The perfect meatballs to make when you are in a hurry to make dinner. It takes only 7 minutes to cook using the Instant Pot, and it needs ground beef, egg, tomato puree, and the secret ingredients, ground oats, plus seasonings.
The result is juicy and flavorful meatballs, perfect for making meatball subs or having pasta.
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Check out my other Instant Pot Recipes!
⭐️ Why you’ll love this recipe
- It’s highly customizable, so you can use other seasonings to make it your own.
- You can double the recipe easily, and you can freeze the raw meatballs to cook at a later time.
- No browning or searing will make the cooking time faster.
📋 Ingredients You’ll Need
To make this recipe, you’ll need the following ingredients:
- Ground beef: could replace with ground turkey or ground chicken.
- Tomato puree: use a seasoned tomato sauce, but you’ll need to adjust the salt since most have a higher salt content.
- Chicken stock: store-bought or homemade will work. Also, look for low sodium so you have better control of the salt in the dish. You can also use beef broth.
- Ground oats: this will act as the binder and replacement for breadcrumbs. Blend up some rolled oats, and it will work great. You could also use quick-cooking oats without blending.
- Mozzarella cheese: could replace with parmesan cheese. This also works as a binder.
- Egg
- Seasonings: oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and black pepper. Substitute all these seasonings with Italian Seasoning. This was more of an Italian-flavored dish, but you can season it with what you have.
You’ll have the complete measurement of each ingredient on the recipe card below.
As for utensils, you’ll need an Instant Pot or an electric pressure cooker, a lined baking sheet that you’ll use to put the meatballs on after forming, and a large mixing bowl.
Now that you have gathered all the ingredients and utensils, let’s get to work, shall we?
📝 How To Make Instant Pot Meatballs Recipe
The first step is to mix our meatball ingredients.
Add the ground beef, egg, oats, mozzarella cheese, half of the seasonings, salt, and pepper in your large mixing bowl.
💡 Important Tip: Always wash your hands with soap before and after handling raw meat to prevent contamination.
Mix all together with your hands until combined. Refrain from overmixing since it can get tough, and nobody likes tough meatballs.
To form the balls, use a ¼ size measuring cup, or if you have a cookie scoop around the same size will also work.
Take some ground beef mixture, scoop them out, and then form the perfect golf-size meatballs with your hands. It doesn’t have to be tightly packed to form a round shape.
The meat mixture should not stick to your hands. Set aside on your lined baking sheet. You should have around 20 to 22 meatballs.
Set up your Instant Pot with its inner pot. Add the tomato puree, chicken stock, Worcestershire sauce, and the other half the seasonings (oregano, onion powder, garlic powder) and mix them.
You should end up with a thinner-looking sauce. It has the right amount of liquid, so you should avoid getting the “BURN” notice on your Instant Pot.
Place the meatballs directly into the sauce in a single layer if possible. If not, no worries.
Cover your pressure cooker, and make sure your sealing ring is on. Move the valve to the sealing position.
Press the “Manual” or “Pressure Cook” button, and set the timer to 7 minutes. Yeap 7 minutes! These meatballs cook fast since they are small. You could form bigger ones, but you’ll need to adjust your cooking time.
It’ll take about 10 minutes to reach the pressure.
Once the time is up, let the instant pot naturally release the pressure for 5 minutes (you’ll see an “L0:05” on the screen), and then quick release the remaining pressure.
Uncover your pot and garnish with greens like fresh basil, oregano, green onions, and freshly grated parmesan cheese.
The sauce has reduced a little and formed the perfect consistency.
Serve with your favorite side dish, pasta, rice, or mashed potatoes, and enjoy!
Review the servings suggestions section below for other ideas to serve these flavorful and juicy meatballs.
👩🏽🍳 Recipe Tips & FAQ
Remember, do not overmix, so you don’t end up with tough meatballs.
If you want a thicker sauce, you can make a cornstarch slurry by mixing 1/2 cup of water and 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch and adding it to the sauce using the Saute function of your pressure cooker.
