Beef Meatballs With Cauliflower and Turnips for Full GAPS

These beef meatballs simmer in a light tomato broth with cauliflower, turnips, and carrots. A teaspoon of cinnamon seasons the meat itself, giving the savory broth a warm flavor without making it sweet. Fresh cilantro goes over the bowls at the end.

This Full GAPS dinner uses no egg, breadcrumbs, or nut flour to hold the meatballs together. Roll the seasoned beef into small balls and lower them straight into the simmering liquid. You do not need a separate frying pan or an oven step for the meat.

I make stock in the morning, and what goes into the pot depends on the budget, what is available, and how much time I have. Having it ready makes a meal like this much easier to start. Here, four cups of homemade beef meat stock become the cooking liquid for the meatballs and vegetables. It is worth planning for that finished stock before you start dinner, because making the stock itself is a separate job.

Ingredients For The Meatballs And Vegetables

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 teaspoon pure ground cinnamon
• Fine sea salt and black pepper, to taste
• 1 medium head cauliflower, cut into florets
• 1 tablespoon homemade ghee or coconut oil
• 1 cup diced white onion
• 4 cups homemade beef meat stock
• 2 tablespoons plain tomato paste
• 3 medium turnips, peeled and quartered
• 2 medium carrots, sliced lengthwise into strips
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, for serving

Choose plain ground beef. The cinnamon, salt, and pepper are mixed into it before shaping, so every meatball gets seasoning rather than relying only on the broth. Keep the balls about one inch across. Large meatballs take longer to cook through and do not follow the short simmering sequence used here.

The cauliflower is boiled briefly in water and drained before it joins the main pot. It should be partly cooked at that point, not falling apart. This head start lets it finish in the broth after the turnips and carrots have had their own cooking time. Do not pour the cauliflower boiling water into the stockpot; the four cups of beef meat stock are the liquid for the finished dish.

Use three medium turnips, peel them, and cut each into quarters. Cut the carrots lengthwise into strips instead of thick coins. These shapes are part of how the vegetables cook in the short simmer. The turnips should soften all the way to the center, and the carrot strips should lose their raw stiffness.

Tomato paste gives the broth color and a little concentrated tomato flavor. Choose a plain paste made from tomatoes, with salt as the only possible addition. A sweetened tomato sauce or a prepared pasta sauce brings different ingredients and is not the same thing. You only need two tablespoons here, so the dish stays brothy rather than becoming a pot of thick tomato sauce.

The chopped cilantro is added when serving. Its fresh flavor is easier to notice over the warm broth than after a long simmer. If some people at the table do not enjoy cilantro, let them leave the garnish off their own bowl.

How To Make The Meatballs

Allow about ten minutes for preparation and thirty minutes for cooking, using already-made meat stock. You will need a pot for boiling the cauliflower and a stockpot for the rest of the meal. Have a colander ready so you can drain the florets when they are partly tender.

1. Season and shape the beef. Put the ground beef in a bowl with the cinnamon and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Mix well, then roll into one-inch meatballs and set them on a plate.
2. Partly cook the cauliflower. Cut the cauliflower into florets. Boil them in a pot of water for five to seven minutes, until partly cooked, then drain and set aside.
3. Soften the onion. Melt the ghee or coconut oil in the stockpot over medium heat. Add the cup of diced onion and cook for three to four minutes, stirring, until translucent. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper.
4. Start the broth. Add the four cups of beef meat stock and two tablespoons of tomato paste. Stir to break up the paste and bring to a simmer for two minutes.
5. Add the meatballs. Lower the meatballs into the simmering broth and cook for five minutes. Keep a gentle simmer rather than a hard rolling boil.
6. Add turnips and carrots. Stir in the peeled, quartered turnips and carrot strips. Cook uncovered until tender, about seven minutes.
7. Finish with cauliflower. Add the drained florets and simmer until tender, about five minutes. Check that the meatballs are cooked through to 160°F in their centers.
8. Serve. Taste the broth and adjust the salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls and top with the chopped cilantro.

At Step 1, mix until the cinnamon is distributed throughout the beef. You should not see dry pockets of spice. Shape small, similar-size meatballs so they cook at a similar pace. This mixture does not need an egg to be added just because many other meatball recipes use one.

In Step 2, watch the cauliflower closely. A fork should begin to enter a floret, but it should still have some firmness. It gets another simmer in Step 7. If it is completely soft before draining, it is more likely to break into tiny pieces when stirred through the finished pot.

