Air Fryer Meatballs (Low-Carb Mediterranean Style)

Introduction

A lot of meatball recipes start with breadcrumbs. These use an egg and a little almond flour instead, and that swap is what keeps them low-carb. The flavor comes from the rest of the ingredients: red onion, five cloves of garlic, a quarter cup of fresh parsley, fresh mint, dried oregano, a little cumin and some lemon zest.

They aren’t traditional Greek keftedes, so we’ve decided to go with “Mediterranean meatballs” and leave it there. Beef with mint, lemon and oregano is the idea.

The air fryer takes care of the cooking. There’s no added oil and no skillet: you roll the meatballs, set them in the basket in a single layer and turn them once. A pound and a half of beef makes about 24, which is two batches in a basket like the one in the photos, at 8 to 10 minutes each. So let’s get started.

What Goes In

• Ground beef: The recipe calls for a pound and a half (680 g) of plain ground beef and doesn’t name a fat percentage. The Nutrition Facts panel counts 80/20, so leaner beef will change the numbers.
• Chop everything small: The red onion, parsley and mint are all finely chopped and the garlic is minced. In the photos, the green ends up flecked evenly through every meatball.
• Lemon zest, not juice: The lemon goes in as 2 teaspoons of zest, so it adds lemon flavor without adding any liquid to the mix.

Meatballs Without Breadcrumbs

The egg and the almond flour are the only binders, and there isn’t much of either: one egg and 30 g of almond flour, about a quarter cup, for a pound and a half of beef. In the recipe’s step photos, the mixture rolls into smooth balls that hold their shape through cooking.

Almond flour is finely ground almonds, so it adds no wheat and very few carbs. It also means they aren’t nut-free, which is worth knowing before you serve them to a crowd.

The recipe has no chilling step, either. The mixture goes straight from the bowl to rolling.

How Long to Cook Meatballs in the Air Fryer

Here’s the quick answer for these fresh, homemade beef meatballs:

What	For these meatballs
Size	About 2 tablespoons (36 g) of raw mixture per meatball
Air fryer temperature	380°F (190°C), preheated for 3 to 5 minutes
Time	8 to 10 minutes per batch, turning them halfway through
Done when	160°F (71°C) in the center
Batch size	One layer, not touching. The basket in the photos held 12.

Those times are for meatballs this size. Bigger ones need longer, and smaller ones are done sooner. Air fryers don’t all run the same, either, so let a thermometer decide rather than the clock: check the largest meatball at the 8-minute mark, and keep going until it reads 160°F, the USDA safe minimum for ground beef.

Rolling them all the same size matters more than it sounds. A batch of matching meatballs finishes together, while a batch of mixed sizes leaves the small ones overcooking as they wait for the big ones.

Don’t crowd the basket. The meatballs go in one layer with space around each one, which is why 24 of them take two batches. A smaller basket means more batches, each adding another 8 to 10 minutes to the total.

This isn’t a guide to a bag of frozen meatballs, so follow the package for those.

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Air Fryer Mediterranean Meatballs

3 net carbs

(0)

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

20 minutes

Total Time

35 minutes

Yield

6 servings

Course

Main Course

Cuisine

Mediterranean-inspired

Ingredients

• 1 ½ lbs ground beef, 680 g
• 1 large egg
• ¼ cup onion, red, finely chopped (about 40 g)
• 30 g almond flour, about ¼ cup
• 5x garlic clove, minced
• ¼ cup parsley, fresh, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
• 2 tsp oregano, dried
• ½ tsp cumin, ground
• 2 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• ½ tsp pepper, black, freshly ground

Nutrition Facts

6 servings per recipe

Calories	Per Serving 340		Per Recipe 2020
Total Fat	26g	34%	158g	203%
Saturated Fat	9g	47%	57g	283%
Trans Fat	1g		6g
Cholesterol	116mg	39%	696mg	232%
Sodium	410mg	18%	2460mg	107%
Total Carbohydrate	4g	1%	21g	8%
Dietary Fiber	1g	3%	5g	19%
Sugar Alcohols	0g	0%	0g	0%
Allulose	0g	0%	0g	0%
Net Carbohydrates	3g		16g
Protein	21g	43%	129g	257%

About these numbers: We are home cooks, not certified nutritionists. Nutrition is shared as a courtesy. We pick a representative product for each ingredient, and our recipe system works out the totals from the amounts in this recipe, so please treat them as a helpful estimate rather than a guarantee. The brands you buy, any swaps you make, and how generously you portion the recipe will all move these numbers.

