Italian Meatballs with Zoodles is a delicious low gluten-free, low-carb dinner made with juicy cheese stuffed meatballs simmered in a simple marinara sauce served over zucchini noodles.
My family has been cutting carbs lately. While we aren’t doing a strict keto diet, we are making carbohydrate replacements often for something healthier. Swapping pasta for zoodles has ended up being one of our favorites ways to do this.
You may also like these Taco Zucchini Boats as another great family dinner night idea for lower carbs and another way to use zucchini.
Italian Meatballs with Zoodles
Italian Meatballs with Zoodles have a crunchy base of zucchini with plump, delicious sausage meatballs over top. The sauce is simple and adds just the right amount of flavor to complete the dish.
Tips & Tricks
Zoodles
Zucchini noodles are commonly known as “zoodles”. Zoodles are a healthy alternative to pasta and a great to get more vegetables in your diet! The trick to making zoodles is a quick cook time. Just a few flips in a hot pan is all it takes to cook zoodles. Don’t add salt because the salt can pull moisture from the zucchini making the zoodles too wet.
I use this Spiralizer. You can buy it from Amazon. It is affordable and easy to use.
Keto
If you are on a keto diet, make sure to read labels for all the tomato products. Tomatoes have carbohydrates so to keep them low for the day, checking labels is important. Also, keep in mind the other carbohydrates you have consumed for the day to stay on track.
Italian Meatballs with Zoodles
Equipment
- Spiralizer
Ingredients
Italian Meatballs with Zoodles
- 5 zucchinis
- olive oil
- basil leaves chopped
- Parmesan cheese shredded
Italian Meatballs
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 pound Italian sausage
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
- 1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1/2 cup mozzarella shredded
- 1/2 cup parmesan shredded
- 1/2 yellow onion
- 2 garlic cloves minced
Sauce
- 1/2 yellow onion diced
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6 ounces can tomato paste
- 24 ounces can tomato sauce
- 14 ounces can diced tomatoes
Instructions
Zoodles
- Wash zucchinis.
- Use your spiralizer according to its instructions to create zoodles from the zucchinis.
- As the sauce finishes cooking in a separate pan, cook your zoodles. Place them into a hot pan for 3 minutes. Toss frequently. I like to do this in two batches to cook them evenly.
Italian Meatballs
- Place all the meatball ingredients into a large bowl. Use wet hands to thoroughly mix the ingredients.
- Form aprox 20 meatballs. I like to use a meatball press for even meatballs.
- Drizzle some olive oil into a hot pan on the stove top. Add meatballs. Cook until browned and then flip to brown the other side. I like to do this in two batches and set the meatballs to the side for a moment.
Sauce
- Add a tiny amount of olive and the diced onion to the hot pan. Cook for 3 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook until aromatic which is about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Add the remainder of the sauce ingredients and stir.
- Add the meatballs back into pan. Lower temperature, cover pan with a lid and let simmer for 20 minutes.
- Stir in some chopped fresh basil. 1 -2 Tablespoons should be good.
- Serve over zoodles with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.
Notes
This years Halloween Bash is a kid-friendly event! I created really simple recipes for you to copy that both kids and adults are going to love and drink choices that will please the entire crowd. Have you ever had a Bloody Shirley Temple? They are bloody good and I am sharing just how to make them. My first stop when throwing a great party is Walmart to grab all the goodies. Walmart has all the Halloween decor, costumes, food and drinks you could possibly need. Print out this 
For a limited time you can find seasonal 7UP, A&W®, Sunkist®, Squirt® and Canada Dry® Minicans with your favorite characters, like Johnny or Mavis, available at Walmart on the beverage aisle. These minican beverages are the perfect size for a kids treat and you can create so many frighteningly good recipes with all the great flavors.
One of my favorite uses for 7UP is in cake mix! 7UP makes cake so moist and adds just a hint of flavor to a basic white cake. You need to give it a try for sure! I always used 7UP in the frosting and adding some freshly squeezed lemon and lime giving the cupcake a really subtle flavor that works well. Since it is Halloween, we had to dress these cupcakes up with some sprinkles, a red gel for fake blood and a gumball eyeball.
For Christmas this year, I finally received a pressure cooker! You know what that means?
Do you own a 
