Whole30 Gyro Meatballs
A delicious, flavorful, Whole30 take on meatballs. Enjoy as-is or serve with cauliflower rice, paleo tzatziki, cucumber-tomato salad, or cauliflower tabbouleh.
Yield: meatballs
Equipment
- Oven
- large baking sheet
- Aluminum Foil or parchment paper
- neutral spray oil
- large mixing bowl
- scoop with release handle
Ingredients
For the Whole30 Gyro Meatballs
- 1 pound ground lamb or beef, or pork; lamb preferred
- ¼ cup finely minced onion
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- ¼ teaspoon fresh dill
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper more or less to taste
- ¾ teaspoon salt more or less to taste
Serving Suggestions (All Optional)
- cucumber-tomato salad see Notes for recipe
- paleo tzatziki made from this recipe
- steamed cauliflower rice with 1 squeeze lemon juice
- finely chopped fresh parsley
- finely chopped fresh dill
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425° Fahrenheit. Line baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Lightly spritz aluminum foil or parchment paper with spray oil, then set baking sheet aside.
- Add ground meat of choice, onion, garlic, egg, oregano, dill, onion powder, black pepper, and salt to large mixing bowl. Using hands, gently combine all ingredients together until mixture is well-combined and ingredients are distributed throughout.
- Using scoop with release handle (see Notes for alternative), divide mixture into equally sized portions. Quickly and gently roll each scoop between palms of hands to form smooth, round meatball, then place meatball on lined baking sheet. Repeat until entire mixture has been formed into meatballs. Mixture should yield 14 to 20 meatballs depending on size of scoop.
- Place filled baking sheet in preheated oven. Bake meatballs 10 minutes, then check doneness. Continue baking 3 to 5 minutes more, checking doneness often. Remove baking sheet from oven when meatballs are nicely browned and cooked through, and internal meat thermometer reads 155°F when inserted into center of meatballs. See Notes.
- Set meatballs aside to rest approximately 5 minutes. After resting, serve meatballs warm with desired sides and condiments.
Notes
- Scoop with Release Handle: If you don't have a cookie scoop or anything with a release handle, that's totally fine. To keep your meatballs uniform and equally sized, take the entire mixture and use a wooden spoon to divide it into 4 equal sections. From there, remove each section from the bowl and divide each section into 5 equal meatballs.
- Meat Temperatures: The meatballs will keep cooking a little as they rest on the sheet pan, so we recommend you take them out of the oven just before they hit their target temperature. For ground lamb, ground beef, and ground pork, the recommended food-safe temperature is 160°F. Take the meatballs out of the oven when they reach 155°F.
For the Cucumber-Tomato Salad
Ingredients- 1 cup tomatoes (diced, halved, or chopped)
- 1 cup diced cucumber (sweated)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt (more or less to taste)
- Add all ingredients to a small bowl and stir to combine. Taste and add more salt if needed.
Nutrition
Serving Size: 1meatball | Calories: 69cal | Protein: 4g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.001g | Cholesterol: 26mg | Sodium: 104mg | Potassium: 60mg | Total Carbs: 0.5g | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 0.1g | Vitamin A: 15IU | Vitamin C: 0.3mg | Calcium: 8mg | Iron: 0.4mg