Instant Pot Low Carb Margherita Pizza Meatballs

Instant Pot Low Carb Margherita Pizza Meatballs stuffed with mozzarella cheese bakes in a delicious marinara red sauce. A perfect keto meal. Keto too!

Instant Pot Low Carb Margherita Pizza Meatballs stuffed with mozzarella cheese bakes in a delicious marinara red sauce.

A perfect keto meal to keep you full and satisfied for hours. With my method for making meatballs and this delicious recipe for the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker, you can have a restaurant quality meal in under 30 minutes.

 

Ingredients to Low Carb Margherita Pizza Meatballs.

Wet Ingredients

• Ground Beef and Ground Pork, or just Ground Beef
• Egg
• Heavy Cream
• Mozzarella or Oaxaca Cheese
• Dry Red Wine or Shaoxing Wine – if you are opposed to wine, just leave it out.
• Tomato Sauce or Rao’s Marinara Sauce
• Fresh Garlic and Onion

Dry Ingredients

• Pork Rinds – pork rinds make a great low carb binder for the meatballs. Believe it or not, they don’t taste like pork rinds when cooked.
• Dried Oregano
• Dried Basil and Fresh Basil
• Sea Salt and Pepper
• Fennel Seeds – they add great flavor

If you are gasping at Pork Rinds, please know that I don’t like them either, as a snack. The smell, taste, etc., is just not for me. That being said, pork rinds make a great binder and Low Carb Seasoned breading. My Low Carb Chicken Schnitzel recipe is incredible.

 

Why Use a Food Processor?

For making meatballs a food processor is absolutely essential. I like this large Cuisinart food processor.

See my Low Carb Pressure Cooker Broccoli Cheddar Soup recipe. I go into detail in that recipe.

How much do I love using a food processor for meatballs (and other recipes)? Let’s count the ways:

Meatballs

• Pressure Cooker Italian Meatballs in Red Wine Sauce
• Pressure Cooker Greek Meatballs {Keftedes}
• Homemade Pressure Cooker Gefilte Fish {Jewish Fish Balls}
• Pressure Cooker Americana Wedding Soup

Other recipes

• Pressure Cooker Salisbury Steak w/Onion Mushroom Gravy
• Low Carb Pasta de Bocaditos Jamón {Cuban Ham Spread}
• Instant Pot Chicken and Rice + Video

Plus, about a hundred more recipes!

 

Everyone loves lots of cheese on their pizza.

Stuff the meatballs as full as you can. I like using a cookie scoop, so that all the meatballs are the same size. I recommend this set of cookie scoops.

Because of using a food processor, the meatballs will roll out nice and tight and stay nicely bound.

There should be lots of cheese gushing out after cooking!

 

Sliced onions on the bottom will release water, eliminating the need to add liquid.

A good Margherita Pizza is made with just a plain really good pure San Marzano tomatoes, crushed/sauce, olive oil and a dash of sea salt.

It’s quick and easy to make this happen right in the pot while the meatballs are cooking!

Dry red wine adds such a wonderful depth of flavor to red sauces, however if you don’t want it, don’t use it.

 

Another option for the sauce would be a nice marinara, such as Rao’s Homemade Marinara Sauce, which is lower in carbs and sugar than most jarred sauces and tastes very nice.

For a jarred sauce, it would be one that I do recommend.

 

The meatballs will cook while snuggled down in the sauce.

At the same time, the oil from the meatballs will flavor the sauce well.

Some cheese may ooze out from some of the meatballs during cooking. It can happen if the meatball is not super tightly formed. It’s really no big deal though, as the flavor will be the same.

 

The above photos shows just how perfectly in tact the meatballs are after pressure cooking. This is the result of using a food processor.

Fresh Asiago or Parmesan cheese is always best purchased in a block or triangle, like a slice of pie.

The packaged shredded usually has some type of white powder, perhaps cornstarch, to keep the strands from sticking. Not only will that dry out the cheese a bit, it adds carbs.

I use this Microplane Artisan Ribbon Grater to easily shred the cheese.

 

Fresh basil adds beautiful flavor and smells heavenly.

This photo is how Instant Pot Low Carb Margherita Meatballs got its name. It started out as Pressure Cooker Low Carb Pizza Stuffed Meatballs, but that is a mouthful and doesn’t really flow.

Tips and Tricks for Instant Pot Low Carb Margherita Meatballs

1. Use a food processor.
2. Cut the mozzarella or Oaxaca cheese into chunks and keep in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to stuff the meatballs.
3. Lay onions along bottom of pressure cooker to add flavor and produce liquid.
4. Roll meatballs as tight as possible.
5. Grate/shred your own cheese from a block of cheese.

 

The meatballs are tender and juicy and oozing with cheese in every bite.

I’m sure everyone is tired of cauliflower, so try serving this Instant Pot Low Carb Margherita Pizza Meatballs with my Pressure Cooker Baingan Bharta {Indian Eggplant Stew}. It’s low carb and so delicious.

More Italian Recipes to Try.

• Pressure Cooker Italian Chicken Marsala {Pressure Cooker}
• Pressure Cooker Italian Meyer Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake
• Pressure Cooker Bruschetta Chicken with Zoodles
• Low Carb Chicken Schnitzel {Chicken Cutlets}

Kitchen Equipment and Essentials

• Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker
• J.A. Henckels Classic 8 inch Chef’s Knife
• Cuisinart Large Food Processor
• Amco Advanced Performance 18/10 Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons
• Simply Gourmet (Dry) Stainless Steel Measuring Cups
• Anchor Hocking Glass (Liquid) Measuring Cups
• My FANTASTIC Teak Cutting & Charcuterie Board & Compartments
• Microplane Artisan Ribbon Grater
• Cookie Scoop

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Here is the handy printable recipe:

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