You can cook only the meatballs, add a cup of broth of your preference and follow the same cooking steps.
You can freeze your meatballs raw. Once they are formed, pop the baking sheet in the freezer until frozen. Then transfer to a freezer Ziploc bag and label. It should last for about 2 months.
To cook from frozen, add the sauce ingredients and the frozen meatballs directly into the sauce. Follow the cooking steps. This time you’ll set the timer to 10 minutes.
Serving Suggestions
- For Breakfast, serve them with a thick fried tortilla or hojaldre (Panamanian-style breakfast).
- For Lunch, make meatball subs sandwiches.
- For Dinner, have them with
- your favorite pasta, spaghetti, works well
- mashed potatoes or yuca mashed
- rice, my favorite is this rice with carrots
Recipe Variations
- Enjoy spicy foods. Add some red pepper flakes to the sauce, meatballs, or both.
- Make them a dip, transfer them to a baking dish, add mozzarella cheese, and broil until the cheese is bubbly.
Meatballs should be ready when you insert an instant-read thermometer that reads at least 160ºF.
More Beef Recipes
If you have tried these tender Instant Pot meatballs in sauce or any other recipe on Nashi Food, don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I love to hear about your cooking experience.
Instant Pot Meatballs (no breadcrumbs)
Ingredients
Meatballs and Sauce
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 egg, large
- ½ cup ground oats , or oat flour
- ⅓ cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 2 teaspoons oregano, divided for the sauce and the meatballs
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder, divided for the sauce and the meatballs
- 2 teaspoons onion powder, divided for the sauce and the meatballs
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ cup tomato puree
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Garnish
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese, grated
- green onion, chopped for garnish
Utensils
- Instant Pot 6Qt
- Large mixing bowl
Instructions
- First, mix all the ingredients for the meatballs. In a large mixing bowl, add the ground beef, egg lightly beaten, ground oats, mozzarella cheese, seasonings, salt, and black pepper.1 pound ground beef, 1 egg, ½ cup ground oats, ⅓ cup mozzarella cheese, 2 teaspoons oregano, 2 teaspoons garlic powder, 2 teaspoons onion powder, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon black pepper
- Form balls using a ¼ size measuring cup or a cookie scoop for roughly the same size and place them on a lined baking sheet.
- To your Instant Pot inner pot, add the tomato puree, chicken stock, Worcestershire sauce, oregano, onion powder, and garlic powder, and mix all the ingredients.2 teaspoons oregano, 2 teaspoons onion powder, ¼ cup tomato puree, 1 cup chicken stock, 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- Place your meatballs directly into the sauce in a single layer if possible.
- Add the sealing ring to your Instant Pot cover, and cover the pot. Press the “Manual” button or the “Pressure Cook” button and set the timer to 7 minutes. It’ll take around 10 minutes to reach pressure.
- Once the time is up, let it release the pressure naturally for 5 minutes (you’ll see a “L0:05” on the screen), then quick release the remaining pressure.
- Uncover the pot once the pin is down, garnish with chopped green onion or parmesan cheese and serve with your favorite side, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, etc.¼ cup parmesan cheese, green onion
Notes
- Ground beef: replace with ground turkey or ground chicken.
- Tomato puree: use a seasoned tomato sauce, but you’ll need to adjust the seasonings and salt since most have a higher salt content.
- Chicken stock: store-bought or homemade will work. Also, look for low sodium so you have better control of the salt in the dish. You can also use beef broth.
- Ground oats: this will act as the binder and replacement for breadcrumbs. Blend up some rolled oats, and it will work great. You could also use quick-cooking oats without blending.
- Mozzarella cheese: could replace with parmesan cheese. This also works as a binder.
- Seasonings: oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, Worcestershire sauce, salt, black pepper. It could replace with Italian Seasoning. This was more of an Italian-flavored dish, but you can season it with what you have.
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