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A red Italian bowl with hot pasta, sauce and turkey meatballs topped with shaved parmesan cheese.
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5 from 1 vote

Turkey Meatballs and Sauce

Turkey Meatballs are oven-baked with a special secret for flavorful tender, moist deliciousness in every bite. Serve on hot pasta with 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.
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time52 minutes
Total Time1 hour 20 minutes
Course: Dinner & Main Dishes
Cuisine: American
Keyword: baked turkey meatballs, turkey meatballs
Servings: 10
Calories: 432kcal

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.

Nutrition

Calories: 432kcal | Carbohydrates: 50g | Protein: 42g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 79mg | Sodium: 636mg | Potassium: 868mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 6796IU | Vitamin C: 11mg | Calcium: 106mg | Iron: 3mg