Make a big batch of these Paleo Slow Cooker Meatballs for a delicious stress-free dinner! Easy, Whole30, Paleo friendly, and kid friendly meatballs in marinara sauce that makes enough for a crowd and great for leftovers. Serve with veggie noodles, sweet potatoes, or even eggs – they’re perfect with anything!
You know what’s been missing from my meal rotation? Slow cooker recipes.
In the past I never actually needed my slow cooker – it was more “fun & different” than an actual requirement in my life. But, beginning with this school year, there are several days we don’t get home until 6, sometimes 7.
I don’t have a shortage of go-to meals I can whip up in under 30 minutes, but, under 5? Don’t have any of those. Even the best microwave dinners from the 90’s took at least 7-8 minutes, I think.
Let’s just forget I mentioned microwave dinners of any kind, mmkay? I have more appealing, healthy and delicious things to talk about today!
1.) The beauty and ease of Paleo slow cooker meatballs in sauce and
2.) Western Grassfed Beef – an incredible 100% grass fed beef company that’s Certified Paleo and Paleo Approved!
I typically don’t make meatballs with beef alone, but after sampling the Western Grassfed Beef 85% ground beef (for burgers) – along with NY Striploin steak, beef stew meat, and Ribeye steak – I knew the superior flavor and quality would make great meatballs!
Western Grassfed Beef is a 100% grass fed beef company that’s been around from 2002. Earlier this year, they also started selling beef online!
Their beef is 100% grass-fed and finished and all cattle are born & raised in the USA. They are also Certified Paleo and Paleo Approved by the Paleo Foundation for all products!
The high quality grass fed ground beef proved to work out perfectly in my slow cooker meatball recipe! Meatballs are a huge favorite for my family – one of those meals that always gets eaten – which means stress-free dinner for me.
I’m always trying to find ways to make dinnertime less stressful, because, let’s face it – it’s not my finest hour of the day. I can pull it together at 7am, but 7pm is another story.
These Paleo slow cooker meatballs are more than just stress management though – they’re seriously delicious! I’ve owned this slow cooker for a few years now and love that you can program the cook time so you can use it overnight, or while you’re out all day and come home to everything ready to eat.
The prep time for the meatballs and sauce is about 15 minutes, but this can easily be done ahead of time and refrigerated overnight if you want to throw the meatballs in the slow cooker before leaving in the morning.
I do recommend browning them under the broiler for a few minutes to avoid an overly greasy sauce, but the meatballs will also turn out fine if you skip this step and put them straight in the slow cooker with the sauce.
The final consideration is what to serve them with! I honestly will eat meatballs with anything, and have been known to eat them with eggs and sweet potatoes for breakfast whenever I can.
If you have the time/motivation to spiralize a sweet potato for “noodles” – they are delicious this way! Otherwise, anything will do – you really can’t go wrong here!
Be sure to visit Western Grassfed Beef to receive a 15% discount off your first grass fed beef order with this code: RunningMomma15. Their beef is now the family favorite and nothing else measures up! I know you will love it!
Paleo Slow Cooker Meatballs in Marinara Sauce {Whole30}
Paleo Slow Cooker Meatballs in Marinara Sauce {Whole30}
Ingredients
For the Meatballs:
- 1 3/4 lbs ground beef 85% lean*
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup blanched almond flour
- 3/4 tsp fine grain sea salt divided
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning blend**
- generous pinch crushed red pepper adjust for spice preference
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley - optional
For the Sauce:
- 28 oz can crushed tomatoes with basil***
- 14 oz can diced tomatoes with basil and garlic***
- 1 - 6 oz can tomato paste
- 1/2 medium onion chopped
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh garlic
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano leaves
- 2 bay leaves
- sea salt to taste
Instructions
To Make the Meatballs:
- In a small bowl, mix together the almond flour, 1/2 tsp of the sea salt, onion and garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and crushed red pepper.
