Slow Cooker Spaghetti and Pesto Meatballs Recipe
"It happens to the best of us. Sometimes a pasta craving hits, and hits hard. Don’t let your autoimmune diet keep you from spaghetti night. This AIP crockpot spaghetti and pesto meatballs recipe is just what the doctor ordered. You guessed it – no flour-filled pasta noodles for this AIP recipe. But zucchini makes a lovely substitute. If you’d like, you can certainly cheat on this step. I’ve been finding ready-to-go zucchini noodles at the store in both the produce section and the frozen foods aisle."
NotesNUTRITION
Calories: 496 Sugar: 1 g Fat: 45 g Carbohydrates: 2 g Fiber: 1 g Protein: 20 g
All nutritional data are estimated and based on per serving amounts.
Yields4 Servings
Preparation Time15 min
Cooking Time4 hr
Ingredients
- 1 lb (450 g) ground beef
- 3 Tablespoons (45 ml) AIP Basil Pesto
- 3 Tablespoon (45 ml) avocado oil
- 2 cups (480 ml) beef broth
- 2 zucchinis, spiralized to form noodles
- Sea salt, to taste
- 2 Tablespoons basil leaves, for garnish
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In a bowl, mix together the ground beef and AIP Basil Pesto. Form small meatballs from the mixture.
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Add the avocado oil to a frying pan and brown the meatballs (in batches).
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Place the meatballs into a crockpot along with the beef broth.
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Cover and cook for 4 hours, spooning the broth over the meatballs every now and then.
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To cook the zucchini noodles, take a little broth (approx. 1/4 cup (60 ml)) from the crockpot and place into a large pan over high heat. Add the zucchini noodles and toss well to coat, cooking the zucchini until all the moisture in the pan has evaporated and the zucchini has cooked through (this won’t take longer than a minute or two.)
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Season the zucchini with salt and serve topped with the meatballs. Garnish with torn basil leaves.