With three kinds of veggies and the texture and flavor your kids expect, this Healthy Meatball recipe is a perfect family dinner option. And since the baked meatballs taste so good, the kids will be happy when you tuck one onto their plates! (Bonus: These freeze well, too.)
Healthy Meatball Recipe
While I’m all for continuing to expose our kids to a variety of foods, there are times when tucking veggies into foods they already love—like meatballs—can be a big help. Plus, it’s an easy way to add flavor and tenderness to these meatballs, which my whole family loves.
And I love that we all get an extra serving of vegetables in these toddler meatballs in the process!
These are delicious on their own, simmered in easy Marinara Sauce, and/or paired with a favorite pasta. We also sometimes eat them plain, we love them so much.
(You can find more Hidden Veggie Recipes, plus my Baked Chicken Meatballs and favorite toddler pasta recipes.)
Table of Contents
Your toddler won’t eat? Help is here!
Sign up for our email updates to get tips and ideas sent to your inbox.
Ingredients You Need
To make this recipe you’ll need:
- Carrots, parsley, and onion: These add flavor and nutrients to the meatballs.
- Ground beef: I like grass-fed beef for the extra healthy fats and since it tends to be leaner, but any type will do.
- Bread crumbs: Plain or Italian-flavored bread crumbs work well here.
- Egg: This helps the meatballs hold together.
- Milk: A little milk adds moisture to help the batter stay moist and delicious.
- Grated Parmesan
- Salt: Optional to taste.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Here’s a look at the process involved in making these easy meatballs so you know what to expect. Scroll down to the end of the post for the full amounts and times.
- Preheat the oven and gather your ingredients. Add the veggies to the food processor.
- Grind up the veggies.
- Add the remaining ingredients and grind to combine into a smooth mixture.
- Portion into 2-tablespoon size meatballs and place on the baking sheet. Bake!
Once cooked, you can drain on a paper towel-lined plate if desired, and simmer in marinara sauce or just leave plain.
Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe comes together easily in a food processor to ensure that the batter is uniform and comes together without fuss. Yes, you have to wash the food processor, but the evenly chopped meat and veggie mixture is well worth that minimal effort. (And you can always stick it into the dishwasher!)
With three kinds of veggies, lean ground beef, and a method that allows you to easily drain off any excess fat, these are a healthy meatball recipe to share with the whole family.
Sure! You can make these with just 1 tablespoon of the mixture and reduce the cooking time to closer to about 18-22 minutes.
Ground Turkey Meatballs
If you want to make your toddler turkey baby meatballs, simply swap in ground turkey for the ground beef in the recipe below. The texture and flavor will be similar, and the meatballs will have a slightly lighter final color. You may need to reduce the cooking time slightly.
Aim for an internal temperature of 165 degrees and try not to overcook.
This is a great ground beef recipe for toddlers and kids since it’s very soft and easy to eat, even for babies and younger toddlers.
Make-Ahead Meatballs
You can make a batch of these baked meatballs ahead of time, let cool fully, and freeze in a zip-top freezer bag for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge or simmer in a quart of marinara sauce in a large pot until thawed and warmed through.
They’re a great recipe to make a double batch—serve one batch for dinner this week and stash the other into the freezer for a future easy meal!
Find more of my favorite Freezer Meals to help make life a little easier.
Baked Meatballs for Baby-Led Weaning
Meatballs with hidden vegetables are an excellent food for starting solids with baby-led weaning. You can offer small cubes or mash into marinara or tomato sauce and offer on a preloaded spoon. Your baby will get iron, as well as protein and fiber. And lots of flavor they will love!
These meatballs have vitamins A and C from the carrots and parsley, as well as fiber and protein.
How to Store
To store, let cool fully and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Best Tips for Success
- Grind the veggies up before you add the rest of the ingredients to make sure they are all uniform in size. This is key. You’re aiming for the veggies to have a similar consistency as the ground meat.
- Resist the urge to add in more veggies. There is over a cup of veggies in this recipe, which is enough to add extra nutrients, yet you honestly can’t tell. If you add more, the texture won’t be as good.
- Serve them with a sauce your family likes, whether that’s my Hidden Veggie Pasta Sauce, meat sauce, or even ketchup.
- Simmer them in easy marinara sauce for even more tender and flavorful meatballs, just like grandma would have done! (Or at least, my grandma would have done, but you don’t have to.)
- Even though there are vegetables tucked into this recipe, I still recommend being honest with your kids about what they’re eating. Make them together, be excited about their dinner, and share the good news!
- To make these gluten-free, simply use GF bread crumbs or even cornmeal.
Related Recipes
I’d love to hear your feedback on this recipe, so please comment below!
