Meatball Casserole
If you are looking for a comforting new family dinner, this homemade Meatball Casserole is the perfect choice. It features juicy, flavorful meatballs baked until golden, then smothered in rich tomato sauce and melted cheese. This low carb keto meatball casserole is always a massive hit with both kids and adults.
This recipe is inspired by the classic Italian meatball Parmesan subs I loved during college. To make it healthy and low-carb, I skipped the bread and turned it into a comforting, cheesy casserole with meatballs. It delivers all the nostalgic flavors of a classic meatball sub without the carbs.
Love this? Try my Keto Chicken Parmesan next! It is breaded with parmesan cheese, making it lighter than classic chicken parm but just as delicious.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe:
- Family-Friendly Comfort Food: A dish the whole family will enjoy.
- Low Carb & Keto: Packed with protein and completely keto-friendly.
- Meal Prep Ready: An easy make-ahead freezer meal perfect for busy weeknights.
- Hidden Veggies: A great way to sneak vegetables into dinner—kids won’t even notice!
- Sub Without the Bread: Tastes exactly like a meatball Parmesan sub.
Ingredients
- Ground Meat – I typically use ground turkey, but ground beef, ground pork, or ground chicken work as well.
- Ground Sausage – I use sweet Italian sausage, but hot Italian sausage is fine or a combination of the two. If using lean ground meat, the sausage helps keep the meatballs moist and flavorful.
- Egg – The egg is the binder in this, in addition to the grated parmesan cheese.
- Shredded Zucchini – You can’t taste it, and it gives a lot of moisture to the meatballs. Note: I do not squeeze the water from the zucchini for this recipe.
- Shredded Mozzarella Cheese – You can also use a blend of Italian cheese. Use freshly shredded mozzarella for the best melting texture.
- Keto Marinara Sauce – I like to make my own, but any pasta sauce or tomato sauce without added sugar is fine.
- Spices – I prefer to use dried onion, garlic, and basil in these. You can use Italian seasoning in place of the basil if you prefer the flavor of that.
- Salt & Pepper
How to Make a Meatball Casserole
Step One: Mix the Meatballs
Put all the ingredients for the meatballs in a large mixing bowl and mix. You can do this by hand or with a rubber spatula. Don’t overmix the meatball mixture or the meatballs can become dense.
Step Two: Scoop and Bake
Next, scoop the meatballs. A large cookie scoop makes this very easy. You should end up with 24 meatballs. Bake in a baking dish coated with cooking spray until they are almost completely cooked. I shoot for 150-155°F on my meat thermometer.
💡 Pro Tip: If there is excess grease in the casserole dish after baking, drain it completely before moving on to adding the sauce and cheese.
Step Three: Sauce, Cheese, and Broil
Top with sauce and sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top, and finish baking. For the best golden brown cheese on top, broil the low carb meatball casserole for 2-3 minutes, watching it carefully.
Top Prep Tip💡
You can make the Italian meatballs ahead of time, cook them until fully cooked, and then freeze the cooked meatballs in a freezer bag. Just place the frozen meatballs in the casserole dish, bake until thawed, and then top with the sauce and cheese. This easy meal prep idea is always a perfect meal on busy weeknights.
Storage & Reheating
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. Reheat in the oven at 350°F until hot, or microwave individual portions.
Variations
- Fresh Herbs – If you have fresh basil, feel free to mix some into the ground meat mixture, add some to the marinara, or sprinkle on top after baking.
- Spice Swaps – Swap the dried minced onion and garlic for onion powder and garlic powder, or sub in Italian seasoning.
- More Dinner Ideas – This Sausage Parmigiana is also a great choice if you need more dinner recipes! Or for a vegetarian version, sub in cauliflower and try my Cauliflower Parmesan.
Common Questions
We enjoy it with a side salad, vegetables, or any of the main low carb pasta options out there, such as palm noodles and zoodles.
Our family’s favorite ways to serve this are on top of zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash. For any non-keto eaters, you can serve with garlic bread or a side of al dente pasta.
Alternatively, you can serve with a side of roasted broccoli or green beans or a green salad.
I use a large cookie scoop to simplify the process and make uniformly sized meatballs. Since there is no need to get up to your elbows in raw meat, this is a great task to get the kids involved in. Mine are pros at scooping low carb meatballs by now. Make sure to also check out the video below.
