• Meatballs are usually covered with a hearty sauce.meatballs image by Vonora from Fotolia.com
  
  Meatballs come in nearly endless varieties. Some are large, some are small. They can be made with beef, veal, pork, turkey, chicken or vegetarian proteins. They are served on spaghetti or with potatoes and can be drenched in a barbecue, tomato or cream sauce. Finding the ideal type of meatball depends on your individual cooking style and your personal taste.
  
  

Swedish Meatballs

• Recipes vary for this type of meatball but they are usually made with lean meat like pork, beef or veal and are served with a creamy sauce and potatoes. On the Nordic Recipe Archive, a website dedicated to serving traditional Scandinavian and Russian dishes, their recipe calls for beef, breadcrumbs, salt, white pepper, allspice, cream, onion and an egg. Swedish-style meatballs are cooked in real butter in a pan until they are done. They are then kept warm while the cream sauce is prepared.
  
  

Low-Fat Meatballs

• Low-fat meatballs can be made by changing the ingredients and cooking methods. Lean, ground turkey is ideal for making low-fat meatballs because it is low-calorie but high in protein. Fat can be cut further by baking or broiling them instead of frying them. The health food blog, Green Lite Bites, has a low-fat recipe that calls for turkey, an egg, oats, garlic and onion powder, dehydrated onion, dried basil, oregano and parsley, Parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper. The meatballs are then cooked on the broiler for around 10 minutes and continue to cook in the sauce, which is traditionally a tomato sauce.
  
  

Vegetarian Meatballs

• Vegan meatballs can fulfill a craving that vegetarians have for a childhood comfort food. They also tend to be lower in fat and cholesterol free. Many recipes are available for vegetarian meatballs which include protein sources like tofu, Texturized Vegetable Protein (TVP) and gluten. Vegan chef and author Bryanna Clark Grogan, is well-known for producing meat-like recipes that are nutritious and vegan. Her meatballs include fresh onion, parsley, garlic, tofu, miso, tahini, nutritional yeast flakes, gluten powder, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper, and walnuts. The meatballs are baked in the oven until done.
  
  

Barbecue Meatballs

• Barbecue meatballs are named more for the sauce used at the end than the cooking process, in which they are baked in the oven. These meatballs are often served as the main protein source in a meal with sides of potatoes and other vegetables or a salad. A recipe from Pioneer Women, a website dedicated to country-style dishes, calls for beef, oats, milk, salt, onion and black pepper. The balls are rolled in flour and pan-fried. They are covered in a barbecue sauce and baked until they are finished.