- In a large bowl, add the ground beef and sprinkle evenly with the remaining sea salt. Add the egg and almond flour mix (plus parsley if adding) and gently mix with your hands until the mixture binds and is evenly distributed. It's important not to work the meat too much or it becomes tough.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat your broiler. Form the meat mixture into 20 meatballs and arrange on the baking sheet.
- Broil 2-4 minutes just to lightly brown and release a small amount of fat (this avoids an overly greasy sauce) and remove promptly.
- Add the meatballs to the slow cooker, leaving behind any rendered fat. Top the meatballs with all sauce ingredients and give a gentle stir (careful not to break the meatballs!)
- Cover and cook on low for 4 hours, until meatballs are cooked through****
- Serve when ready to eat with anything you want and garnish with your favorite fresh herbs. Sweet potato noodles are a favorite (white sweet potato noodles are pictured) zucchini noodles, or simply your favorite roasted veggies, potatoes, or even eggs. I love to use the leftovers and sauce for variety in breakfast and lunch the next day!
- Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to one month.
Recipe Notes
*You can use your favorite mix of ground meat as well
**I used this one
***I used this can of crushed tomatoes and this can of diced tomatoes - I recommend always adding extra basil and garlic if you use plain tomatoes.
****Each slow cooker is a bit different. I cooked mine for 4 hours, you can check at 3.5 hours if you can and adjust cook time from there, if necessary. Cook time should not be longer than 4.5/5 hours or meatballs will be overcooked and dry.
Nutrition
What I Used To Make My Paleo Slow Cooker Meatballs in Marinara Sauce
Tell me!
Is the slow cooker a necessary part of your life right now?
What do dinners at your house look like lately?
A big thanks to Western Grassfed Beef for sponsoring this post! Remember to receive 15% off your first order using this code: RunningMomma15
Note: This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Paleo Running Momma!
I was just thinking that I should start making meatballs in a slow cooker. I used to cook them over the weekend and freeze them, but lately I haven’t had time for that. I will have to give these a try this week!
I was pleasantly surprised that they came out as well as they did in the slow cooker! Another plus is that the sauce came out really tasty too – and I rarely make my own sauce. I have to say the slow cooker makes the sauce-from-scratch thing extremely easy!
I’m the person who literally couldn’t care less about the noodles (until I met zoodles)–give me the sauce and the veggies and whatever. I think I found a new slow cooker recipe!
The sauce is amazing, love anything with it!
Will definitely try this recipe. I am not in crock pot mode yet because my husband wants to extend bbq season as much as possible. Starting in November though it will be an integral part of my weekend routine.
Extended bbq season is not a bad thing at all!
Slow cooker is a necessary part of my life always! The summer especially when it’s too hot to turn on the oven. I’ve used mine so much I’m now due for a new one.
They are major lifesavers – now all I need is more good recipes 🙂
yup, sign me up! you know i love slow cookers, and meatballs are just my fav!!. like my heaven!!! genius
I could eat meatballs all day every day and not complain lol!
I didn’t think about that, but that’s a good idea to have meatballs with sweet potatoes. It would be the perfect balance of sweet and savory. 🙂 Yum does not adequately describe how delicious these look.
I love my slow cooker. It gets used at least twice a week. I try to cook up a roast or pork shoulder over the weekend to have for lunches and quick dinners (or breakfasts) for the week. Having meals prepped and ready to eat is key in my house. We call 5:30 “cranky o’clock” at my house. Dinner is usually my daughter and I – my husband works late most nights. I’m like you – in the mornings I can bust out all the nutritious food and I love to throw dinner in the crock pot and not think about it. I can’t wait to add this to our meal plan!
Okay, I hope you share more savory slow cooker recipes, this looks INSANE and I can almost taste it from the screen.
Crossing my fingers that NYC temps drop dramatically 😀
You might be surprised to hear this but I make a mean meatball and by mean, I mean good. Holy cow, that was a lot of means in one sentence. Anyway, these look fantastic and if I were dipping my toe in the meat pond, it would be with these.
