Last Updated July 18th, 2022 at 10:18 pm by Lisa
A Turkey Meatball recipe that is oven-baked with a special secret for flavorful, tender, moist deliciousness in every bite. Serve on hot pasta with spaghetti sauce, in soup, or layer in a cheesy meatball sub sandwich.
With just a handful of ingredients, these make a light healthy homemade dinner. Frozen meatballs from scratch are so worth the time to make and are great for fast dinners...
Delicious Table started because of this recipe for homemade meatballs. I was dared on a girl's weekend to post my easy meatball recipe on the internet. This was my very first recipe post back in May of 2015, and one of my all time favorite recipes.
There are so many different ways to make a baked meatball recipe. I promise you, these have so much flavor from the veggies and parmesan cheese baked inside, they really are the very best meatballs...
Turkey Meatball Recipe
This recipe makes 44 - 2 inch meatballs. This is a ground turkey recipe, but you can swap in ground beef, Italian sausage, ground chicken, or ground pork.
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- 3 pounds lean ground turkey
- 1 medium yellow onion (2 cups roughly chopped)
- 6 whole carrots (2 cups roughly chopped)
- 6 stalks of celery (2 cups roughly chopped 2-3" pieces)
- ½ cup finely chopped basil
- ½ cup finely chopped fresh parsley (or fresh herbs like sage, thyme, or chives)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup breadcrumbs (or swap ground almonds or almond flour for gluten-free meatballs)
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
How To Bake Meatballs In The Oven
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Rough chop veggies in batches and pulse in a food processor or grate on a box grater. 1 small onion, 5 carrots, and 5 celery stalks. Process veggies in batches and place ground vegetables into a large bowl as you go.
- Next dice ½ cup finely chopped basil, and ½ cup finely chopped parsley into the mixing bowl, and toss together.
- Heat a large pan or cast iron large skillet, add 1 tablespoon olive oil and saute the veggies for 3 minutes on medium heat, keep stirring, then turn off the heat.
- Place the sautéed veggie mixture in a large mixing bowl, and cool. Next, add 3 lbs of ground turkey (or ground beef, Italian pork sausage, etc.), 1 cup of breadcrumbs (or ground almonds), and ½ cup of grated parmesan cheese.
- Stir and completely mix with 2 forks to "fluff" the meat mixture.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Use a 2" ice cream or cookie scoop to portion the meatballs. The scoop makes the meatballs all the same size and is faster than hand rolling.
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Bake 25-30 minutes until golden brown with crispy edges.
PRO TIP: Sauteing the veggies brings a depth of flavor, and makes them super soft, fluffy, and tasty meatballs.
PRO TIP: The easiest way to portion out meatballs is to use a small ice cream scoop. The scoop makes the meatballs round and all the same size, and so must faster than hand-rolling!
The internal temperature for ground turkey meatballs should be 165 degrees.
One of the best ways to test temperature is to use a professional-grade meat thermometer. I use one from Thermoworks, it is super fast (3 seconds), accurate within plus or minus.
Easy to clean, and will last for many years! I have broken several thermometers in the last few years : ( and this one will stand the test of time due to its superior quality and design. Oh, and America's Test Kitchen rated it their top pick in digital thermometers.
Check the temperature throughout cooking, a wireless digital thermometer makes this really easy, I love my Thermopen from ThermoWorks.
It is the most accurate thermometer on the market according to America's Test Kitchen, and I use mine for everything from baking, frying, and roasting meat.
How To Make Frozen Meatballs
PRO TIP: Frozen meatballs are so easy, simply lay them on a sheet pan and freeze them. Then seal them in a Food Saver bag, airtight container, or freezer bag and toss in the freezer!
PRO TIP: Since this makes so many meatballs and sauce, freeze extra skinny turkey veggie meatballs on sheet pans either cooked or uncooked and place them in zip bags or use a Food Saver vacuum sealer for fast easy future meals. The pasta sauce freezes well too!