Directions

1. Preheat the air fryer to 380°F (190°C).

   Let it heat for about 3 to 5 minutes.

2. Put everything in a large bowl.

   Add the ground beef, egg, red onion, almond flour, garlic, parsley, mint, oregano, cumin, lemon zest, salt and pepper to a large mixing bowl.

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3. Mix it with your hands.

   Work the mixture with your hands until everything is mixed evenly through the beef.

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5. Roll about 24 meatballs.

   Scoop out about 2 tablespoons (36 g) of the mixture at a time and roll each portion between your palms into a smooth, even ball. You should get roughly 24.

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6. Arrange a batch in the basket.

   Working in batches, put the meatballs in the air fryer basket in a single layer, not touching, so the air can circulate around each one.

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7. Air fry for 8 to 10 minutes, turning them halfway through.

   Start checking the largest meatball at 8 minutes. They're done when the outsides are deeply browned and an instant-read thermometer in its center reads at least 160°F (71°C). Repeat with the rest of the meatballs.

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Notes

• The recipe makes about 24 meatballs, four per serving.
• The cook time is for two batches. The basket in the photos holds about 12 meatballs in a single layer, so a smaller basket will need more batches.
• Ground beef is safe to eat at 160°F (71°C). Check the largest meatball in each batch.
• For the oven method, see “Baking Them in the Oven Instead” below the recipe.
• The Nutrition Facts panel counts 80/20 ground beef and Morton kosher salt. Leaner beef changes the numbers, and a lighter kosher salt such as Diamond Crystal has less sodium per teaspoon.
• Contains egg and tree nuts (almond flour).

Serving Them

In the photos, the meatballs are served with lemon wedges for squeezing over and a creamy white dip topped with cucumber slices and mint. The dip isn’t part of this recipe, so the Nutrition Facts panel doesn’t count it.

For a simple plate, squeeze the lemon over them and add a chopped cucumber and tomato salad on the side. To make them a fuller dinner, serve them over the strands of our Parmesan spaghetti squash with zucchini, the way you’d put meatballs on pasta.

If you’d rather have your meatballs in a sauce, our keto butter chicken meatballs are ground chicken bound with pork rinds and baked under a coconut milk curry sauce.

Baking Them in the Oven Instead

No air fryer? The recipe has an oven method too. Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll the meatballs the same way, space them evenly on the sheet, and bake them for 25 to 30 minutes, until they’re golden outside and 160°F in the center. The recipe bakes them all on one sheet, so there are no batches.

Storing, Freezing and Reheating

Get leftovers into the refrigerator within two hours of cooking. Covered, they’ll keep for three to four days. Reheat them until they’re hot all the way through, to 165°F.

Cooked meatballs can go in the freezer, too. Freeze them spread out on a tray first so they don’t freeze into one lump, then move them into a freezer bag. For the best quality, eat them within 2 to 6 months, the general guideline for frozen cooked meat on the federal cold storage chart. They stay safe indefinitely at 0°F; it’s the texture and flavor that fade. Thaw them in the refrigerator, then reheat them to 165°F.

This recipe has no time or temperature for cooking them from frozen raw, so freeze them after they’re cooked.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do you cook meatballs in the air fryer?

Each batch of these fresh beef meatballs, rolled from about 2 tablespoons (36 g) of mixture, takes 8 to 10 minutes at 380°F (190°C). The whole recipe, about 24 meatballs, cooks in two batches, so plan on roughly 20 minutes of air frying after 15 minutes of prep. They’re done when the center reads 160°F (71°C).

Do you need to flip meatballs in the air fryer?

For this recipe, turn them once, halfway through the 8 to 10 minutes. The meatballs in the photos come out browned all the way around.

Why are my air fryer meatballs dry?

The easiest way to dry them out is to keep cooking them after they’re done. Air fryers don’t all run at the same heat, so start checking the largest meatball at 8 minutes and take the batch out once it reads 160°F (71°C). Roll them all the same size, too, so the small ones aren’t overcooking while they wait for the big ones.

If you make them, tell us in the comments what you served them with.