Anyone trying to restrict their sodium intake knows how bland main dishes can be when cooking meals without salt. However, my recipe for salt-free barbecued meatballs in a sweetened homemade tomato sauce is absolutely delicious with diced onions, brown sugar, tomato sauce, vinegar, crushed bran flakes or breadcrumbs, and chili powder. Honestly, readers, this recipe for barbecued meatballs is one salt-free entree full of flavor where you won’t notice the lack of salt. For this reason, I needed to share how to make it as well as some tips for these fantastic healthy barbecued meatballs despite no salt.
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Why These Barbecued Meatballs without Salt Deserve Your Attention
Besides actually tasting sensational for a salt-free recipe, this is an easy dinner to prepare. You just have an onion to peel and dice, assemble a few ingredients for the meatballs, and make a simple homemade sauce.
To make this recipe healthier, I use low-sodium tomato sauce, grass-fed ground beef, and crushed bran flakes for extra fiber. Did you know that grass-fed beef has two to six times more omega-3 fatty acids than conventional beef? This is important because those vital acids help prevent a range of different diseases such as heart disease, strokes, autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
Tips for Making These Saucy Salt-free Meatballs
As I mentioned, I use grass-fed beef for maximizing nutrition and safeguarding our health. But I also found that you don’t accumulate a skillet of grease to discard when browning grass-fed ground beef compared to conventional beef that is fed grains or regular ground turkey. Seriously, try using grass-fed and you’ll be surprised at the difference of what grease comes out. This really saves money with what you’re throwing away once measuring how much grease you collect from conventional beef. Trying it yourself is believing.
Since the average hamburger patty has about 378 to 497 milligrams of sodium, depending on whether you have a single patty or a fatter one or a double fast-food patty. Grass-fed has considerably less with approximately 100 milligrams per patty. Since a low-sodium diet allows from 1500 milligrams to 2,000 milligrams of sodium per day, this is a big difference when calculating how much salt that you’re eating.
Try my recipe for these salt-free barbecued meatballs for heart health! You’ll discover that these saucy meatballs are delicious and never will tempt you to reach for the salt shaker. If you make them, let me know what you think and please share this recipe with your family and friends.
Salt-free Barbecued Meatballs
1 lb. of ground beef
1 medium onion, diced
1 large egg
1/4 cup of milk
1/4 cup of crushed bran flakes or dried breadcrumbs
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Homemade Salt-free Barbecue Sauce for the Meatballs
16 oz. can of tomato sauce or 2 cans (8-oz.) tomato sauce
2 tablespoons of white vinegar
1/4 cup of brown sugar (light or dark)
½ teaspoons of chili powder
To Make the Barbecued Meatballs:
- Combine the ground beef, onion, egg, milk and crushed bran flakes or dried breadcrumbs, and pepper in a mixing bowl. Mix those ingredients thoroughly and form about a dozen meatballs. If you like them bigger, you can shape those ground beef balls to a larger size.
- Brown the shaped meatballs in the olive oil. Drain off any excess grease.
To Prepare the Homemade Barbecue Sauce for the Meatballs:
- Add the tomato sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, and chili powder to the skillet with your ground beef patties and continue cooking until throughly heated through. This is about a half hour.
- Serve these saucy meatless over a bed of noodles or rice along with vegetable makes a great dinner.
- ENJOY!
Honestly, readers, this delicious recipe for barbecued meatballs is one salt-free entree full of flavor where you won’t notice the lack of salt.
Course:
Dinner, Main Dish
Cuisine:
American
Keyword:
barbecued meatballs recipe, easy dinner idea, healthy meatballs, homemade barbecue sauce, low sodium ground beef recipe
Servings: 4
:
-
1
lb.
of ground beef -
1
medium onion
diced -
1
large egg -
1/4
cup
of milk -
1/4
cup
of crushed bran flakes or dried breadcrumbs -
1/4
teaspoon
of black pepper -
2
tablespoons
of olive oil - Homemade Salt-free Barbecue Sauce for the Meatballs
-
16
oz.
can of tomato sauce or 2 cans
8-oz. tomato sauce -
2
tablespoons
of white vinegar -
1/4
cup
of brown sugar
light or dark -
½
teaspoons
of chili powder
-
To Make the Barbecued Meatballs:
-
Combine the ground beef, onion, egg, milk and crushed bran flakes or dried breadcrumbs, and pepper in a mixing bowl. Mix those ingredients thoroughly and form about a dozen meatballs. If you like them bigger, you can shape those ground beef balls to a larger size.
-
Brown the shaped meatballs in the olive oil. Drain off any excess grease.
-
To Prepare the Homemade Salt-free Barbecue Sauce for the Meatballs:
-
Add the tomato sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, and chili powder to the skillet with your ground beef patties and continue cooking until throughly heated through. This is about a half hour.
-
Serve these saucy meatless over a bed of noodles or rice along with vegetable makes a great dinner.
-
ENJOY!
You also may want to check out my earlier post on with eight tips on how to flavor soup without salt.
Visit Beauty Cooks Kisses Blog for more home-tested recipes from my kitchen as well as other helpful posts to better your life!