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These Instant Pot Meatballs can be made in any electric pressure cooker. Just roll, freeze for a few minutes, and pressure cook for a no stress dinner. Use these in any meatball recipe–Spaghetti & Meatballs, Asian Meatballs, Swedish Meatballs.
I’ve been trying to perfect these meatballs for some time, but figuring out how to make meatballs in the Instant Pot wasn’t as cut and dry as I thought it should be. My #1 issue was that I’d try to saute the meatballs and they would fall apart.
Where’s the recipe?
I have readers from all levels of comfort and experience in the kitchen on my site. To better serve everyone here at My Crazy Good Life, I’ve made a commitment to put a ton of helpful information in all of my posts.
If you’d like to skip over the tips, nutritional information, special diet information and meal prep info, please simply scroll to the bottom of the page where you will find the easy to print recipe for these Instant Pot Italian Meatballs.
Ingredients for pressure cooker meatballs:
This method works for any meatball recipe! For this post, I made my favorite easy Italian meatballs.
- Ground Beef: You can also use ground turkey to lower the saturated fat in this recipe.
- Egg: The common belief is that eggs are added to meatballs for moisture, but that isn’t it. They are added to the mixture to bind everything together.
- Rolled Oats: Whole grains to give the meatballs more texture.
- Parmesan Cheese: You can use any Parmesan you prefer, but I highly recommend getting fresh and grating it yourself. It is truly a better flavor!
- Spices: Freshly minced garlic, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes add the Italian flavors to this recipe.
How to prepare Instant Pot Meatballs:
This recipe will take about 30 minutes from start to finish.
- In a large bowl mix together ground beef, eggs, rolled oats, Parmesan cheese, garlic, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes until well combined.
- Using a cookie scoop or rounded tablespoon, scoop out 24 meatballs and roll with your hands. If you’re following a specific diet, this is where your containers/points/calories are calculated from, so the goal is 24 meatballs :)
- Place the meatballs onto a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer for at least 15 minutes. You want the meatballs to be frozen enough to easily handle without them losing their shape.
- While your meatballs chill, add 1/2 cup of water to the bottom of the silver Instant Pot insert, then place your trivet in the bottom.
- Once your meatballs are chilled, place them on top of the trivet. You can stack them if necessary.
- Close and lock the lid and place the pressure valve in the sealing position. Cook on high pressure for 8 minutes.
- Once to cook time is complete, allow the pot to naturally release pressure for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, move the valve to Venting and quick release the remainder. Remove the lid and set it aside.
- Carefully remove the trivet and gently pull apart any stuck meatballs. Alternatively, you can remove the meatballs with tongs–just be careful not to burn yourself on the sides of the pot.
- Serve the meatballs immediately or store in the fridge up to 5 days.
Recipe Tips:
- You can substitute equal amounts of whole wheat bread crumbs for the rolled oats.
- For extra flavor, you can add beef stock to the bottom of your pot in place of water.
- I don’t recommend cooking the meatballs in spaghetti sauce. Things like tomato sauce and crushed tomatoes tend to trigger your Instant Pot’s burn warning. Instead, add the sauce after your meatballs are finished cooking and turn on the sauté feature to get everything heated up.
- You can add more red pepper flakes if you like your meatballs spicy, or leave the red pepper out if you don’t.
- I don’t salt my recipes so that you can add salt and pepper to taste.
Meal Prep and Freezing Tips:
- I love making these and freezing them for a quick meal–you can keep them in the freezer for up tp 2 months.
- Make sure the meatballs are individually frozen before adding them to a freezer bag or container, otherwise they’ll all stick together. I like to lay mine on a baking sheet to freeze, or in a single layer in a freezer bag.
- If you’d like to make meatballs without the seasonings, just leave them out–the way you make the recipe won’t change. You can add the seasonings to the top of the meatballs when reheating if you’d like.
Healthy Eating Plans:
Weight Watchers: We calculated these points using the WW calculator. We use ingredients to calculate our points, not nutrition information. Weight Watchers has told us that this is the most accurate way to calculate points for a recipe since ingredient brands can vary so much. Points were figured using 96% lean ground beef.
2023 points: 4 | 4 Blue Plan Points | 4 Green Plan Points | 3 Purple Plan Points
- For the entire recipe: 4 1/2 Red Containers, 1/2 Blue Container, 1 Yellow Container.
- Per Serving: 1 Red Container, 1/4 Yellow container, 1/8 Blue Container (I do not count this unless I have more than one serving).
2B Mindset: This recipe is a great one for your lunch or dinner protein requirement. Make sure to add in your other Plate It! macros as needed.
Looking for more Instant Pot Recipes?
Here are some of my favorite Instant Pot Meatball Recipes:
And some more delicious and healthy recipes:
Instant Pot Italian Meatballs
Equipment
- Instant Pot 6 qt
- Instant Pot Trivet
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef extra lean
- 1 eggs
- ⅓ cup rolled oats
- 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese grated
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tbsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp crushed red pepper
Instructions
- In a large bowl mix together ground beef, egg, rolled oats, Parmesan cheese, garlic, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes until well combined. 1 lb ground beef 1 eggs ⅓ cup rolled oats 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese 4 cloves garlic 2 tbsp Italian seasoning 1 tsp crushed red pepper
- Using a cookie scoop make 24 meatballs and use your hands to roll them into a ball.
- Place meatballs onto a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer for at least 15 minutes.
- While your meatballs chill, add 1/2 cup of water to the bottom of the Instant Pot and then place your trivet in the bottom.
- Place chilled meatballs on the trivet.
- Close and lock the lid and place the pressure valve in the sealing position.
- Pressure cook on high for 8 minutes.
- Let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes, then quick release the remaining pressure.
- Gently remove the trivet and separate any stuck meatballs. Serve immediately or store in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Notes
- You can substitute equal amounts of whole wheat bread crumbs for the rolled oats.
- For extra flavor you can add beef stock to the bottom of your pot in place of water.
- I don’t recommend cooking the meatballs in spaghetti sauce. Things like tomato sauce and crushed tomatoes tend to trigger your Instant Pot’s burn notice. Instead add the sauce after your meatballs are finished cooking and turn on the Saute feature to get everything heated.
- You can add more red pepper if you like it spicy, or leave it out if you don’t.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
Nutrition
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