A delicious and comforting paleo meal that won’t have you missing real pasta! Easy oven baked Italian style paleo meatballs and sweet potato pasta are given a kick with savory garlic and onion. A fun meal for any night to please even the pickiest eaters.
Meatballs. It’s what’s for dinner like 3 times a week when all you buy is ground meat to save money. But that’s okay. Meatballs are good and there are a ton of ways to experiment with them. For months when I was marathon training my go-to pre long run dinner was turkey meatballs with sweet potato fries. I loved getting the fries all covered with the marinara sauce. Seriously, sweet potatoes and marinara go together way better than you’d ever think if you haven’t tried it. Try it and it will suddenly make all kinds of sense.
After making the fries with the meatballs for months, I finally got a spiralizer and try to spiralize my sweet potatoes, but then I wasn’t sure how to cook them. The first time I made them they were overcooked (which is difficult with these and honestly not sure how I made that mistake) and I shied away from making them for a while. But they impulsively made a comeback this week since I’m pretty pissed at spaghetti squash. Remember I left it in the oven too long last week? I’m just still not over it and couldn’t go there. Luckily my sweet potato noodles didn’t fail me – in fact- they turned out better than I thought they would! And so now I have to share and you have to hear about them. And get the recipe. And hopefully try them out. By the way, the spiralizer is not expensive and it’s definitely worth it. I got this one at Amazon and have no complaints: Paderno World Cuisine A4982799 Tri-Blade Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer
Do you think my food pictures are getting prettier? I happened to look at some older recipes and the pictures looked less than appetizing. I’m just about the least talented photographer ever so it’s a challenge and I have below average patience for these things! I’m known for not moving garbage out of backgrounds and things like that. But I really think I’m learning and improving. All from studying Instagram. Pinterest is still too depressing and defeating. But I’ll get there.
Italian Style Meatballs Over Garlic-Onion Sweet Potato Noodles
Ingredients
- For the Meatballs:
- 1.5 lbs ground lamb or other ground meat of choice
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup almond meal
- 1 tbs garlic powder
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp salt-free pizza seasoning I used Frontier
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- For the Noodles:
- 2 large sweet potatoes I used one white and one orange because it's what I had
- Olive oil
- 1/4 cup chopped onion
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup marinara sauce of choice no sugar added! I used Cucina Antica
Instructions
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Get out that spiralizer! Chop off the ends of your sweet potatoes and peel them. Attach to your sprializer and spiralize that thing down to a nub! Use a bowl to catch the noodles of course. Now do it again with the second one. Set the noodles aside.
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Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, combine all the meatball ingredients and mix well with your hands to incorporate all the flavors.
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Prepare a large baking sheet by lining with parchment paper. Form the meatball mixture into, you guessed it, BALLS about 2 inches in diameter, and place them on the parchment paper leaving a little space around each one.
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Bake them in the preheated onion for 10-15 minutes, flip, and bake for 5 more minutes.
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After you put the meatballs in the oven, heat a large sautee pan over med heat and add olive oil (or preferred fat.) Once heated, add the onions and garlic and let them cook until soft and fragrant.
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Now add the sweet potato noodles. Yes all of them. I know it's a lot, but they'll cook down soon enough. Toss and stir to coat them with fat. Now, cover the pan with a lid (or anything that will fit over it, even another pan if you don't have a lid!) and uncover to stir about once per minute to prevent burning and to ensure even cooking. I cooked mine for about 5-7 minutes covered for "al dente" but test them out to see what you like. Once they steam a bit they'll be easier to stir.
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When the meatballs have cooked, add them to a large sauce pot on the stove, and cover with marinara sauce. Turn the heat to medium and cover the pot for 5-10 minutes to heat everything through.
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Plate the steam/sauteed noodles and ladle the meatballs and sauce over the noodles. Now eat! Don't worry about leftovers - this meal saves really well for a few days.
Nutrition
I finally got a recipe plugin, about time right? I feel so…professional with the little “print” icon right next to it. Like I’ve really arrived in the world now. Kidding. I’m just kidding. But I do feel cool because I’ve been getting recipes off the internet for 14 years (jeez) and now I can say I have my own in that little box. I haven’t even tested if the print button works but if it does, I might have to use it a few times just to let the coolness sink in.
By the way, I wasn’t kidding when I said this works great for leftovers. I mixed my leftovers with kale and topped with eggs for a delicious and filling breakfast. I’m all about more bang for your buck as you know.
What are the best meatballs you’ve ever had? For me they were from a small Italian place in Queens, NY that’s sadly closed now. They also had the best pizza ever, hands down (loud sigh.) Those were the days 🙂 Enjoy your weekend!