How To Make Meatball Sauce
This sauce is so seriously so easy and good, you might not want the stuff in the jar anymore...
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion diced
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon ground pepper
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon sea salt (kosher salt)
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 - 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
- 1 - 6 oz small can tomato paste
- Cook spaghetti noodles per package instructions, and keep warm but don't overcook or leave them in the boiling water or they get soggy.
- Heat butter and olive oil in a large heavy pan, add diced onions, saute until soft 5 minutes, then all 6 seasonings, canned tomatoes, and tomato paste.
- Simmer the marinara sauce until it thickens about 10-15 minutes, stir it every 5 minutes. Keep marinara sauce warm.
- Ladle Sauce on hot noodles, place 2-4 meatballs on noodles, top with parmesan cheese.
Why Oven Baked Meatballs Are So Good!
- Types Of Ground Meat: Use any type of ground meat, swap in lean ground beef, Italian sausage, ground chicken, or ground pork.
- Healthy Turkey Meatballs: These are quite healthy, and are a cleaner version of most traditional meatball recipes; low-fat lean meat like ground turkey, secretly stashing the veggies inside, and baking versus pan-frying.
- Cooking Temp & Time: The high temperature has a shorter cooking time, and cooks the best baked meatballs quickly which doesn't dry them out!
- Frozen Meatballs: Make these and freeze them ahead for a day when you don't have time to figure out what to make for dinner and look like a complete kitchen genius whipping out a homemade dinner. Simply thaw in the refrigerator all day then bake when you get home.
- Different Veggies: Use what you have on hand, or try broccoli, cauliflower, or sweet potato. Any vegetable that you can finely grind up will work, just be sure to saute it before adding it into your meat mix.
- Herbs & Seasonings: Add fresh or dried herbs you like or have in your garden. You can add some Italian seasoning, fresh rosemary, or oregano. Go easy on oregano, it is a strong flavor! Garlic cloves are always a good option with meatballs, use crushed minced garlic and saute with your veggies so its cooked.
- Breadcrumbs: If you don't have breadcrumbs, you can use any leftover bread. Simply dry it out, and run it through a food processor to make your own free breadcrumbs. Panko bread crumbs are great and Italian bread crumbs are really nice as well. Use a good bread like a baguette, ciabatta roll or focaccia for more flavor. Also, swap in ground almonds or almond flour for a low carb option.
- Eggless: These meatballs are so moist you don't need to crack an egg in them! The sauteed veggies, breadcrumbs, and parmesan cheese help to bind them together perfectly.
- Quick Clean Up: Next time you are making homemade meatballs, line a prepared baking sheet with parchment paper. This makes cleaning up a breeze! Plus you don't have to clean up your stove top from all the grease splatter. Also, you can put cooking spray on a sheet pan and bake them up.
- Low Carb Ideas: For low-carb meals, serve these meatballs and swap the regular pasta out with cauliflower rice or zucchini noodles with your favorite sauce for a healthy dinner. Try my amazing Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce, you won't miss the real thing one bit.
- Meatball Appetizers: These meatballs make fantastic appetizers! Scoop smaller meatballs, bake them, and stick toothpicks into each one. Then serve with a small bowl of warm marinara sauce for dipping.
Turkey Meatball FAQ
When an instant-read meat thermometer reaches 165 degrees they are cooked, slice one in half to be sure they are done all the way through.
For a quick dinner, pull the frozen meatballs from the freezer and if you have time, bring to room temperature for an hour then bake on a parchment-lined sheet pan or pan saute and use them in your favorite dish. Internal temperature for turkey meatballs should be 165 degrees. You can also cook frozen meatballs right from the refrigerator, they might take slightly longer to cook depending on their size. Bake them at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
To avoid dry meatballs, try adding sauteed vegetables and parmesan cheese inside the meatball mixture. It makes the most tenter and moist meatballs possible. Plus they are way more packed with flavor than simply using breadcrumbs and eggs as the meatball binder. You will notice a huge difference when you bite into juicy meatballs versus dry ones.