Healthy Meatballs (with Hidden Vegetables)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup carrots, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup parsley leaves, lightly packed
- 1 small onion, peeled and halved
- 1/2 cup Italian-flavored bread crumbs
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Coat with nonstick spray. Place the carrots, parsley, and onion into a food processor. Grind well, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add the remaining ingredients and grind to combine into a smooth mixture. Portion into 2-tablespoon-size meatballs and place on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 22-25 minutes or until cooked through. Serve with warm marinara sauce and pasta (or ketchup and other simple sides!) as desired.
Video
Notes
- To store, let cool fully and store in an airtight container in the fridge or up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Grind the veggies up before you add the rest of the ingredients to make sure they are all uniform in size. This is key. You’re aiming for the veggies to have a similar consistency as the ground meat.
- Resist the urge to add in more veggies. There is over a cup of veggies in this recipe, which is enough to add extra nutrients, yet you honestly can’t tell.
- Serve them with a sauce your family likes, whether that’s marinara, meat sauce, or even ketchup.
- Simmer them in marinara sauce for even more tender and flavorful meatballs.
- Even though there are vegetables tucked into this recipe, I still recommend being honest with your kids about what they’re eating. Let them take a bite, be excited about their dinner, and then share the good news!
- To make these gluten-free, simply use GF bread crumbs (these are really good) or even cornmeal.
- Serve them diced or mashed to younger toddlers and babies as needed.
- Sub in ground turkey if desired.
Nutrition
This post was first published November 2017.
This turned out great. I omitted the cheese & milk. I also added spinach instead of parsley. My 2.5 year old loved it. Thanks for sharing.
Fresh spinach or frozen and drained? Love this idea
This was great! Thank you so much for the recipe! Kids ate it and hubby enjoyed too so it’s definitely a winner!
Kiddos LOVED these. Texture and flavor were great both for 8 month old and 2 year old. 2 year old kept asking for more.
Can you leave out the cheese and milk?
Probably though you’ll lose a little flavor from omitting the cheese so you may want to add a pinch of salt.
Would these work with unsweetened almond milk?
As long as it’s plain
EVERYONE loved these! 3 year old (who is very particular on her meat), baby, and husband. Husband agreed that you couldn’t taste the veggies – a true test. This is the only way I’ll make meatballs from now! We served them with marinara sauce and cheese -loved them!
I substituted a pound of turkey sausage for a pound of chopped turkey. It was delicious! I will definitely be making this again.
Hello what would be the perfect size of food processor?
Thanks before hand 😊
I use a 13 cup, but an 8 or 9 would be fine too.
Hi, I’d like to know if I could possibly substitute the parsley with some other green veggies (such as kale)?
Yes, you could do that
Thank you for this recipe!
It tastes great as is, and I’ve also had success after trying it a couple of times with modifications (simply to use up some other ingredients available at hand):
1. substitute parsley with fresh kale
2. Substitute parsley with fresh broccoli florets
3. Substitute breadcrumbs with almond flour (to make it GF)
In all instances my kids loved them and gobbled them up!
I will try these tomorrow!! Could I skip or substitute the Parmesan ? I have histamine intolerance and can’t have it
You could add a different shredded cheese if you prefer!
I love this recipe, but I have a problem I do not have a food processor… Can I do such thing just with my hand, what do you think?) Thank you, love your recipes Amy!
You could certainly grate the vegetables with a box grater and mince the parsley, then just mix everything together with your hands!
My daughter loves these! We did not use the parsley or onion. We also used half plain and half regular bread crumbs (I wasn’t sure if she would like Italian seasoning being new to table foods). Even after freezing they are still moist and delicious. Thank you!! Can’t wait to try more of your recipes!
I’m so glad!
Could I use oats to substitute breadcrumbs?
I haven’t made them that way so I can’t say for sure, but I bet it would work.
The thing is- these meatballs are incredible whether you’re a toddler or not. But the fact that the toddler, who is so hot and cold on everything else we serve her, will always always ALWAYS go for these is a huge bonus. AND I was able to work in extra veggies??? Magic. Honestly, they can just stop anyone else from trying to make another meatball recipe bc we’ve already achieved perfection.
I am so glad to hear that!
So here is the thing, this recipe is amazing, soft, tender, tasty, and easy. My son is 2 and a half, he is been giving me a hard time with meals and food in general, so I have been trying to look for recipes that is healthy and doesn’t have too many ingredients. I tried it today ,I put it on the dinner table and he just came tasted it and started eating. I was sooooo happy I will do it for him regularly.
Thank you I will definetly check more recipes from you. 🤗🤗
Awesome!