Slow Cooker Spaghetti and Meatballs! The easiest way to make homemade marinara sauce and meatballs: in your slow cooker! And these meatballs are so flavorful and delicious! Hope you try the recipe!
I’m staying positive and can start to see signs of spring. There’s no more snow on the ground so that’s one thing. And even though we’re not in super cold temps anymore, my slow cooker is still holding real estate on my kitchen counter. Why? It’s a time saver!
Who else is still using your slow cooker?! Even those these appliances aren’t really used year round, they should be. I love the recipes where you can literally dump and go. And that’s what you are doing here with this recipe!
I mean, just look at these meatballs!
And I’m ok with turning on your slow cooker and leaving the house. If your slow cooker is old and on the fritz, I obviously would not recommend it, but if your slow cooker is in prime working condition, you are fine. When I worked full-time at an ad agency, I would leave my slow cooker on low all day while I was gone and it was fine!
For this recipe and any recipe using canned diced tomatoes, I highly recommend trying fire roasted diced tomatoes. These are a game changer as far as flavor is concerned. Just try them!
FOR THE PASTA
And I didn’t throw my pasta into the slow cooker. There are some recipes online that do this. I figure you can come home from work, and cook pasta on the stove, right before you’re sitting down to dinner. I’m big on al dente and the perfect tasting noodles so I just cooked them on the stove. If you do try throwing them into your slow cooker at the end, let me know how it goes!
I hope you guys try this recipe! My husband and I were amazed that these meatballs and the sauce were cooked in the slow cooker! This is definitely going to be a family favorite!
Slow Cooker Spaghetti and Meatballs
Ingredients
For the marinara sauce:
- 1 medium yellow onion finely chopped
- 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 1 28-ounce can fire roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 28-ounce can chunky tomato sauce
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 fresh garlic cloves finely chopped or minced
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
For the meatballs:
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 1 to 2 cloves garlic minced
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup plain panko bread crumbs
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese plus more when serving
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
For the spaghetti and meatballs:
- 1 lb. cooked spaghetti noodles
- fresh parsley finely diced for garnish
Instructions
For the marinara sauce:
- Into the bowl of a large sized slow cooker, add the chopped onion, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, chunky tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, minced garlic and salt. Stir well to combine.
For the meatballs:
- In a separate large mixing bowl, mix together all of the meatball ingredients. Using either your hands or a rubber spatula, mix the raw meatball mixture until thoroughly combined.
- Form into meatballs; I recommend using a tablespoon sized cookie scoop to scoop out the meatball mixture. This also helps to ensure that all of your meatballs are roughly the same size. The mixture will make roughly about 30+ meatballs. I placed 20 into the slow cooker and saved the rest.*
- Position the meatballs into the marinara sauce and make sure each meatball is covered and submerged into the sauce.
- Cover the slow cooker with a lid and cook until the meatballs are cooked through: about 4 hours on a HIGH setting or 8 hours on a LOW setting.
When ready to serve:
- Place cooked spaghetti pasta into dish or bowl, top with some marinara sauce and meatballs and sprinkle with diced parsley and freshly grated parmesan cheese. Serve and enjoy immediately!
Recipe adapted from here
What do you mean, chunky tomato sauce? Thank you 🙂
Hi Kristen, you can buy a 28oz can of chunky or regular tomato sauce. It’s right next to the canned diced tomatoes at the grocery store! Let me know how the recipe works for you! Have a great day!
Always looking for an excuse to pull out my slow cooker Alice! And my husband’s favorite meal is spaghetti and meatballs! Can’t wait to try!
Yum! I love easy meals like this and my family loves pasta. Thanks!
My kids could live on spaghetti and meatballs, gotta make this easy version for them soon!
I’m always a fan of busting out the slow cooker, especially for meals like this!
Jealous you can see ground without snow, we’re still buried! So I’m all about the slow cooker still and this classic dish sounds perfect!
These look SO perfect! Love the easy of the crockpot too! Yes and YUM! 🙂
Love spaghetti and meatballs! These look perfect! Pinned to try them!
They look so perfect. Love making meals in my slow cooker and that sauce Alice, yum.
I use my crockpot year round – I’m obsessed! Loving this spaghetti!
This looks incredible. I may need to add this to the menu this week!
😉
I can tell you firsthand, that this is amazing… 😉
From,
Hip Foodie Dad
Thanks honey!!
Hi
What can replace the cheese, I can’t have dairy.
Thx, Michal.
Hi Michal, try nutritional yeast! Or, for the meatballs, simply omit the cheese. Hope you try it!
Thx. How much of yeast would you recommend to add?
Hi!! Start with just a couple tablespoons! This is simply to give the meatballs a little nutty and cheesy flavor. . you can also just leave the cheese (or nutritional yeast) out completely. The eggs should be enough to bind everything. Let me know how it goes!
Hi I’m going to try it over the weekend for my guests. I hope it’s going to be OK to add the yeast both to the meatballs and into the sauce . I’ve never used it before…
Hi! yes, it’s ok to add to both HOWEVER if you’ve never tried nutritional yeast and are making this for a dinner party (?) I would highly recommend trying/testing this out beforehand to make sure you like it!!!!!!