Paleo Sausage Balls (Gluten & Dairy Free)
These paleo sausage balls are the perfect holiday appetizer! They’re gluten-free, dairy-free, and still taste like the classic made with bisquick!
What are sausage balls?
Sausage balls are a southern appetizer that is traditionally made with sausage, cheese, and Bisquick! Yes, the pancake mix. It makes them super fluffy and almost like a biscuit. They’re a perfect recipe to serve as a holiday appetizer!
Since Bisquick is a main ingredient, you’d think that it would be hard to make this recipe gluten-free, but it can be done! This version is gluten-free, dairy-free, paleo, and it tastes like the real thing.
The ingredients for gluten and dairy-free sausage balls
- Pork sausage. This is flexible to whatever sausage you like! You can do a spicy sausage, breakfast sausage, or even use ground pork and your own favorite herbs to make a DIY sausage.
- Almond flour and tapioca starch. This makes a nice blend that binds the sausage and also makes it fluffy. I haven’t tried this without the almond flour.
- Egg. To bind the recipe together.
- Nutritional yeast. For that cheesy flavor! You can leave this out if you’d prefer, but I think it makes it taste more like the real thing.
How to make gluten-free and dairy-free sausage balls
- Combine: Using a large mixing bowl, combine the pork, almond flour, tapioca starch, nutritional yeast, and seasonings. Fold in the eggs and stir until fully combined.
- Scoop the sausage balls: Using a meatball scoop (or your hands) scoop out small meatballs. Roll with your hands to make them even and place on the baking sheet, evenly spaced.
- Bake & serve: Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until fully cooked through. Serve warm as an appetizer with a creamy sauce like honey mustard.
What do you serve with these sausage balls?
These sausage balls are great with a creamy dip like a honey mustard sauce! They’re an appetizer so they’re great for serving with whatever other apps you have, though my husband also likes having them with breakfast.
Can you make these sausage balls AIP?
I haven’t been able to replicate an AIP version that actually tastes like it would have Bisquick in it, however, here are some recipes that are super similar and are already fully AIP!
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Paleo Sausage Balls (Gluten & Dairy Free)
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Appetizer
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
These paleo sausage balls are the perfect holiday appetizer! They’re gluten-free, dairy-free, and still taste like the classic made with bisquick!
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground pork breakfast sausage
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp almond flour
- 3 tbsp tapioca starch
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp thyme leaves
- 1 tsp ground sage
- 2 eggs
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Using a large mixing bowl, combine the pork, almond flour, tapioca starch, nutritonal yeast, and seasonings.
- Fold in the eggs and stir until fully combined.
- Using a meatball scoop (or your hands) scoop out small meatballs. Roll with your hands to make them even and place on the baking sheet, evenly spaced.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until fully cooked through.
- Serve warm as an appetizer with a creamy sauce like honey mustard.
Notes
All nutritional information are estimations and will vary. Estimations do not include optional ingredients.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 533
- Fat: 32.1g
- Carbohydrates: 8.6g
- Fiber: 1.8g
- Protein: 28.4g
Can I freeze these before or after baking?
You should be able to!
These are amazing! I have done so many of the keto and paleo “bisquick” sausage balls and these are by far the closest to the texture and taste I have tried. Thank for such a great recipe! Delicious!!!
Thank you so much!!
Legit one of my faves. These taste just like the real thing and theres nothing bad in them.
Is the Thyme fresh or dried?
Ahhh, sadly this has eggs in it. I was so excited to see this recipe. Is there an egg alternative that will work well with this sausage ball recipe? Thank you!
I haven’t tested an egg replacer like flax egg in here, but let me know if you do!
Did you try this with the flax egg? I’m interested to know if it worked or not.
Just made this recipe tonight. I overcooked them just a bit so they were a little dry come up but they still tasted amazing. I made some homemade cranberry sauce and used it has a sauce for the sausage balls (I served them as dinner protein as opposed to an appetizer, although the pre-dinner horseradish Mayo on top was very good too).
These are AMAZING! I will make these again and again.
Yay! Thank you so much, Lindsay!
These are awesome! I substituted half the almond flour with lupin flour. Next time I’ll add cayenne pepper to make them a little spicier.
I made this last night and enjoyed it. My non-paleo husband and kids liked it as well. Thanks!
Have you tried with gelatin egg? Or just the yolk? I can’t tolerate the egg whites
I haven’t been able to replicate an AIP version that actually tastes like it would have Bisquick in it, but for AIP I would recommend trying my recipe for breakfast sausage chicken poppers.
some sausage is not gluten free so to be labeled gluten free you must use a sausage brand that is gluten free as well. Many sausages have fillers that contain wheat and are not gluten free. Most celiac unless they know the brand of sausage will not eat sausage because of this fact do don’t assume sausage is gluten free
Can we make these Aip? Substitute the almond flour w/something else?
I haven’t tried it but have similar recipes that are AIP that are mentioned in the blog post 🙂