Albondigas are Spanish meatballs in a tomato sauce. Think spaghetti without the noodles.
When combining all your meatball ingredients, you’ll need to use your hands to make sure they are well combined. I was practically kneading the meat mixture to get the onions incorporated into the meat and I still ended up with a meatball that was half onions. I blame that on Chef K because he shaped the meatballs.
Take your time to chop your onions small. Chef K was not amused with my slightly larger “dice” because it was harder to mix into the meat. As I mentioned above, we had a few meatballs that fell apart because they were more onion than beef.
Also, using an air fryer for the meatballs is not 100% necessary. You can pan fry the meatballs or bake them as well.
The benefit of the air fryer is that I can just stick them in and leave them alone. I don’t have to worry about flipping them to get an even crisp all the way around. It‘s important to leave a little space between your meatballs. Overcrowding in an air fryer is your enemy.
Keep your meatballs in your sauce, not the floor,
Your favorite alternative chefs, K & T
Albondigas
Ingredients
Meatball
- 1 pound ground beef
- ½ onion finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic minced
- ½ cup gluten free breadcrumbs
- 1 tbsp parsley chopped
- 1 egg
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp paprika
- Salt and pepper
Tomato Sauce
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ onion finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 14.5 oz canned diced tomatoes
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- 1 bay leaf
- Dash of cayenne
- Salt and pepper
- 1 tbsp parsley chop
Instructions
Meatball
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Preheat air fryer to 400 degrees F.
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In a medium sized bowl, mix together all meatball ingredients until well combined. Use your hands to combine the ingredients.
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Shape meatballs in 1½ inch diameter meatballs.
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Place meatballs in the air fryer and cook for 6-8 minutes.
Sauce
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Heat olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat.
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Add onions and garlic to the saucepan. Saute for 1-2 minutes until onions start to become translucent.
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Add diced tomatoes, oregano, bay leaf, cayenne, salt, and pepper to the saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower temp and let simmer for 15 – 20 minutes until your sauce begins to thicken.
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Stir parsley into your sauce.