The onion in Step 3 should soften and become translucent rather than developing a dark crust. Once the stock and tomato paste go in, stir until the liquid is evenly colored and there are no dense lumps of paste on the bottom. At a gentle simmer, small bubbles rise through the liquid. You do not need the whole surface churning around the meatballs.

The vegetables decide the endpoint of Steps 6 and 7. Test a turnip quarter in its thickest part and a cauliflower stem with a fork. Both should be tender. If they are still hard, give the pot more time rather than serving crunchy vegetables because the timer has finished. Add the cauliflower in its own step so it is not simmering for the whole time the other vegetables are in the pot.

GAPS Ingredients And Adaptations

Fresh beef, cauliflower, turnips, carrots, onion, cinnamon, and fresh herbs fit Full GAPS. Homemade meat stock provides the broth here. Follow the linked beef stock recipe for its preparation, then measure four cups from the finished batch. This dinner’s cooking time does not include making a new pot of stock.

Ghee is the animal-fat choice used in this version. Coconut oil is an equal-amount alternative: use one tablespoon in place of the tablespoon of ghee. That choice makes the dish free of milk ingredients, while the meatball and vegetable amounts stay the same. The recipe is already egg-free and nut-free.

It is not No-Plant GAPS, because the vegetables and cinnamon are part of the meal. Nor is it an early Intro stew simply because the meatballs simmer in meat stock. Stage 2 uses salt and fresh herbs without spices, and its meat-and-vegetable stews are cooked slowly for at least two and a half hours. This is a shorter Full GAPS preparation with cinnamon and tomato paste.

If you are following that earlier stage, the Stage 2 guide explains the longer-cooked meal and seasoning approach. Use that preparation for Intro rather than removing one ingredient from this recipe and keeping its short cooking time.

Serving And Storage

This batch serves four. Ladle some of the stock into each bowl along with the meatballs, cauliflower, turnips, and carrots. The vegetables and broth are part of the meal, so you do not need to cook rice or pasta to put underneath it. Sprinkle the cilantro over each bowl just before it goes to the table.

For another dinner using ground beef, beef and zucchini frittata takes a different direction: eggs hold the cooked beef and vegetables together in slices. If your family prefers a loose skillet meal, beef with cabbage, red pepper, and zucchini cooks without an egg layer. Both give you a different use for the rest of a package of beef.

Refrigerate leftovers in covered containers, keeping the broth with the meatballs so each portion is easy to reheat. Warm a serving gently in a saucepan until hot throughout. Stir carefully around the cauliflower, which will be softer after its first cooking. Add fresh cilantro after warming if you want its flavor to stay bright.

Recommended Equipment

A roomy stainless steel stockpot gives the meatballs and vegetables enough space to simmer without being packed tightly together. The Le Creuset Classic Stainless Steel 10-quart Stockpot gives you room to stir around the vegetables. An 8-quart Cuisinart stainless steel stockpot is another option for this batch.

You also need a separate pot and colander for the cauliflower, a bowl for mixing the beef, a plate for the shaped meatballs, a knife and board, measuring cups and spoons, a ladle, and a food thermometer. Clear the colander and have the stock measured before heating the pots. That keeps the short onion and broth steps from turning into a search for the next tool.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will The Meatballs Hold Without Eggs Or Flour?

This recipe uses seasoned ground beef shaped into one-inch balls, without either binder. Mix the seasoning through the meat and keep the simmer gentle. There is no separate bread or flour mixture to prepare.

Do I Brown The Meatballs First?

No. They go straight into the simmering stock and tomato broth. Browning would add a different cooking step and change the outside texture.

Why Is The Cauliflower Boiled Separately?

It gets a five-to-seven-minute head start, then finishes in the main pot. Draining it keeps its cooking water out of the four cups of meat stock.

Can I Make It Without Ghee?

Yes. Use one tablespoon of coconut oil instead. Keep the same onion step and the rest of the ingredient amounts unchanged.

Can I Double It?

Use the card’s doubled amounts and a pot with enough room for the meatballs, vegetables, and liquid. Keep the meatballs one inch across and cook to the same tenderness and doneness checks. A larger batch may need extra heating time.

More Warm Dinners To Plan Around

The planned Soups & Stews Cookbook and Soup & Stew Recipe Card Deck are being put together for meals like this, with the ingredients and cooking directions close at hand. Watch the WFLI shop for their release when you want more ideas for turning homemade meat stock into dinner.

Beef Meatballs With Cauliflower And Turnips Recipe