Ground Veal Meatballs Recipe (2024)

Amazingly tender, juicy, and flavorful veal meatballs. Made with ground veal and white bread, they are perfectly seasoned and ready in about 30 minutes.

Have you ever tried veal meatballs? If not, you should; these meatballs made with ground veal are incredibly tender; they practically melt in your mouth.

The ground veal meatballs are also versatile; you can serve them as they are with mashed potatoes or in a sandwich. Or you can pair them with your favorite sauce like marinara sauce, BBQ sauce, Swedish, Italian, or Asian-style sauce, and so on. Or try them with this excellent Spanish sauce for meatballs.

Check out more delicious meatball recipes: Beef Meatballs with Zucchini, Romanian Meatballs (Chiftele), or Mushroom Stuffed Meatballs.

Recipe ingredients

• Ground veal is a lean type of ground/ minced meat made of calf trimmings. Just like other types of ground meat, it can contain meat from various parts of the animal, such as short loins of flanks.
  • Ground veal used in combination with pork or beef, which are fattier. However, today’s veal meatballs are made with veal only, and they are as juicy and flavorful as they can be; you will love them!

• Bread: You will need about 3 slices of white bread, a total of 3 oz/ 90 g weighed after removing the crust.

• Milk: Whole or reduced-fat milk 2%. Don’t use non-fat milk for this veal recipe.
  • Single cream/half and half would be great too.

• Seasoning: Fresh garlic, sweet paprika, fresh parsley, red pepper flakes, fine sea or kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper.
• Other ingredients: Dijon mustard, one small onion, garlic cloves, eggs, a little all-purpose flour, and vegetable oil.

• Optional: A small amount of dried breadcrumbs if required (See Expert Tips).

How to make veal meatballs?

• Soak bread: Remove the crust from the bread. Break the slices into smaller pieces and place them in a large bowl. Pour the milk on top, mix, and leave to soak until you’ve gathered the remaining ingredients and grated the onion and the garlic.

• Combine: Add the minced veal, grated onion, lightly beaten eggs, mustard, and all the spices. Mix well to combine.

• Form about 22-25 balls, each weighing about 2 oz/ 60 g/ about ¼ cup ground veal meatball mixture. I usually use the cup or weigh the mixture for the first 2-3 balls and then eyeball the rest.
  • Press the balls between your palms to flatten them lightly (1).

• Flour: Place the flour on a large plate. Dredge the veal meatballs through the flour and pat them gently over the plate or the sink to remove the excess flour (2).

• Heat about 2 tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan. Cook the ground veal patties in batches without overcrowding the pan. Add a bit more oil between the batches if the pan is dry.

• Cook the veal meatballs for 3 minutes at high temperature, flipping them halfway (3). Then, lower the heat to medium, flip them again, and cook for another 5-6 minutes, flipping 2-3 times in between or until cooked through (4).
  • The internal temperature measured with a meat thermometer should be 160°F/ 72°C.

Alternative cooking methods

• Oven: Preheat the oven to 400°/200°. Place the veal meatballs on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
  • Bake for about 15 minutes, check the internal temperature (160°F/ 72°C), or break one to see if it’s cooked through. If not, give it 2-3 more minutes and check again.

• Air fryer: Preheat it according to its instruction manual (mine needs about 3 minutes) to 400°F/200°C.
  • Place the meatballs in the air fryer basket in a single layer, spray them with cooking oil, and air fry them for about 8 minutes, flipping halfway or until cooked through. The internal temperature should be 160°F/ 72°C (instant-read thermometer).

Expert Tips

• Use of dried breadcrumbs: You will only need them if you feel that the meatball mixture is too wet; that depends mainly on the size of your eggs. If using dried breadcrumbs, start with just 1-2 teaspoons, mix again, and only add more if absolutely necessary.

• Onion: Grating an onion is not my favorite task, yet I almost always do it when making meatballs. No matter how finely you chop an onion, if you leave it raw in the meatballs, you will probably feel the pieces when eating the meatballs.
  • Alternatively, you can chop the onion very finely and cook it in a bit of olive oil until soft. However, that takes longer and means more mess than grating the onion.

• Avoid overmixing the veal mixture. Use your hands or a rubber spatula and mix to combine well, but don’t turn the mixture into a paste. Overmixing will result in tough meatballs.

• Wet your hands when rolling the balls; it will stop the meat from sticking to your hands.

• Flouring is optional, but I often do it when cooking meatballs; it imparts the balls a deeper color and more flavor.

Recipe FAQ

How to serve them?

Last time we had the ground veal meatballs with mashed potatoes and sauteed black salsify. However, you can choose from countless other side dishes for meatballs.

Try them with Spinach Potato Mash or Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes, potato wedges and chili sauce, Smashed potatoes, Couscous Salad, or Slow-Cooker Potatoes.

The following recipes are great if you want some vegetable side dishes for the meatballs: Caramelized Brussels Sprouts, Creamed Leeks, Sweetheart Cabbage, Creamy Leek Gratin, and so on.

Sauce: Try our Marinara Sauce, the tomato sauce used for pork meatballs or mushroom sauce. Or serve them with any other meatball sauce you like.

Use leftover veal meatballs to make sandwiches or meatball subs.

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