Asian Meatballs are loaded with flavor and packed with vegetables! Cabbage and mushrooms are stuffed into these tasty ground pork meatballs!
Some other fun low carb recipes we have are these Naked Sheet Pan Tacos (a taco recipe without the shell) and these easy Italian Deli Roll Ups instead of eating a sandwich on a bun!
A Veggie Packed Meatball Recipe
There are a couple of steps to making this Asian Meatball recipe, but it’s really so easy – and so healthy – you’ll be making these all the time! So, this isn’t one of those crock pot recipes that you can dump everything into the bowl and turn it on. These meatballs do need to be baked in the oven first.
Just that one extra step…but it makes a big difference. You can actually make this meatball recipe completely in the oven, toss in the asian flavored sauce and serve. We like taking the extra step of using our slow cooker if you have the time because it makes the meatballs super soft and delicious.
Also using the slow cooker is a great way to make these meatballs and serve them later for dinner or for appetizers at a party, they’ll keep warm all night!
So what’s different about these meatballs you ask? For one, there are zero breadcrumbs in these guys…none. So if you’re following a low-carb diet, you’re going to love this recipe.
There’s also cabbage and mushrooms stuffed inside these meatballs so you don’t even need to add a vegetable side dish! These Asian Meatballs are a great way to sneak extra vegetables into your families diet, they’ll never know what’s inside!
How Do You Make These Crock Pot Meatballs?
Cook the cabbage and the mushrooms down in a skillet, then mix in into your lean ground pork, eggs, scallions, ginger, garlic and seasonings.
Next form the mixture into meatballs, I used an #20 scoop to help me get them all about the same size. Now bake the meatballs at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Like I mentioned before, you can stop the recipe here right after the oven. Toss the meatballs in the sauce and serve.
Totally delicious, and we do this a lot if we don’t have time for the slow cooker. But the slow cooker really does add something to this meatball recipe…super soft meatballs that don’t fall apart (because we baked the first) and the flavors have lots of time to blend together and get even better.
While the meatballs are baking you can mix up the sauce and have it ready to go. The sauce is just hoisin and barbecue sauce mixed together. If you’re trying to keep this recipe low carb, grab a low sugar BBQ sauce.
These meatballs also taste amazing with our Homemade Stir Fry Sauce that only takes a few minutes to make!
When the meatballs come out of the oven, get them in your crock pot and pour the sauce all over the top. Toss the meatballs gently in the sauce to make sure they’re all coated.
Cook on high for 3 hours, or on low up to 6 hours. The meatballs are already cooked at this point but letting them cook in the crock pot blends the flavors together and makes for a super tender meatball in the end.
How Do You Serve These Asian Meatballs?
A fun way to serve these Asian Meatballs for dinner is on a butter lettuce leaf for a low carb option. Or you can serve them over rice or noodles! We like to have options out so that everyone can eat these meatballs their own way.
If you’re serving these for appetizers then you can leave them right in your crock pot with toothpicks on the side. Serve these Asian meatballs like a cocktail meatball with toothpicks or have butter lettuce leaves on the side.
Looking For More Meatball Recipes?
- Grandma’s Sunday Meatballs
- Cheeseburger Meatballs
- Beer and Pretzel Meatballs
- Easy Chicken and Broccoli Meatballs
- Zesty Mustard Glazed Meatballs
Asian Meatballs
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 3 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 25 meatballs 1x
Asian Meatballs are loaded with flavor and packed with vegetables! Cabbage and mushrooms are stuffed into these tasty ground pork meatballs!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 3 cups shredded cabbage
- 2 cups thinly sliced (or chopped) white mushrooms
- 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 1/2 lbs. ground pork
- 1 egg beaten
- 3 scallions, chopped fine
- 2 teaspoons grated ginger
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
- 1/2 cup barbecue sauce
- Butter lettuce leaves for serving
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of the canola oil.
- Add in the shredded cabbage and the salt. Stir and cook until wilted, about 5 minutes. Push the cabbage to one side of the skillet and add the sliced mushrooms to the other side. Cook the mushrooms until they are slightly browned, then stir together with the cabbage and cook another 2-3 minutes. Remove to a plate and let cool.
- Put the ground pork in a large bowl then add the eggs, egg white, scallions, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, and black pepper and then mix together.
- Add the cooled mushroom and cabbage mixture to the pork and mix together to combine.
- Form the meatballs using a #20 large scoop, or about the size of a golfball if you don’t have a scooper.
- Place the meatballs on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove the meatballs from the oven and place in the bottom of your slow cooker.
- Pour the sauce all over the meatballs and gently toss together. You can also toss the meatballs in the sauce separately in a bowl and then transfer to your slow cooker.
- Set on high for 3 hours, or low for up to 6 hours.
- Sprinkle the meatballs with sesame seeds and place into a butter lettuce leaf for serving.
Recipe Notes
This recipe works best in a small crock pot. If you have a larger crock pot double the sauce so they don’t burn. Also – you can skip the crock pot altogether and just toss the meatballs with the sauce in a skillet for 5 minutes, then serve!
- Category: Appetizers
- Method: Slow Cooker
- Cuisine: American
Oh these are definitely happening in my house! Love that there is cabbage and mushrooms in there!!
These look really good. Why is it that every time I look at your website, my stomach is growling…!
I think the girls would like these too!
Just made the meatballs….Very tasty!
I may try with a sherry ginger sauce because lacking some of the sauce recipe’s ingredients. But to be honest, the meatballs are very good without a sauce.
That sounds great! They are good plain, I agree. Thanks for trying them out!
Dan, I tried out another sauce recipe that I got from Yankee Magazine. The recipe was cider-soy-glazed chicken wings. This sauce was very tasty but I didn’t have star anise so I used an store bought asian spice mix. Just thought you might like to check it out.
http://www.yankeemagazine.com/recipe/cider-soy-glazed-chicken-wings
Thanks Millie – so did you use that cider-soy sauce on the meatballs? It looks really good!
Dan, I didn’t get to try it on the meatballs because I used it up on chicken. Sorry. However, the cider sauce was very good and I think it would go nicely with the meatballs. The meatball and the cider soy glaze are keepers!
That’s great Millie, I’m glad to hear it! I’ll definitely hang on to the cider soy glaze recipe!
At what point did you add the cabbage/mushroom mixture into the meat mixture?
Gail, you add in the mushrooms and cabbage to the bowl with the pork mixture. I updated the recipe it wasn’t real clear. Thanks for pointing that out! I hope you enjoy them!
This was amazing!
We love it too, thanks Stephanie!
Thank you so much for this glorious recipe. I added scallions and a tsp of 5 spice powder to boost the flavours in the sauce. Sooooo goooood
Sounds wonderful! Glad you liked it!
Could you make these with ground beef? or a pork/beef mix?
Sure!
Says sugar in the recipe but not in the list of ingredients
I fixed that for you, we used to add a teaspoon of sugar to the meatball mixture but we found that the recipe doesn’t need it!