A binder needs to be inside the meatball mixture to hold them together while cooking or baking. Most recipes use breadcrumbs and eggs. Try good breadcrumbs, a little olive oil, grated hard cheese like parmesan or romano cheese, or creamy cheeses like ricotta or feta.
Make flavorful meatballs your way, with simple ingredients at home. Use the kind of meat you have on hand or grab just a few more meatball ingredients you need from the grocery store.
Chicken Meatballs: add in some buffalo hot sauce, minced garlic, panko, paprika, onion powder salt, and pepper.
Italian-style meatballs: For Italian meatballs, add in Italian flavors like a good sausage, Italian bread crumbs, and mozzarella cheese. Try some Italian seasoning, dried oregano, minced garlic, and sauteed vegetables.
Beef Meatballs: Use a combination of ground beef, and mix in some pork or ground sausage with good seasonings, sauteed ground vegetables, and some kind of cheese. You can also add in a little bit of some soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, bbq sauce, or teriyaki sauce to up the flavor profile.
-Leftover Meatball Simple Recipes: Make a piping hot bowl of turkey meatball soup with a healthy meatball recipe.
-Serve classic meatballs and spaghetti for an easy dinner with your favorite pasta sauce and parmesan cheese bread.
-Top the hot bowl of steamy pasta like penne, bow tie, or gnocchi, with your favorite sauce like tomato basil or a white sauce like alfredo, and add some meatballs.
-Use these cooked meatballs for Cheesy Meatball Subs, a cozy pure comfort food dinner. Top will melted mozzarella cheese and sauce for a scrumptious meal the whole family will love.
More Dinner Recipes
Turkey Chili with Black Beans can be made in a slow cooker, crockpot, or stovetop. An all-time family favorite and one of my most tasty recipes with years of rave reviews!
Cheesy Meatball Subs are loaded with gooey melted cheese and homemade marinara sauce. Use frozen or homemade ground beef, turkey, or pork meatballs.
A super easy cheesy Chicken Enchilada Casserole layered with corn tortillas, Mexican Oaxaca cheese, black olives, shredded chicken, and fire roasted salsa verde for added depth of flavor from south of the border.
Classic Beef Stroganoff made with ground beef is so popular and beloved worldwide. But what if I shared my secrets to packing in flavor and using various beef cuts?
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Turkey Meatballs and Sauce
Ingredients
- 16 ounces uncooked spaghetti
Turkey Meatballs
- 3 pounds lean ground turkey or swap in ground beef, Italian sausage, ground chicken, or ground pork
- 1 medium yellow onion 2 cups roughly chopped
- 6 whole carrots 2 cups roughly chopped
- 6 stalks celery 2 cups roughly chopped 2-3" pieces
- ½ cup fresh basil finely chopped
- ½ cup fresh parsley finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup breadcrumbs (or sub ground almonds)
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
Meatball Sauce
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion diced
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
- 1 6 oz small can tomato paste
Instructions
Make The Meatballs
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Rough chop veggies in batches and pulse in a food processor or grate on a box grater. 1 small onion, 5 carrots, 5 celery stalks. Process veggies in batches, and place ground vegetables into a large bowl as you go.
- Next dice ½ cup finely chopped basil, and ½ cup finely chopped parsley into the mixing bowl, toss together.
- Heat a large pan or heavy skillet, add 1 tablespoon olive oil and saute the veggies 3 minutes on medium high heat, keep stirring, then turn off the heat.
- Place the sautéed veggie mixture in a large mixing bowl, and cool. Next, add 3 lbs ground turkey (or ground beef, Italian pork sausage etc.), 1 cup breadcrumbs (or ground almonds) and ½ cup grated parmesan cheese.
