 to 1 ½ teaspoon of glucomannan powder.)
Pour gravy over meatballs and serve.

Nutrition

Serving Size: 6 Servings - 8-12 meatballs
Calories: 436
Sodium: 1551mg
Fat: 31g (64.2% calories from fat)
Carbohydrates: 13g (Net Carbs 9g)
Fiber: 4g
Protein: 26g
Cholesterol: 154mg

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Purchase Pork Panko – 0 Carb Pork Rind Breadcrumbs at Amazon.com.

4 Servings Per Recipe – Per Serving: 654 Calories; 47g Fat (64.2% calories from fat); 39g Protein; 20g Carbohydrate; 6g Dietary Fiber; 231mg Cholesterol; 2327mg Sodium; 14g Net Carbs.
$2.82/serving ($11.28/recipe)

6 Servings Per Recipe – Per Serving: 436 Calories; 31g Fat (64.2% calories from fat); 26g Protein; 13g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 154mg Cholesterol; 1551mg Sodium; 9g Net Carbs.
$1.88/serving ($11.28/recipe)

Sweet and Sour Meatballs in Sauce Recipe Notes

There will likely be sauce leftover! This makes about 4-5 cups of sauce. If you don’t want to eat the full amount of sauce divided by the number of servings and instead choose to use a smaller portion of sauce, here is the nutritional information for the sauce.

Figuring about ½ cup Sauce Per Serving: 36 Calories; 1g Fat (15.6% calories from fat); 2g Protein; 7g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 799mg Sodium; 5g Net Carbs.)

Care must be taken when adding glucomannan powder to a liquid. It clumps like crazy! Sprinkle over the broth lightly and whisk like mad to keep it from thickening. You can also mix it into an oil such as olive oil and whisk it into gravies…less clumping!

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