Southern Sausage Balls, Paleo-style (Paleo, Dairy-free, Grain- and Gluten-free)

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Southern Sausage Balls, Paleo-style (Paleo, Dairy-free, Grain- and Gluten-free)

Every year around holiday time, I, like many people, reflect on family traditions, good and bad times of past holidays, and new traditions that I hope to start with my own family. Food was always a big part of our family get-togethers and no holiday was complete without tins and tins full of “goodies.” I looked forward to baking with my mom every year and learning her amazing recipes. My brothers just looked forward to eating it all! We would have so much fun standing around the kitchen arguing over which treat was the best and what we could make the next year. Then we’d go to bed with stomach aches. 🙂

“Paleo” was not a word used in our house, neither was “unprocessed,” “gluten-free,” and don’t even suggest dairy-free. So now, as the cook/baker in a fully paleo house, I sometimes find it challenging to hold onto those family traditions and recipes that I loved so much while trying to stay within our healthy style of life and nutritional requirements.  But challenging doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Challenging is good, and should not be feared! Especially when it comes to food. Well, that’s my opinion anyway.  So I accepted my self-imposed challenge and have created yet another recipe that reminds me of one of those beloved foods that you only see in the south at Christmas, and all y’all southerners know what I’m talkin’ about: Sausage Balls. If you’re not from the south you might cringe at the idea of these Bisquick-based little bites, but now you too can appreciate all of the deliciousness, irresistibleness, and unquestionable love that these balls contain, without having to find out what Bisquick is. Did I mention that these are healthy too? Packed with protein and void of any gluten or dairy, you can enjoy them without guilt. This is a perfect snack for my little ones as well. I had to make 2 batches last week because Quinn ate almost all of the first one and Japheth had to wrestle her for the last ball.  Okay that last part isn’t true, but it almost came to that.

Southern Sausage Balls, Paleo-style

This recipe is adapted from a recipe by Carrie at Deliciously Organic I tweaked it to make it dairy-free but still have that cheesy-taste and texture. I just couldn’t make these without some form of “cheese!”

2 1/2 cups almond flour
1 tablespoon coconut flour
1 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
2 teaspoons Grain-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 cup plus 1tablespoon nutritional yeast (there is debate on nutritional yeast, if you use it use in moderation, for those that are sensitive, use a substitute)
1 pound spicy sausage (pastured and nitrate-free preferred)*
2 large eggs

*I didn’t have spicy sausage so I just used sage flavored sausage and made it spicy by adding a little black pepper, dash of cayenne, and some fennel seed for flavor. Used my hands to combine the seasonings with the meat.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place all ingredients in bowl and use hands to mix together well. Form into 1-inch balls and place on parchment paper lined baking sheet.  They can be placed close together as they won’t expand much. Bake for 20-25 minutes, depending on your oven. They’re best warm, but are great cold too. You can also freeze them to enjoy later – if you can manage to save some.

Enjoy!

-Suzanne