- Stir and completely mix with 2 forks to "fluff" the meatball mixture.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Use a 2" ice cream scoop or cookie scoop to portion the meatballs. The scoop makes the meatballs all the same size and is faster than hand rolling. If you certainly can roll them with clean hands, that works just fine. Space them evenly in a single layer on your pan.
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Bake meatballs 25-30 minutes until golden brown with crispy edges. Use a meat thermometer food safety, turkey is cooked at 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
Make The Spaghetti and Meatball Sauce
- Cook spaghetti noodles per package instructions, keep warm but don't overcook or leave in the boiling water.
- Heat butter and olive oil in a cast iron pan or large skillet, add diced onions, saute until soft 5 minutes, then add the Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, sea salt, pepper, garlic powder, sugar, canned tomatoes, and tomato paste.
- Stir until the marinara sauce thickens about 10-15 minutes. Keep marinara sauce warm.
- Ladle Sauce on hot noodles, place 2-4 meatballs on noodles, top with parmesan cheese.
- Store leftover sauce and meatballs in an air-tight container, use within 3 days or keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Notes
Pasta Sauce
The pasta sauce freezes very well, to reheat add frozen sauce to a pan with a small amount of water and reheat until hot.Top Turkey Meatball Tips
This recipe makes about forty-four two-inch meatballs. Freeze extra meatballs on sheet pans either cooked or uncooked, and place them in zip bags or use a Food Saver vacuum sealer for fast easy future meals.- Types Of Ground Meat: Use any type of ground meat, swap in lean ground beef, Italian sausage, ground chicken, or ground pork.
- Healthy Turkey Meatballs: These are quite healthy, and are a cleaner version of most traditional meatball recipes; low-fat lean meat like ground turkey, secretly stashing the veggies inside, and baking versus pan-frying.
- Cooking Temp & Time: The high temperature has a shorter cooking time, and cooks the best baked meatballs quickly which doesn't dry them out!
- Frozen Meatballs: Make these and freeze them ahead for a day when you don't have time to figure out what to make for dinner and look like a complete kitchen genius whipping out a homemade dinner. Simply thaw in the refrigerator all day then bake when you get home.
- Different Veggies: Use what you have on hand, or try broccoli, cauliflower, or sweet potato. Any vegetable that you can finely grind up will work, just be sure to saute it before adding it into your meat mix.
- Herbs & Seasonings: Add fresh or dried herbs you like or have in your garden. You can add some Italian seasoning, fresh rosemary, or oregano. Go easy on oregano, it is a strong flavor! Garlic cloves are always a good option with meatballs, use crushed minced garlic and saute with your veggies so its cooked.
- Breadcrumbs: If you don't have breadcrumbs, you can use any leftover bread. Simply dry it out, and run it through a food processor to make your own free breadcrumbs. Panko bread crumbs are great and Italian bread crumbs are really nice as well. Use a good bread like a baguette, ciabatta roll or focaccia for more flavor. Also, swap in ground almonds or almond flour for a low carb option.
- Eggless: These meatballs are so moist you don't need to crack an egg in them! The sauteed veggies, breadcrumbs, and parmesan cheese help to bind them together perfectly.
- Quick Clean Up: Next time you are making homemade meatballs, line a prepared baking sheet with parchment paper. This makes cleaning up a breeze! Plus you don't have to clean up your stove top from all the grease splatter. Also, you can put cooking spray on a sheet pan and bake them up.
- Low Carb Ideas: For low-carb meals, serve these meatballs and swap the regular pasta out with cauliflower rice or zucchini noodles with your favorite sauce for a healthy dinner. Try my amazing Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce, you won't miss the real thing one bit.
- Meatball Appetizers: These meatballs make fantastic appetizers! Scoop smaller meatballs, bake them, and stick toothpicks into each one. Then serve with a small bowl of warm marinara sauce for dipping.
Lisa, we just made these for dinner last night and oh my gosh are they good! Thanks for our new favorite meatball recipe. We might make some with ground beef next. A few are in the freezer for another dinner too, great recipe thank you.