My mom swears these are the best turkey meatballs she’s ever had, and I assure you, she’s not just saying that as a mom who thinks everything her kids do is great!
Turkey often gets a bad rap, because it can be dry and bland. It’s fairly low in fat, and it’s a large piece of poultry that most of us are most familiar with when prepared for Thanksgiving and roasted for hours and hours. This will often turn the breast meat into something with about as much flavor and texture as cardboard. However, if you buy ground turkey, it is typically sold in blends (like ground beef!) of different ratios of lean, lighter cuts to fattier, darker cuts. Personally, my fave is the 93% lean/7% fat variety. Don’t bother with 99% lean unless you like eating Styrofoam packing peanuts.
In addition to the slightly higher fat content providing more much-needed moisture, we’re going to add some Parmesan cheese and, depending on your recipe and what you have on hand, some creamy salad dressing. Since most salad dressings are oil-based, this bit of extra fat will also add more opportunity to amp up the flavor and moisture content in your recipe. And, if you decide not to use the dressing and just go the lighter ketchup/tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce route, those will still add flavor and moisture. Same goes for the grating of the onion rather than finely chopping. You can chop it, but I prefer the superfine texture of the grated onion so as to not bite into any crunchy bits of uncooked onion, not to mention, it allows the water content in the onion to break down further and infuse your meat with more onion juice (aka flavor!).
Lastly, this recipe works best (in my opinion) when you make it with your hands. Embrace the mess! That said, if you’re completely grossed out by the prospect, grab a big spatula to mix it all thoroughly, and an ice cream or cookie dough scoop. Don’t overfill the scoop, you want them no bigger than 2” in diameter so they all cook evenly. See my video for further explanation below, or just scroll down to the recipe card.
Greek turkey meatball variation: Cut back on the onion to 1/3 cup total, do not use salad dressing (just Worcestershire and tomato paste or ketchup), substitute crumbled feta for the Parmesan, and add 1 12 oz bag of frozen chopped spinach. The assembly and cooking instructions remain the same!
Note: The spinach is already cooked,, but as it’s frozen, it needs defrosting and a good squeeze to remove excess water. I like to run it under a bit of tap water to loosen up any clumps before pressing down firmly with a spatula into a colander. In a pinch, you could also squeeze the excess water out through thin cotton tea towels. It won’t look like much spinach, but that’s what you want! Excess water will make the meatballs fall apart. You may need another 1-2 TB of almond meal or breadcrumbs, depending on how wet your mixture is.