The shredded zucchini helps keep the meatballs moist and tender, and my kids never notice it’s there. If you’d rather use something else, chopped spinach works well too.
Absolutely! This easy meatball recipe also freezes really well! Go ahead and make a double batch and then next time you want an easy Meatball Casserole just thaw, dump into the baking dish, and cover with sauce and cheese. Meatball Parmesan in a jiffy!
I love to always have a bag of low carb homemade meatballs in the freezer for nights that I don’t want to cook.
Yes. Assemble the cooked meatballs and sauce in the dish, cover, and refrigerate up to 24 hours before baking. Add cheese just before putting it in the oven to reheat.
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Video
Meatball Casserole Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
Meatball Ingredients
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1 lb Italian sausage
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella
- 1/3 cup grated or shredded parmesan
- 1 medium shredded zucchini about 1 cup
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp dried minced onion
- 2 tsp dried minced garlic
- 2 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp salt
Casserole Ingredients
- 1 cup marinara sauce
- 8 oz shredded cheese (I used a two cheese pizza blend of mozzarella and provolone)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400. Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray
- Combine all the ingredients for the meatballs and mix thoroughly. Make about 24 meatballs and put them in the casserole dish.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until the meatballs are cooked through. Carefully drain the cooking liquid from the casserole dish.
- Top with the sauce and cheese. Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
- Optional: I broiled for 3-4 minutes at the end to toast the cheese. Watch it carefully if you put it under the broiler. The cheese can burn easily.
Notes
Nutrition
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Originally Published September 23, 2016. Revised and Republished September 8, 2025.
Looks really good
Hubby licked his plate clean! Delicious recipe.
this is delicious! even my non-thm family members like this one 🙂 we actually have a number of favorites from joyfilledeats….
I’m really excited to try the keto meatball casserole.
My kids gobbled these up!! We all loved them! Thanks so much!
U say to bake theml 4 30 min, but u don’t say what the degree the oven should be??? They sound fab!
Hi Cindy, if you scroll up a bit above the comments you will see the complete recipe. 400 degrees.
I made this last weekend and added some leftover pepperoni, did meatballs and mild Italian sausage. I served it over egg noodles and it was like an easy lasagne! We all loved it! Thanks for taking the time to share this winner!
I’m trying this tonight for supper. I didn’t have zucchini, so we are trying it without it. I sure hope it turns out well.
It should be fine. Hope you like it!
This has been a huge hit in my family too. The kids would die if they knew they were eating zucchini.
These were incredible! Friends were having us over for dinner and raided my Pinterest account for ideas. I was so glad they did. We all just loved these. Two days later I made them. Can’t stop raving over them. I’ve sent the recipe on to several others now. They are a new family favorite.
We really loved this recipe and I used lean hamburger instead of turkey meat plus have a little bit left over so today I’m going to make cheeseburgers out of it 🤗🤗
My family doesn’t follow the Keto lifestyle but we absolutely love this recipe! It’s also great for meal prep, as you can double (or triple as I did today) the recipe and freeze some for later. Both kids and adults love it!
Delicious! I did make some adjustments: fresh basil in meatballs: almost 1/4 c cut in thin strips; fresh garlic; hamburger (93/7) instead of turkey; hot italian sausage (pkg was 18 oz). For the sauce, I used an entire jar (Blue Parrot brand has minimal sugar compared to many other brands) plus sauteed sliced mushrooms (8 oz) with fresh garlic then added spices: crushed red pepper; red pepper flakes; salt; pepper; fresh oregano (2 sprigs from garden). Simmered it for a while so it cooked down a bit. I did broil it after adding sauce/cheese – the top crust was divine! Served it with some palmini noodles but could sub pasta for those not on keto. OR, nothing at all (alone would make a lovely pot-luck dish). Note: I found that 1 c sauce wouldn’t even touch each meatball.
Delish!
I always use diced mushrooms in my meatballs to bind them, so I did that instead of the egg and zucchini this time, also. The rest is pretty much the same as my Keto lasagna minus the sliced zucchini. I cook the meatballs in the air fryer. Quick, simple, and delicious.
This is the best keto recipe I have tried so far! Amazing flavor. I do like my sauce so I add a whole jar of sauce instead of a cup. Thank you for this recipe. Now one of my favorites.