Slow Cooker Italian Meatballs {Gluten Free}
These gluten-free Slow Cooker Italian Meatballs are a hearty and comforting meal for this winter season! These meatballs are slowly cooked in flavorful tomato sauce and ready to be ladled onto pasta, cauliflower rice or zucchini noodles for a wholesome dinner.
Meatballs with Zucchini noodles
Easy and low-effort meals are what I need as a busy working mom of two wild toddlers.
Slow Cookers: Make For Easy Winter Meals
I have been so obsessed with my Crock-Pot (slow cooker) this winter. It is such an easy way to have hearty and cozy dinners ready to serve with little to no fuss. Yes, sometimes I am that lazy and don’t want to attend to my food, standing by my stove for 20 minutes!
This slow cooker meatball recipe is adapted from my Classic turkey meatball recipe, which is pan seared in a cast iron skillet. They are packed with flavors and they are gluten-free and grain free.
“Cast Iron Meatballs” in Slow Cooker
As much as I love that char and crispy outside of these meatballs, some days there is not enough time for me to carefully attend to these bad boys. Also, if you don’t feel like cleaning all the oil that can splash on your stove, or maybe you just don’t feel like having that smoke in your kitchen, this is for you. It is also so helpful for those hustle and bustle days when dinner is the last thing you want to/have time to make. I just gave you some solid reasons why recently I prefer slow cooker when it comes to cooking! Trust me, I spend enough time in the kitchen and I am all about minimizing the effort and maximizing the result.
Needless to say, this recipe is one of those low-effort, high-result recipes that you are going to love. You can even have it cooking during the day while you are off to work or running errands (see that multi-tasking skill?).
Making this slow cooker meatball recipe couldn’t get any easier and it is especially delicious. Just picture this; slow-cooked meatballs and tomatoes on a cold winter day…all the prep work you need to do for this recipe is to make the meatballs (you can find the recipe Here), and submerge them in your favorite tomato sauce. After that, you can leave it alone and not check back in for another 4 hours when you can’t help yourself from that heavenly smell in your house.
To spice things up, I also like to add some mushrooms, garlic, chopped onion and some Italian herbs in this slow cooker meal. Now head down for the full recipe, I hope you and your family enjoy it!
Other Favorite Slow Cooker Recipes
One of my other favorites in addition to this is my coconut curry recipe and my sweet potato Turkey Chili. All you need is to throw all the ingredients in there and just leave it. Check out this 6-QT Crock-Pot I have (proud owner since 2013). If you need one appliance this winter, this slow cooker will be it.
Get the recipe:Slow Cooker Italian Meatballs {Gluten Free}
Ingredients
- 2 lb ground turkey or beef for the meatballs, Recipe linked below
- 1 jar tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup chopped onion
- 5 cloves minced garlic
- 2 cups cubed mushroom, optional
Instructions
- Make the meatballs (Double the serving listed in this recipe)
- Broil the Meatballs for 5 minutes
- Stir all the ingredients well in your slow cooker
- Add the meatballs on top of the sauce and aromatic
- Cook on “High” for 3 hours
- Use a fork to poke through one meatball to check doneness
- Serve with your favorite pasta, zucchini noodles or make an italian style buddha bowl
Notes
- Double the serving of this meatball recipe.
- You could use bison or grass-fed beef which will also make it really tasty!
- Broiling the meatballs will give them a nice char on top. It is optional.
The Nutrition Facts above are specific to the ingredients I chose to use for this recipe, which may vary.
