You know I don’t usually do healthy recipes on the blog but when I do I always make sure that the flavours are on point and make you and even the little ones at home (who are a bit more skeptical) drool over the recipe. These turkey meatballs are delicious and not dry at all because they also have zucchini in them. We sear them on the pan and then they finish the cooking process in a delicious tomato sauce.
This tomato sauce is slightly different to the one I taught you before and you can use either. You can also just make the tomato sauce and have it on its own, it’s delicious too. With the sauce you have two choices: you can either leave it chunky like me or rather blend it before adding the meatballs so they cook in a velvety sauce instead. With what can you eat this with? Pasta, rice, mashed potatoes, quinoa, cous cous, you name it (probably not all of them together, though.
I used ground turkey breast which makes us think immediately that these could be dry. However that’s why the zucchini comes in: along with the olive oil it helps us keep these meatballs nice and juicy.
Ingredients
For the vegetable stock
- 100 g onion coarsely chopped
- 100 g carrots coarsely chopped
- 100 g celery coarsely chopped
- 1 bayleaf
- water enough to cover nicely
For the meatballs
- 250 g ground turkey I used turkey breast
- 120 g zucchini grated with skin on
- 50 g oat flour can be replaced with wheat or quinoa flour
- 1 egg
- 1 lemon zest
- 2 sprigs thyme leaves only
- 2 tbsp olive oil + more to sear them
- salt and pepper
For the tomato sauce
- olive oil
- 1/2 medium onion finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove grated or minced
- 2 bayleaves
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 kg tomatoes really ripe, peeled, deseeded and finely chopped
- 300 ml vegetable stock from above
- salt and pepper
Instructions
For the vegetable stock
- Bring everything to a boil and let simmer on low heat for 30min. Set aside.
For the meatballs.
- Mix everything for the meatballs.
- Heat a pan on medium-high heat with olive oil and shape them using a cookie scoop or with your hands with a bit of olive oil to keep them from sticking.
- Sear the meatballs on all sides until golden and set aside.
For the tomato sauce
- In the same pan where we seared the meatballs add more olive oil if needed and cook the onion on low heat until soft, translucent and sweet in smell.
- Add the garlic and bayleaf and cook for a minute.
- Add the tomato paste and cook for another minute.
- Add the chopped tomatoes and increase the heat to medium. Mix until it's hot and letting out a lot of steam.
- Add enough vegetable stock to cover and let it cook until the tomato starts to disintegrate. When it starts to thicken add the meatballs, cover and let them finish to cook in the sauce.
