This Meatball Alfredo made with ground venison is simmered in a ready made sauce and served over top of a bed of lightly steamed zucchini noodles. A low carb and keto friendly dinner that will satisfy your tummy and your tastebuds!
Venison Meatball Alfredo is a delicious dinner recipe that is easy to make and even easier to repurpose! This big batch recipe will feed a family of four easily with plenty of leftovers. Then, with the leftovers you can either enjoy the meatballs by themselves, or make and enjoy a Meatball Pizza with Alfredo Sauce and Arugula!
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Venison Meatball Alfredo - a timesaving recipe!
Creating simple and tasty recipes with ground venison has become somewhat of an obsession with me lately. I had some leeks on hand, so I decided they would be a great addition to make a venison meatball recipe! And, rather than the normal marinara sauce, I went with one of our favorite jarred sauces from Raos - cheesy garlic alfredo sauce!
Because this is a large volume recipe, I serve half of it for one meal, then take the leftover meatballs and will make my Venison Meatball Alfredo Pizza recipe with the other portion! I can usually make two pizzas with the leftovers from this recipe. So, I can get 3 meals out of this one recipe!
Recipe FAQs for Meatball Alfredo
Yes. This recipe would work well with any wild game meat such as elk or deer. But, if you don't have access to this, beef is a good substitute.
For this particular recipe I cook then crumble the bacon into small pieces before adding to the venison meatball mixture.
Because I am adding fat to this recipe to make it work for Keto, I fry these in the frying pan. However, you can bake these in the oven if you wish. I would bake them at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes
You can freeze meatball alfredo leftovers. I recommend using within 2-3 months.
You can make pizza, subs, or sliders are some great and easy ideas for using up your leftover meatballs.
Making Venison Meatball Alfredo
For this recipe you will need: ground venison, cooked bacon slices, leeks, garlic cloves, paprika, mushrooms, and alfredo sauce. I use zucchini noodles as a pasta substitute here. About 2 small zucchini is enough for 4-6 people.
Because I don't love a lot of grease spatter, but I love bacon, I will bake the bacon in the oven! I just follow the instructions on the bacon package for the oven method. Once it is baked to perfection, you will crumble it up into small pieces and set it aside until you mix the meatball ingredients together.
Next, gather all the ingredients together that you will need to make Venison Meatball Alfredo. Zucchini, ground venison, leeks, garlic cloves, bacon, paprika and a jar of Rao's Homemade Roasted Garlic Alfredo Sauce!
The leeks and garlic will be sauteed in butter until the leeks are softened. This can be done while the bacon is cooking in the oven. They will need to be cooled to room temperature before adding to the venison
Once the meatball mixture is combined, they should be shaped into a ball shape and will be fried in the skillet with some butter. Turn them occasionally to brown on all sides until they are cooked all the way through. This should take about 10 minutes total.
Once the meatballs are cooked, remove them from the skillet and place them on a plate lined with paper towels. I do this to aid in soaking up the fat from frying. It will prevent the plate from accumulating a puddle of grease.
Making the Alfredo Sauce for the Venison Meatballs
I use the same skillet that the meatballs were cooked in. Add the mushrooms, then cook and stir until the water releases from the mushrooms. The water will evaporate as the mushrooms cook.
When the mushrooms start to look dry and brown slightly, you can add the alfredo sauce. If you add the alfredo sauce before all the water evaporates, you take the chance of thinning out the sauce.
The Venison Meatballs go into the alfredo sauce next. Stir the sauce to coat the meatballs. Then, cover with a lid and simmer about 10 minutes.
While the meatballs are simmering in the sauce, you can prepare the zucchini noodles. If you would rather have something more "pasta" like, I highly recommend Shirataki Noodles.
Because I always cook my zucchini noodles in my microwave steamer, they are ready in just a few minutes and don't get water logged! I like to cook them long enough to make them have that toothsome bite you get with pasta.
After the noodles are ready, you can serve the meatballs and sauce over top. If desired, you can garnish with some freshly chopped parsley.
Making Venison Meatball Alfredo is easy to do with a few convenience items!
- Save more time and dishes and buy zucchini noodles already made right at the grocery store. I see them all the time now so they are likely readily available to you. If not, then this very affordable Spiralizer will do the job!
- Buy precooked bacon! No need to microwave the bacon here. Just cut it up into pieces and add to the venison mixture.
- Buy pre-sliced mushrooms. This will save you time cleaning and slicing them yourself.
Have time but want to make your own Alfredo Sauce?
I love this recipe for Cajun Shrimp with Linguine and Creamy Parmesan Sauce. And, if your looking to make a homemade alfredo sauce, the sauce in that particular recipe would be perfect to use in this Meatball Alfredo recipe!
Venison Meatball Alfredo with Zucchini Noodles
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Ingredients
- 8 slices thick cut bacon cooked and crumbled
- 2 lb ground venison
- 1 tablespoon bacon fat
- ⅓ cup leeks chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground pepper
- 1 jar Rao's Alfredo Sauce with Garlic
- 2 small zucchini spiralized
Instructions
- Cook bacon in oven as per package instructions. Reserve one tablespoon of bacon fat.
- Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of reserved bacon fat to a large skillet and cook leeks and garlic until softened. Remove from skillet and place in a small bowl to cool.
- In a large mixing bowl, using your hands, combine the ground venison, bacon, leeks, garlic, paprika, salt and pepper until just combined.
- Using a ¼ cup scoop, shape meat mixture into a ball shape. Place meatballs in skillet that you cooked the leeks in and cook until well browned on all sides.
- Remove meatballs from skillet and place on a paper towel lined plate to catch and grease that may puddle beneath the meatballs.
- Add mushrooms to the same skillet you cooked the meatballs in and cook until water has evaporated.
- Stir alfredo sauce into the cooked mushrooms, then add the meatballs. Cover and simmer about 10-15 minutes.
- While the meatballs are simmering, spiralize your zucchini and steam it in your microwave steamer about 5 minutes. Just until the zucchini is hot and still has a bite to it.
- Serve Venison Meatball Alfredo over top of zucchini noodles and garnish with fresh parsley if desired.
Deidre Sue
Fabulous dinner!
Note: mushrooms omitted from ingredient list. Don't forget the 'shrooms!
Mel
Great recipe! This was delicious. Don't forget to calculate your own macros as the mushrooms were not included at an entire jar of Rao's is more than I think was used in this posting. I did make some changes with what I had. I used one pound ground venison mixed with one pound ground pork. I also used green onions instead of leeks. I also put this on top of riced cauliflower since I only had a small zucchini to spiral into noodles. This is getting long winded, but I recently started cooking bacon in my instant pot on sauté mode in order to contain the mess in my small kitchen and there is much less clean up!