Meatballs in the Instant Pot

February 4, 2018

I first made this recipe a while back and had a hankering for more when I realized I didn’t post the recipe! I didn’t even take photos! I’m not gonna be a famous blogger, I guess. Below is the pre-cooked look at the meatballs in the Instant Pot.

I ~~stole this recipe from~~ was inspired by Pressure Luck Cooking, which had a great video and turned the meatballs into meatball subs. (yummm) However, this time I’m using pork sausage instead of plain ground pork. Plus, I don’t shop at Costco and am not familiar with the brand of marinara he uses. The first time I did it, I think I used one much smaller jar of some marinara plus a can of crushed tomatoes. This time I bought 2 jars of Sprouts organic marinara – his recipe jar contains 40 ounces, but the Sprouts jars are about 25 ounces, and a similar Kroger offering was 24 ounces. A 40-ounce jar is a big jar!

Print Recipe

Meatballs in the Instant Pot

(No Ratings Yet)

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef - he suggests not trying to get meat that is too lean; I went with 80% lean
1/2 pork sausage (Pressure Luck Cooking uses ground pork)
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/3 cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoons garlic - recipe called for crushed; I used jarred/minced. I had some fresh but didn't feel like chopping them up.
2 teaspoons Tony Chacheres - his recipe says "seasoned salt" - oh come on, he must not be from the south
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon turmeric - a superfood that should be used in every dish you make, for its anti-inflammatory benefits. Mr Pressure Luck did not use it. His loss.
1 teaspoon dried oregano. OK, I keep forgetting I don't have oregano, so I used Penzey's Frozen Pizza spices which surely must have oregano in them.
2 tablespoons dried parsley
1/3 cup of whole milk
1 slightly beaten egg
50 ounces of jarred marinara - Mr Pressure Luck uses 48 ounces, but I just poured both of my 25 ounce jars right on in there.
1 cup of water - I used the empty marinara jars, put some water in them, swished it around to get the last yummy bits of marinara and poured them in

Instructions

Put the seal in the Instant Pot - I have 3 seals, since cooking beans in the pot made one of the seals smell like beans. For meatballs, this is ok, but for yogurt it's not.

I prepped by having all the ingredients measured and ready.

Pour the marinara into the Instant Pot.

Wash your hands really well - using latex gloves here would not be amiss. I wondered if using vaseline under my nails would have made cleanup easier.

I also set out some paper towels so I could wipe as much of the meatball mix off my hands as possible before touching the handles in the sink.

Put all the ingredients up to the marinara in a big bowl - bigger than the bowl I used today - and with your hands, squish it all together to mix it.

Form regular size meatballs, I didn't measure them. Pressure Luck says 12 meatballs but mine was more like 24. I might have made them smaller, plus my package of beef was a little more than 1 lb, and I just eyed the pork.

Put each meatball into the marinara as you make them - they should all be in one layer, each touching the bottom of the pot. I think 2-3 mine might have been squished a little higher this time.

Pour the water into the Instant Pot. The water helps with the whole pressure-cooking thing, building steam. Really, it doesn't water down the recipe.

Put the top on the Instant Pot, make sure the pressure valve is set to seal.

Instant Pot - Manual - 10 minutes.

His recipe calls for quick release - beware that hot steam and potentially marinara sauce will spew out of the valve when you do this. Get a towel, and/or maybe some oven mitts, and avert your face!

By the way, the recipe doesn’t allow for links, so here’s some info on superfood Turmeric which you should totally put in everything you make, really. Of course someone had to come along and say it wasn’t 100% true, but I say err on the side of caution and put turmeric in anyway.

And I made a meatball sub, sans provolone, for the first meatballs out of the pot!