Can’t wait to try this! Never thought about using a slow cooker for meatballs. What did you use for noodles in your photos? Is that a white sweet potato?
Yup those are white sweet potato noodles – love those or butternut noodles lately!
Hi! Your white sweet potato noodles look so elegant. What kind of spiralizer do you use to achieve that ribbon-y texture? Thanks!
Hi Elizabeth! Thank you! I love this Paderno spiralizer: http://amzn.to/2ipT93u – this one comes with 4 blades so you can pick whatever “shape” you want, but they also make simpler ones which you can see through the above link as well 🙂
Any trick to using really hard veggies in the spirializer? I have the same one and every time I try anything harder than zucchini the tines just rip the veg and it won’t work.
How can you rate 5 stars when you haven’t even tried it yet??
These are the the BEST meatballs I’ve ever had – homemade, paleo or not or otherwise! I shall never make or serve any other. The sauce is also Amazing! Our family went crazy over them and they have No concept of paleo. Thank you thank you!!
This comment made my day! So thrilled you love them 🙂
Wondering if you have any option to substitute the almond flour? One
Of my kids has peanut/treenut allergies. Thanks
I’ve made this without the almond flour at all and it still comes out really well!
Hi, I see you noted about leaving out the almond flour. Some of my kids are allergic to nuts and eggs as well. I’ve made non paleo meatballs by adding a little water instead of the egg but I did use breadcrumbs or potato starch. I would like to try a paleo version and not have to make 2 different dinners! Do you think I should give it a try and leave out both! Thanks!
I’ve tried tapioca flour and that works, I’d use a Tbsp less than the almond flour measurement. I’m not sure about the eggs, but you can try the water and see if that works out!
Thanks! I’ll let you know!
Ground flax meal and or flax ‘eggs’?
A shredded medium zucchini helps bind and if you use the smaller shred on the side of a hand-held metal shredder they disappear into the meatballs.
Do you have the nutritional value for this recipe?
So sorry I don’t track nutrition info for my recipes! You can use an online calculator to get a better idea per serving.
My son cannot have eggs. What would you substitute instead?
Instead of substituting (I’m not sure what would work for sure) I think your best best is to use fattier ground meat (perhaps a combo of 80% beef and some pork or lamb) since fattier meats are better for binding. Also, making sure not to over-mix the meat and keeping the meatballs on the smaller side should help! Let me know how it goes!
do you think I could prep the meatballs and then freeze with the sauce ingredients and just put the whole thing in the slow cooker when I want to use?! I am trying to make some meals for the freezer!
I haven’t tried making it beginning with everything frozen but it’s worth a shot, I think it should be fine but perhaps need a bit longer. Let me know how it works out!
If I just want to make the sauce (no meatballs), how long to you recommend in the crockpot? I’m having trouble finding Whole30 compliant marinara sauce in the store, so I figured I’d make my own to have in the fridge for busy weeknights. Thanks!
Are the sweet potato “noodles” raw or cooked? If cooked, how long? Thanks!
I typically sauté them or roast in the oven. I usually will sauté for 3-4 minutes until just softened, and if I roast them it’s on 400F for about 15 minutes I think. Hope this helps!
Hi I was wondering if I just wanted to make the meatballs without the sauce, cook you bake them and how long would you think? Thanks so much!
*could 🙂
Yup! I would bake them for about 20 minutes or so on 400 F, turning once in the middle. Oven times vary though so watch them and check for doneness.
Look forward to trying this. I’ve always replaced almond/coconut flour with Duxells, taught to me by a french chef.
Would these meatballs taste ok with bbq sauce instead of marinara or would that be best with a different meatball recipe?
