Paleo Meatballs

Welcome back!

Well, I have some recipes to catch up on (we are on Day 11 after all!).  Some of them were excellent and some need a little adjustment before I post them.  And some of our old stand-bys are passing the test beautifully.  To get this recipe roll-call going, we're going to start with tonight's meal: Paleo Meatballs.

Already prejudiced towards my Italian Grandma Lucy's homemade-non-paleo-version, I did not have very high expectations for these 'health-food' meat mounds.  But I was pleasantly surprised and my husband gobbled these down, as if he forgot they were 'healthy'.

There are a few sources to reference when discussing where I got the idea for this recipe, but they were all relatively the same and I simply adjusted it slightly for the items I had in the fridge and what I wanted to use up before it went bad.  To see the original recipes, you can check out CrossFit Football, Everyday Paleo, and/or Food.com.  Here is my permutation:

Ingredients

1 lb ground turkey
1/2 lb ground pork
2 celery sticks, chopped small/thin
1/2 medium onion, chopped fine
2 Tbs fresh oregano
1 1/2 Tbs Dijon or spicy brown mustard (whatever you have that is 'paleo')
2 eggs
about 1 Tbs garlic salt
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Mix all of the above well in a large bowl.  Shape about 2/3 cup of the mixture into balls (or enough to make the meatball just smaller than your fist, they will cook down smaller by the end).  Cook the meatballs however you prefer; in the oven, on the range, or in a slow cooker.  I browned mine in a dutch oven with 1 Tbs pasture-raised pork fat (from my friends at the Old Havana Cuban Sandwich Shop) and 2-3 Tbs olive oil, or however much was needed to coat the bottom of the dutch oven.  I preheated the oil on medium-high and then added my meatballs.

Once the meatballs were done, I removed them from the pot to make the sauce:

Ingredients

1 16 oz can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
5-6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 handful of fresh basil leaves, torn coarsely
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

With the meatballs resting on a plate, I deglazed the dutch oven with the diced tomatoes, added the rest of the ingredients plus the meatballs, returned the sauce to a simmer and reduced the heat to low.  After the flavors melded (about 10-15 minutes) serve up with your favorite veggie sides!!

Buon appetito!!!