The Easiest And Most Delicious Meatball Traybake Recipe

This meatball traybake recipe will become a family favourite. It's super easy to throw together and you can serve with pasta, rice, mashed potatoes or fries.

Our Easy Oven Baked Swedish Meatball Traybake is one of those lazy yet flavour-packed family meals.

Treat the family to tender Swedish meatballs cooked with vibrant bell peppers and red onions, all smothered in a rich herby tomato sauce.

This meatball traybake recipe is not only bursting with flavor, but it's also incredibly easy to whip up, making it the perfect choice for those lazy yet satisfying family dinners.

With minimal effort required, you can enjoy a hearty and wholesome meal that will surely become a family fave!

Why You Will Love It

Easy To Prep And Cook! This meatball traybake is super easy, part roast the chopped veggies, throw in the Swedish meatballs then finish with a herby tomato sauce. It's minimal hands on so it's a good choice for busy weeknights.

Goes Great With Any Side Dish - our saucy meatball traybake is great served with cheesy mashed potatoes, air fryer chips, frozen French fries, simple boiled pasta tossed in a little olive oil, or even those quick sachets of microwave rice.

Easy Meatball Traybake Recipe

Serves – 4 (and it's easy to double or triple)

Prep Time – 5 minutes

Cook Time – around 30 minutes (depending on which meatballs you use)

Total Time – around 35 minutes

Our Most Popular Alternative – Meatball Pasta Bake

Ingredients For Meatball Traybake

You'll only need a handful of tasty ingredients to make our easy traybake recipe

• Swedish Meatballs - we just LOVE the Smorgasbord Meatballs, they're quick and easy to cook and just taste SO good!

• Red Onion - you can swap this for brown onions if you prefer

• Bell Peppers - any colour is good to use in this easy traybake recipe

• Olive Oil - feel free to swap this for rapeseed or sunflower oil if you prefer that

• Passata - using passata just makes a smoother sauce, that tastes richer and more tomatoey!

• Seasonings - we use garlic powder and our homemade Italian seasoning which is a great blend of dried oregano, rosemary, thyme, garlic granules, onion granules, parsley, black pepper and chilli flakes (but shop bought will work just fine)

How To Make Meatball Traybake

You are going to LOVE how simple this weeknight dinner is to make and cook!

Step By Step Instructions 

Step One - preheat the oven

• Preheat the oven to 200C (180C Fan) / 400F/ Gas mark 6 - grab our super handy oven temperature conversion chart here.

Step Two - part-roast the vegetables

• Toss the chopped bell peppers and onion wedges into a bowl, pour on the olive oil and sprinkle on the seasonings, a pinch of salt and a couple of grinds of black pepper, give everything a mix together.

• Then tip them into the roasting tin. Put them into the oven and roast for 10 minutes.

Step Two - cook the meatballs

• After 10 minutes remove the vegetables from the oven. Tip in the meatballs, give the tray a shake and then return it to the oven for 12 minutes. (if you have meatballs that have a longer cooking time, adjust the cooking time to suit the packet instructions)

Step Three - make the tomato sauce for the meatball traybake

• After the 12 minutes cooking time, remove the meatballs and roasted vegetables from the oven.

• Pour in the tomato passata, give everything a good mix together, you want all the flavours of the meatballs and the roasted vegetables to mingle into the sauce.

• Then return the meatball traybake back to the oven and continue cooking for around 8 minutes or until the tomato sauce has heated through properly.

• Once it's all cooked through, remove the traybake from the oven, give it a stir and garnish with some chopped flat leaf parsley leaves or fresh basil if you've any to hand.

Cooks Note - learn how to grow your own herbs at home to use in cooking here!

What To Serve With Meatball Traybake

Our delicious meatball traybake is really versatile and goes with loads of different side dishes, we've popped a few of our favourites below

• Cheesy Mash
• Air Fryer Chips
• Savoury Rice
• Microwave Rice
• Garlic Bread
• French Fries
• Air Fryer Baked Potatoes

Variations - Make This Meatball Traybake Your Way!

Use different meatballs

Switch the meatballs for regular minced beef meatballs, lamb mince balls, pork, or even plant-based.

Add in more vegetables

Fancy more veggies? Throw in a good mixture of courgette, tinned pulses or beans, cherry tomatoes or mushrooms.

Make into pasta bake

When you add the passata, tip in some freshly cooked pasta, stir everything well, then scatter over some cheese and bake until the cheese is bubbling and golden brown.

Make a meatball and potato traybake

Add in some just-cooked boiled potatoes at the beginning of the recipe with the onions and peppers.

Add a cheesy breadcrumbs topping

Fancy a crunchy topping? Add on a layer of breadcrumbs and some grated cheese (mozzarella or cheddar are good) and finish the tray bake off under the grill to brown.

How To Store Leftovers

This isn't one of those dishes that can be reheated, as you've already heated the meatballs up once to cook them in the traybake. If you do have any leftovers, cool quickly, then store in the fridge, you could use them up in toasted pittas or just eat cold from the fridge.

Frequently Asked Questions and Meatball Traybake Recipe Tips

Is it better to bake or pan cook meatballs?

This is entirely down to personal preference, but I like the oven best, as you just whack them in and leave them to cook, no need to stand at the hob stirring a pan.

Which meatballs are the best?

For this recipe we think the Swedish meatballs work best, because they cook quickly and weeknight dinners for us are all about getting food ready quickly and with very little faff!

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More Easy Meatball Recipes

• Meatball Pasta Bake
• Air Fryer Meatballs (with a bonus cheesy chips recipe)
• Slow Cooker Meatballs (in a garlic and chilli sauce)
• Air Fryer Meatball Tacos