Hmm, that depends, since there are some Italian seasonings in the meatballs themselves so you’d have that flavor in there too. I have a recipe for Salisbury steak meatballs that might work better with that type of sauce: https://www.paleorunningmomma.com/paleo-salisbury-steak-meatballs-whole30
This was delicious. I’m just curious do yours look pink in the middle when done? I checked the temp on two and they were up to temp but I started to worry as I continued to eat them because they looked pink in the middle. Just nervous I’m going to get sick. ?
I think a little pink is okay since it’s beef, which tends to be pink even when cooked through. You can try cooking a bit longer next time if you want though just to be sure 🙂
Do you have an instant pot recipe for this?
Nope – I haven’t made meatballs in the Instant pot so not sure of the timing, though I’m sure it can be done.
Hi Michele!
These look great. I have never worked with almond flour before, do you think it gives it a weird taste or is kind of tasteless? Can’t wait to try these 🙂
My whole family loves these meatballs and it makes my heart happy that they are full of good ingredients!!
I make a big batch of meatballs so I can freeze half. But I’m too lazy to make the sauce, our Aldi simple organic marinaras are sugar free and great!!
So glad you all liked it! And I do the same with the sauce, lol, although it’s definitely good when I actually make it myself!
Hi I made these last night and they were amazing! They were so good that it fed a family of 6 but didn’t leave me with any leftovers! I don’t think I can fit more than that amount in my slow cooker. Can I make this in a large pot or oven? If yes for
How long? Thank you so much for sharing recipes and answering questions!
Yes I believe you can! You can bake the meatballs and make the sauce on stovetop, them simmer the meatballs in the sauce on low heat to get all the flavors in the meatballs. Hope this helps!
I have houseguests that are currently on a Ketogenic diet. Would it be possible to make these in the crockpot without the sauce?
Hello, thank you for sharing your recipe. I tweaked it just slightly by adding 1/2 lb pork and adding the “magic mushroom” spice from nomnom paleo and just adding in 1.5 jars of Kirkland marinara sauce (no added sugar and the taste is pretty good!). It made delicious meatballs. Thanks again!
So glad it worked out well for you – yum!
Do you know if this can be done in an Instantpot to save time?
This was so delicious!! I was planning on making this in my slow cooker, but time got away from me so I made it in my Instant Pot instead. Followed the directions exactly, with exception of the IP. I cooked the meatballs for 8 minutes under high pressure with a quick release and it turned out great! Thanks as always for your winning recipes!
Can you tell me more how you did this? With or without sauce?
Hi Michele! This looks delicious! Where do you get your sweet potato noodles?
Thanks so much!
Made this tonight on my Day2. It was wonderful, had it over cauliflower rice. I will make these again but with spaghetti squash. Kids liked it too!!
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This was a wonderful recipe. My husband and I enjoyed this over zoodles and it hit the spot. There was plenty left over so I froze it and had it again a few weeks later. AND…There was still a little extra sauce so I used it on my almond flour and flax seed crust pizza! Thank you, thank you! I’ve had great success with several of your recipes! Keep them coming!
I’m the individual who truly couldn’t think less about the noodles give me the sauce and the veggies and whatever. I think I found another moderate cooker formula. I was looking forward to foods high in arginine
Hi, just wondering if I could double this recipe for a slower cooker? Tipping I probably wouldn’t need to double the sauce though? Have a large group of friends to feed this weekend.
Hello,
I double the batch every time and freeze what is leftover.
Can you use turkey meat instead with this recipe? If so, what should cooking time be? Thank you!
The dish you prepared is delicious.
I love meatballs recipe. This is really so easy to understand and make the meatball with slow cooker at home. Thank you for sharing this wonderful article.
How long would I cook this in a Dutch oven?
Thank you for sharing this wonderful article. I love meatballs recipes. This is really so easy to understand and make the meatball with a slow cooker at home.
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Damn those meatballs look very tasty. Well people doing Paleo diet must be enjoying this dish. Can’t wait to start cooking these meatballs. Thanks a lot for the recipe.