Lindsey C says
August 16, 2014 at 10:13 amOk fine, I’ll FINALLY order me up a spiralizer! I’ve been convinced for a while, but this looks like it needs to be on the menu SOON, so I’ll be ordering today 🙂
LOVE the little print icon in the recipe box – yes, you have arrived.
Seriously, every single post you write makes me giggle out loud at some point! Don’t hold a grudge too long against spaghetti squash – it feels really bad about overlooking and promises not to do it again 🙂
Have a great Saturday! Heading out for a short run to test my hip flexor this morning – wish me luck!
Michele says
August 16, 2014 at 9:30 pmI know I’ll probably wind up buying a spaghetti squash on Monday and promising to keep better tabs on it 🙂
I don’t use my spiralizer a ton but it really is worth it to have the option! Besides once to get used to it you can spiralize almost anything. Hope you had a good run and a great day 🙂
And yes, the print icon just gives me a good feeling. I waited too long on that – tech is not my thing!
Linda @ Fit Fed and Happy says
August 16, 2014 at 6:11 pmI like the wavy look the noodles give the pasta!
Michele says
August 16, 2014 at 9:31 pmThe spiralizer makes everything looks fancy 🙂
Melynda says
August 16, 2014 at 9:33 pmI totally agree that marinara and sweet potatoes are delicious together. YUM! I just slap the marinara meat sauce on top of my sweet potato with a ton of garlic.
I need to get the spiralizer, your presentation looks so much nicer!
Michele says
August 17, 2014 at 5:46 amSounds delicious!
SuzLyfe says
August 17, 2014 at 9:17 amWhich Recipe plug in are you using? I would love to try it. And those noodles. I have been wanting a spiralizer for a long time. But I can’t justify another gadget for an already too small kitchen!
Michele says
August 17, 2014 at 10:13 amIt’s called EasyRecipe and so far so good 🙂 I hear you on the gadgets. My mistake was an ice cream maker that I’ve only used once. My kitchen is small too!
Tara Newman says
August 17, 2014 at 9:57 amWe love our Paderno and we love spiralized sweet potatoes. I agree about the the marinara/sweet potato combo. It works. I add a little franks red hot to my marinara 🙂
Michele says
August 17, 2014 at 10:15 amSounds good! I like sweet potatoes with marinara better than zucchini for now 🙂
Lisa @ Running Out Of Wine says
August 17, 2014 at 6:52 pmOK so this really has the potential to be my pre-long run/race meal. I will have to try it out! But I need a spiralizer first…or I’ll just go with the sweet potato fries!
Michele says
August 18, 2014 at 12:18 pmTry the sweet potato fries and see it you like it with the marinara!
Janet says
February 12, 2016 at 11:54 pmThis evening, I had some lamb sausage I defrosted and need to use. I couldn’t find much in the way of Paleo recipes and it was heading for the trash. Then I thought of you… You seem to be the Queen of Sausage haha. I must tell you, when I first found your blog, I did notice your great appreciation for sausage. At first I was put off. I grew up in a kosher house and never ate any of this stuff. Well, obviously, that isn’t the case anymore. This is the 2nd or 3rd recipe I have made of yours and I have to say… they all had sausage and they where all outstanding!!! I used my lamb sausage instead of the ground lamb. Whipped out my spiralizer and off I went. The noodles where brilliant and your instructions are always well done. I have lots of great ideas, but I never know how long to cook anything or at what temperature, so your recipes give me a good framework for other things too. I just had to let you know what a great job you are doing here. I have never really cooked much meat. I was a vegetarian for years and if you could be thin and healthy and just eat vegetarian food, of course with lots of cheese… I would be in. But alas, that is not the case. My husband and I have switched over to a Paleo diet and it is really pretty great on every level. We are eating better than ever, I have cooked more in 2016 then probably ever and the weight is just falling off. It’s a win-win for my household. Thanks for the inspiration. This must take a tremendous amount of time for you, but I truly believe, the more you do the more you are capable of. Keep up the good work and I look forward to trying your next recipe.
PS…I actually just bought some plantains today. Not sure how I will use them yet, but I will look here for guidance.
Michele says
February 14, 2016 at 4:51 pmI love plantains! Definitely a lot of plantains on this blog – both sweet and savory 🙂 Funny you mention the sausage because I definitely went through a phase where I had to “accept” my love for meat – and especially sausage! Thank you so much for your feedback because it means so much to me to hear given the work I put into the blog 🙂 Lots of recipes to come!