Pastured Beef Meatballs with Mushrooms

Umami is the fifth taste sense (sweet, sour, salty, bitter) and is provided by mushrooms. This recipe uses store bought or fresh foraged mushrooms. I was so fortunate to find some fresh oyster mushrooms on my afternoon walk that I went right home and made these meatballs! I dried the remaining mushrooms to use later. When dried, they are easy to reconstitute with water to add to gravy, soup, a sauce or an omelet. This recipe can easily be doubled for a family or batch cooking for freezer meals for later in the week.

Categories(s): Lunch/Dinner (or even for breakfast)

Benefits: I always advocate for using grass fed and finished ground beef. The extra cost is worth knowing that the cows were raised humanely and in a healthy environment. This beef also has a better fatty acid profile and is grown without antibiotics or growth hormones. I watch for it to be on sale at Sprouts Market or pick it up at the farmer’s market. A friend recently told me that she found grass fed and finished ground beef at Walmart.

Ingredients:

½ pound ground grass fed and finished beef

½ cup finely chopped onion

2 garlic cloves finely chopped or pressed

1 cup chopped fresh mushroom

1 beaten egg

1 slice of gluten free bread such as Canyon Bakehouse toasted, cooled and blended into crumbs OR ¼ cup

almond flour

Sea salt to taste

Fresh ground pepper to taste

Optional: 1 tablespoon dried parsley

Optional: 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking tray with foil. Spray a wire rack with non-stick spray and set inside the baking tray, set aside.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Using your hands mix all the ingredients together until well combined. Form into 1-inch balls and place on cooling rack in pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes until no pink remains.

Use these meatballs with an Italian dish such as spaghetti using spaghetti squash for the noodles or make a gravy and serve over a baked sweet potato. Pictured below you will find that I made a sautéed, shredded Brussels sprouts bowel with this batch.

Provided by Tracey Long, MPH, RDN at www.bigpicturehealth.com