French Onion Meatballs

These French Onion Meatballs are a show stopper for any party or special occasion. You can easily make them vegan and/or gluten free with the ingredient substitutions. For vegetarians, you can use the regular egg and cheese options. 

For Gluten free options I like

• King Arthur GF Flour
• 4C Gluten free panko

For vegan options, I like

• Beyond or Impossible ground beef
• Earth balance for Butter sub
• Annie's Worcestershire
• Lamb Chopper Gouda or Daiya Mozzarella shreds
• Better than Bullion No Beef or Roasted vegetable 
• Flax or Chia eggs made with 1TBSP of ground flax or chia with 3 TBSP water. Mix well and allow to gel for 3-5 minutes

Onions: 

• 2 TBSP Oil
• 4 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
• 3 cloves Garlic, thinly sliced
• 2 Bay leaves
• 4 Sprigs Thyme
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/3 cup dry white wine (or stock if not using wine)
• 2 TBSP butter (optional vegan)

Meatballs

• 1 lb  ground beef (optional vegan)
• 1 egg, beaten (optional vegan)
• 1/3 c panko (optional GF)
• salt and pepper to taste

Broth

• 1 TBSP Flour (optional GF)
• 2 cups beef or chicken stock (optional vegan)
• 1 tsp dijon mustard (I like French's chardonnay)
• 1 tsp Worchestershire (optional vegan)
• 1 c grated Gruyere

Instructions

1. In a cast iron skillet or heavy bottomed pan, add 2 TBSP of oil and heat pan over medium heat. Add in onions, garlic, bay leaves, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook over medium heat for 5-10 minutes until onions are translucent and soft.
2. Reduce heat to low and allow onions to cook an additional 25-30 minutes, stiffing occasionally, until mixture is uniformly dark brown and soft. You may need to add 1-2 TBSP of water if onions start to stick.
3. Raise heat back to medium and add thyme sprigs and white wine. Allow the wine to cook off, stirring to remove any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Once wine has reduced, add 2 TBSP of butter and stir to coat. Turn off heat and allow onion mixture to cool.
4. In a large bowl, mix ground beef, egg, panko, and salt and pepper to taste.
5. Once onion mixture is cool, remove Bay leaves and Thyme sprigs. Chop HALF the mixture on a large cutting board until you have small pieces. Reserve the other unchopped half for the broth step (step 11)
6. Preheat oven to 400F degrees.
7. Add chopped half of onion mixture to meatball mix and mix well. Create 16 large meatballs that will fit comfortably into a 12 inch cast iron skillet or other large heavy bottomed (oven broiler proof) skillet. This skillet will hold the meatballs and the broth, so I recommend a 12’ cast iron.
8. Prepare meatball pan by coating with oil. Add the meatballs in and place into preheated oven for 20 minutes.
9. Remove meatball pan from oven and use a spatula to gently roll meatballs to make sure none are stuck.
10. Sprinkle pan with 1 TBSP flour and allow the residual heat from the pan to cook the flour 1-2 minutes.
11. Pour broth, remaining onions, mustard, and Worcestershire into the pan and gently mix, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Place pan back into the oven for another 10-15 minutes, until the broth is bubbly and has thickened from the flour.
12. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle with grated cheese, return pan to oven and broil on high (monitoring carefully!) until cheese has become a bubbly brown.
13. Remove from oven and serve.

​Serving options

• Serve in bowls sprinkled with additional thyme
• Lightly toast some bread (optional GF) and use bread to dip
• Make a French dip type sandwich by adding meatballs to the center of a split French loaf of bread (optional GF) and sprinkle with additional Gruyere. Bake sandwich cheese side up until cheese is melted, serve broth in a ramekin on the side to dip into.
• Make spaghetti noodles (optional GF) and nest into a bowl, add meatballs on top and ladle broth into bowl.