Many of you asked in both my Facebook page and Instagram account about my VERY frequent turkey meatballs recipe so let’s talk turkey. There is not so much of a back story about this, only we started reducing our red meat consumption almost 10 years ago and when it comes to meatballs, my go-to meat is now ground turkey; why? It’s always available, it’s cheap and it absorbs a lot of flavor from whatever you add to it.
Today I’m sharing a meal-prep recipe, one you can do every other week or even one a month, store in your freezer and use it to cut in half your lunch or dinner prep time.
INGREDIENTS
2 lb. of ground turkey (I’m using the organic version of Costco’s Kirkland).
1 cup of steel cut oats.
1 tsp. cumin seeds.
1 tsp. dried oregano.
1 tsp. ground cinnamon.
1 tsp. ground garlic.
1 tsp. chili flakes.
1 tsp. anchovy powder (or 3 pieces of anchovies). Trust me, you need this.
1.5 tsp. kosher or pink salt.
1 tsp. ground black pepper.
2 eggs.
2 small shallots thinly chopped. Or ½ small yellow onion.
½ cup of finely chopped parsley.
PREPARATION
Make some room in the freezer because you’ll need to be able to fit a baking sheet in it, don’t worry, this is temporary.
Use a large bowl to mix all of the ingredients until they are evenly distributed. Be carefully NOT to overmix, this means that at the end you still want to be able to identify most of the ingredients in the mixture and not end up with one brown “batter”.
Use a tablespoon or an ice cream scooper to make as many meatballs as you can. This time I used a tablespoon and I ended up with 42 medium sized meatballs. Place the meatballs in a baking sheet as you make them.
Freeze the meatballs for about 1 hour.
Once the meatballs are frozen, transfer them into a Ziplock bag and store them in the freezer again.
You can use this turkey meatballs with some marinara sauce, sandwiches or some Mexican “albondigas” soup, your options are relatively endless.
Once you’re ready to use them:
Take them out of the freezer and let them come to room temperature in a small baking sheet or plate (not in the bag you stored them).
Lightly pan fry them in a hot pan and some olive or avocado oil.
Then finish cooking them in whatever preparation you’re making. Doing this will add an extra layer of flavor to your turkey meatball dish.
There you have it! Thank you for asking for the recipe.
Stay healthy!