This is one of those recipes that my whole family absolutely loves. 
Let’s face it…meatballs are a crowd pleaser. My youngest daughter even likes cold leftover meatballs in her lunch on occasion. These would also be good on toothpicks as an appetizer at a party or a tailgate, or you could mix them together with some warm noodles and sauce like the picture. You could also double the recipe and freeze the leftover meatballs (when they are either raw or cooked) for a quick meal on a busy day. No matter what you decide to do I promise you will not be disappointed. This recipe has been one of our family’s favorite “go-to” meals for years!
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Whole-Wheat Spaghetti and Meatballs
Yield: 4 – 5 Servings
Ingredients
- 1 lb whole-wheat noodles
- Red pasta sauce
- 1 lb ground beef, preferably grass-fed
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/3 cup whole-wheat bread crumbs
- 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup carrot bits (you can grind them in a food processor, grate then dice them, or mince them)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 ½ teaspoons red wine vinegar
- 1 ½ teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Crushed red pepper, to taste
Directions
- Boil pasta noodles according to package directions.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Mix together ground beef and next 10 ingredients. I find it easiest to use my hands.
- Generously grease a baking sheet with olive oil.
- Roll the beef mixture into meatballs the size of golf balls. Place them in rows onto the greased baking sheet.
- Bake for 9 – 11 minutes or until brown all the way through.
- Serve meatballs on top of cooked noodles and warm pasta sauce. Garnish with extra Parmesan cheese if desired.
Making it right now! Smells yummy! =)
…aaannd the meatballs were a big hit! Thank you!
I doubled my meatloaf recipe last night to make a batch of meatballs but looking over your recipe, I’m realizing I should have added some parmesan cheese and italian seasoning to make them more meatbally…next time
Love this recipe.
I cooked my meatballs right in the sauce instead of on a seperate pan in the oven. Just heat the sauce in a saucepan, turn it to med-low. Drop the raw meatballs in, making sure they are covered by sauce. Cover the pot and let it gently simmer for 15mins or so until they’re cooked through. Soooo yummy. Gives a great flavor to the sauce as well.
Good idea to cook them in the sauce…that means one less dirty pan!
I’ll have aghetti. I’m out of carrots and don’t have any wine vinegar (just ACV, which I’m assuming addsa different flavor?), so I’ll put those on the shopping list.
Only thing I think I would omit is the soy sauce… I try to avoid soy when possible. I imagine they’d still be pretty flavorful without it, though!
Made these for dinner last night, yum and super easy!
We had what I called an “Extreme Makeover: Dinner Edition” the other night with our spaghetti. It was whole wheat, I used organic pasta sauce and turkey meatballs that I had gotten on manager’s special at the grocery store. It was all so delicious. And it made me happy that my kids liked the whole wheat spaghetti and the turkey meatballs. It’s the little changes, you know! Thanks for all of your inspiration! I have learned so much from your site!
Do you have recommendations for pasta sauce? I have trouble deciding which ones follow the rules!
Thanks!
We really like a sauce from our Farmer’s Market, but I have seen other organic brands that have a simple list of ingredients. You can also make your own sauce from fresh or canned tomatoes. Here’s a recipe we really like (and it’s easy!): http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/06/21/recipe-simple-spaghetti-plus-%E2%80%9Cthe-fresh-20%E2%80%9D-sponsor/ One other option is to buy plain canned organic tomato sauce and add your own seasonings.
Instead of buying jarred pasta sauce I like to make my own with canned organic diced tomato, butter ,onion, and salt and pepper. It is so simple and delicious and follows “the rules”. I will never buy jarred sauce again! Here is the recipe.
3 cans of organic diced tomatoes (the 14 oz. cans- so 42 ounces total)
~1 onion, cut in half
~5 Tablespoons of Butter
~Salt and Pepper to taste
Put diced tomato into the pot(do not drain the liquid out, just put the whole thing in). Then add the butter and the two onion halves. Bring these ingredients to a boil. When it starts boiling reduce the heat down to medium low and simmer uncovered for 40 minutes. Stir occasionally.
After 40 minutes. Remove the onions and throw them away. Add a little salt and pepper to taste.
Enjoy your delicious homemade organic simple pasta sauce on all your favorite pastas!
Made this for my dad who was visiting in town. Delicious and really quick! And I have plenty left over for lunch tomorrow!
Just now learning about your site via Holistic Moms Network. Love it! Congratulations, and thank you! I’ll be sharing this.
I’ve been GF since 2004 and because of GI issues postpartum, I’ve been on the GAPS diet for 8 months: eating grain-free, sugar-free and exclusively homemade everything except for nut butter and a few other very occasional exceptions. Anytime I stray, I pay! I notice you are back to using packaged pasta but wonder if you could link to any pasta recipes you tried during the 100 days? It would be cool for recipes to have the quick options and the full-on Real Food options. I try to make more brown rice with chicken stock (or soaked per Nourishing Traditions), but my son still prefers rice pasta and I’ve yet to try making my own.
I do actually make my own pasta a lot…but if I don’t have enough time I am certainly not scared to go for the boxed stuff. The recipe I used in this ravioli is what I use for regular pasta noodles as well: http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2010/09/01/recipe-butternut-squash-ravioli/
Good recipe!
I finally got around to making these tonight! I paired them with some spaghetti squash and canned pasta sauce (I don’t want to waste what we have already bought before I make my own sauce, but it was too sweet! You’re already changing my taste buds). I will say that I didn’t realize I didn’t have any soy sauce, so I just added 1/2 tsp instead of the called for 1/4. I also didn’t realize that I grabbed the 1 tsp instead of the 1/2, so I ended up adding 3 tsp instead of 1.5 tsp of the red wine vinegar.
And guess what! They were still delicious!! Pretty hard to mess them up, which is a WONDERFUL thing for me. Thank you for this yummy recipe
It’s actually a nice and useful piece of information. I’m glad that you shared this helpful info with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
[...] meatballs from [chow.com] 2. raw meatballs from [southern plate] 3. meatballs with noodles from [100 days of real food] GA_googleAddAttr("AdOpt", "1"); GA_googleAddAttr("Origin", "other"); [...]
Can you give me your thoughts on the Dreamfields brand of pastas? They say that they only have 5 grams of carbs due to somehow “hiding” some of the cards so they aren’t digested? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!
I don’t worry at all about carbs (or calories or protein or any of that) all I really care about is the ingredients. I would just make sure it is 100% whole-grain.
I loved this recipe. My whole family ate everything. Which can be hard with little
ones! I am curious about your take on everything whole wheat. We try to use all whole wheat as well, but for some pastries I find my self using unbleached white flour. I have been looking into the case Dr. Matt Hyman has studied about gluten its toll on our bodies. he speaks about how most people have this intolerance but do not know it. Look into his research and I would love to get your perspective.
Also, we currently eat Mom’s Best Cereal, can you recommended one with even fewer ingredients?
Thanks,
B
I occasionally use white flour as well (usually half white and half whole-wheat) in cookies and birthday cake. I am not familiar with mom’s best cereal, but there are a few 1-ingredient whole-grain cereals including Shredded Wheat, Barbara’s Wheat Biscuits, and the puffed grain cereals (like rice, corn, wheat).
Just made this tonight. It was wonderful. Even my husband loved it. Thank you for all the great recipes you put on here. It’s a great website for helping us “clean” it up!!
[...] *Spaghetti & Meatballs (Milo’s favorite so far!) [...]