Healthy Turkey Barbecue Meatballs

Meatballs are easy to make and easy to eat. You can have them with pasta, vegetables, salad, bread or plain. We usually make traditional meatballs using ground beef, but this time we tried ground turkey and yes believe me this is so good and well it doesn’t have all the guilt I normally feel when I have red meat. It’s lean, doesn’t have fat and is baked in the oven. What more can I say?

I made these turkey barbecue meatballs for dinner one evening when everyone was at work and well, you know you want a good dinner when you come home. And as I have said million times, nothing is better than homemade and as Kyle’s grandmother, may she rest in peace, always said, happiness is homemade. And yes it is.

Home to me is a place that I feel happy and safe, doesn’t matter if it’s in the US, Iran, Turkey or wherever else. As long as Kyle and I are safe and happy, we call that home. And well home is also where you can cook and bake all the time. I love cooking, we love eating that’s what I call family.

To make these meatballs I used stale sourdough for two reasons, first, we didn’t have bread crumbs, second, the sourdough was going stale and I had to do something with it. The result? Divine.

I also used zucchini and I have a good reason. We had one zucchini. No one easts zucchini by itself (well I do, but it was a big zucchini) and I needed texture and wanted to make the meatballs juicier and healthier. The result on that one was so perfect because seriously no one could even guess there was zucchini there.

I grated both the onion and the zucchini, and then squeezed them really hard with my hand to get all the water out because that water will make the meatballs possibly fall apart. That’s just something I learnt from my maman, she always squeezed grated vegetables.

These meatballs get ready in 25 minutes and will refrigerate for at least 3-4 days. You can reheat them any time.

Meatballs were served with a baby carrot and kale salad and also oven roasted potatoes, which you can find the recipe here.

Step-by-Step Recipe

Turkey Barbecue Meatballs

Shadi HasanzadeNemati

4 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 40 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

Servings 20 -24

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• ▢ 1 onion
• ▢ 1 lb ground turkey
• ▢ 1 zucchini
• ▢ 1 slice sour dough no crust
• ▢ 2 tbsp. milk
• ▢ 1 egg
• ▢ 2 tbsp. Barbeque sauce
• ▢ ⅓ cup chopped Parsley
• ▢ Salt pepper to taste

Instructions

 

• Pour the milk on the sour dough bread.
• Let it sit for 2-3 minutes then with your hands tear the sourdough into very small chunks.
• Grate onion and zucchini, squeeze them really hard after you grate them so all the water comes out. You don’t need the water for meatballs.
• Mix ground turkey, sourdough, and grated onion and zucchini in a bowl with your hand until combined.
• Add the egg, barbecue sauce and spices. Mix again.
• Cover the bowl and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 400F/204C.
• Line a baking sheet with foil and spray it with non stick spray.
• Take the mixture out of the fridge, using an ice cream scoop, make scoops of the turkey mixture and place them on the baking sheet.
• Bake the meat balls in the oven for 25 minutes, turn on broil for 2-3 minutes so they get color on top.

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