• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Cringey Kitchen

Gluten free, dairy free things in the shape of food

  • Home
  • Recipes

Albondigas

May 11, 2021 by Chef T

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

Print

Albondigas

Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Servings 28 meatballs

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

  1. Preheat air fryer to 400 degrees F.
  2. In a medium sized bowl, mix together all meatball ingredients until well combined. Use your hands to combine the ingredients.
  3. Shape meatballs in 1½ inch diameter meatballs.
  4. Place meatballs in the air fryer and cook for 6-8 minutes.

Sauce

  1. Heat olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat.
  2. Add onions and garlic to the saucepan. Saute for 1-2 minutes until onions start to become translucent.
  3. 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.
  4. Stir parsley into your sauce.

Toss meatballs in the sauce until they are slightly coated in the sauce, then serve!

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Pocket
  • More
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr

Filed Under: Appetizer, Dairy Free, Entree, Gluten Free, Grain Free, Recipe, Refined Sugar Free, Savory, Side, Soy Free Tagged With: Air fryer, appetizer, Beef, dairy free, gluten free, meatball, savory, side, spanish inspired, tapas, tomato

Previous Post: « Wild Mushroom Medley
Next Post: Spanish Gambas »

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

Categories

Copyright © 2025 · Cringey Kitchen