With the first taste of these Slow Cooker Moroccan Meatballs you’ll discover light, juicy meatballs infused with a spice bomb of cumin, coriander, sweet paprika, cinnamon, ginger, garlic and onion that will melt in your mouth and leave you wanting more.
Do Slow Cooker Moroccan Meatballs Have to Be Pre-Cooked?
Super simple to make in your Slow Cooker, or Multi Cooker, there is no pre cooking of the meatballs required.
All you need to do is get the spice mix together, add the egg, beef, breadcrumbs, corriander/cilantro and get rolling. With half a kilogram of beef mince (or 1 pound of ground beef), you’ll end up with 17 to 18 golf ball sized meatballs. Just the right amount for 4 or 5 people, depending on how hungry they are!
This is a great recipe to make if you're a fan of corriander (if you're in Australia like me), or Cilantro if you know it by that term. There is a good heaped tablespoon of fresh diced corriander in this recipe that adds a lush freshness to the meatballs, even though they are slow cooked for 6 hours. I guess you could even call them Corriander Meatballs.
Want to make these moroccan meatballs in tomato sauce on the stovetop or in the oven? Check out the instructions in the recipe notes below.
Which Cut of Meat Is Best for Fresh Corriander Meatballs?
I tend to buy the leanest beef mince I can find and I still end up with super juicy meatballs, not tough, or dry like you sometimes get if you cook them for too long in the oven or on the stovetop.
This recipe for moroccan meatballs slow cooker is so versatile, you could easily substitute any other type of ground meat, like lamb, chicken or even turkey.
Love meatballs? You might like to try my Chicken Meatballs with Peanut Satay Sauce. You can have it on the table in 30 minutes.
One of my favourite things about moroccan meatballs in tomato sauce is that its set and forget. Once you put your slow cooker on in the morning (usually a Sunday for me), it will do its thing and you won;t have to worry about the 4pm dinner dileama when your Husband says "What's for Dinner?"
Do the Corriander Meatballs Hold Together?
Absolutely these meatballs hold together thanks to the egg used to bind the ingredients together. There’s no falling apart, even when you get them out of the slow cooker and serve them up, they hold their shape.
Typically you might find meatballs struggling to hold their shaped during cooking, if there is no binding ingredient. Or they go as hard as rocks and end up tasting like dry rubber. Not this moroccan meatballs slow cooker recipe. You'll get perfect meatballs, every time no matter what type of ground meat you're using.
This recipe for Slow Cooker Moroccan Meatballs is unlike any I have ever made before. Being that the meatballs are slow cooked over 6 hours, in a lightly spiced aromatic tomato base the flavour is locked in and the meatballs stay nice and juicy. That’s the secret. You’ve got to have a great sauce to lock in that flavour and juiciness. Just like with this Slow Cooker Paperdelle Lamb Ragu.
What To Serve With these delicious Meatballs
There are a number if options that work really well. Obviously meatballs and cous cous is the one that most people would think of. (Pearl cous cous is a favourite of mine). However, if you're looking for something different, here are some other ideas. Instead of the 2 cups of cous cous you could try the same quantity of:
- Mashed sweet potato/white potato
- Brown Rice
- Cooked quinoa
- Spaghetti or other type of pasta
- Zucchini noodles if you have a spiralizer
TIP: This meatballs and cous cous recipe freezes really well and is a great one to make on the weekend so you have healthy dinners on tap mid week. I like to store my freezer meals in see through containers and I write what it is and when I made it on the container. (I use masking tape for this, and before putting into the microwave it, I rip it off)
Or, if you make a batch of meatballs on Sunday (or even a double batch), they'll last 4 nights in the fridge (Sun through Wed), and each day why not have a different side with them: sweet potato, spaghetti, rice, or even a crunchy garden salad.
More Freezer Friendly Recipes:
- Authentic Made From Scratch Clean Eating Butter Chicken
- Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala
- Savoury Mince Curry (one of my favourites)
- Pressure Cooker Lamb Stew
- Easy Moroccan Shepherds Pie
- and this yummy Shepherds Pie Lasagne
Slow Cooker Moroccan Meatballs
Ingredients
- ¼ cup breadcrumbs
- 1 pound ground beef/500 grams lean beef mince
- 1 small egg
- 1 tablespoon Coriander/Cilantro - fresh and finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons Ground Cumin
- 2 teaspoons Ground Coriander
- 2 teaspoons Sweet Paprika
- 1 ½ teaspoons Ground Ginger
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Sea salt
- 1 teaspoon Cracked black pepper
- 1 small brown Onion - finely diced
- 2 tablespoons crushed Garlic
- 1 tablespoon Olive oil
- 2 tablespoons Tomato paste
- 3 cups Tomato Passata/Puree
- ½ cup Beef stock/broth
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 cups pearl Cous Cous
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, place the breadcrumbs, beef mince, egg, half the onion, half the garlic, the freshy chopped coriander/cilantro, and ground cumin, ground coriander, sweet paprika, ground ginger and ground cinnamon.
- Using a large dessert spoon, mix all ingredients so they come together.
- Make 17 to 18 meatballs from the mixture (about the size of a golf ball) and as they are rolled, place them in the base of the slow cooker.
- Once all the balls are in the slow cooker, heat a saucepan on medium heat. Add the remaining onion and garlic and cook until the onion turn translucent.
- Add the salt/pepper, tomato paste, passata/puree, honey and stock/broth. Stir to combine and heat through.
- Pour the sauce over the meatballs in the slow cooker.
- Cook on low for 6 hours.
- Cook Cous Cous according to packet instructions.
- Serve meatballs over the cous cous, with a drizzle of Greek yoghurt and additional chopped coriander/cilantro.
I’m on a low carb diet, can I skip the honey? Or use monk fruit sugar?
Yep you can definitely use monkfruit sugar in the same quantity.
hi, is it 8 hours or 6 hours in slow cooker
Its 6 hours in the slow cooker. Sorry about the mix up. Recipe has been updated.