Baked Turkey Meatballs With Spinach
- Ready In:
- 40mins
- Ingredients:
- 14
- Yields:
-
42 meatballs
ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1⁄2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1⁄4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- 1⁄2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1⁄4 - 1⁄2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional, adjust to your preference)
- 16 ounces frozen chopped spinach (defrosted, drained, and squeezed to remove excess water)
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1⁄3 cup chicken broth
- 2 1⁄2 lbs lean ground turkey
- 3⁄4 cup breadcrumbs
- 2 large eggs
directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare a large baking sheet by spraying with cooking spray. I actually line my baking sheet with foil and then spray with cooking spray.
- In a frying pan on medium heat, heat olive oil until hot. Then add onion, garlic, salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Sauté until onion is tender (about 5-6 minutes total time).
- Add spinach to pan and combine with onion mixture. Add Worcestershire sauce and chicken broth and mix well to combine. Cook until most of the liquid has cooked out (evaporated). I don't have much liquid in my pan after I combine all these, but it will depend on how well you drained your spinach. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
- In a large bowl, combine the turkey, bread crumbs, and egg. Add cooled onion/spinach mixture to the meat. I do all of this step with my hands, but you can use a spoon if you prefer.
- With your hands, create meatballs that are about 1 - 1 1/2 inches in diameter and place them on the baking sheet. Leave a little bit of space between each meatball. When you are done shaping your meatballs, you will probably have about 40-42 meatballs from this recipe. Don't need that many? Freeze them after baking or cut this recipe in half (but I say freeze them and then you've done the work only once and have a future meal).
- Bake until your meatballs are cooked through with an internal temperature of 160 degrees F - which was about 20 minutes for my oven. Remove from oven and serve as desired.
Reviews
-
This is the second time I have made these meatballs. The first time, I made them almost exactly as written, although I used fresh spinach instead of frozen. They were terrific. Tonight I had very little spinach, so I substituted fresh arugula and fresh romaine plus a little bit of fresh basil to round out the greens. As suggested by another reviewer, I also used whole wheat seasoned breadcrumbs, added a little fresh jalapeno to the sautéed garlic and onion, and a handful of parmesan cheese to the whole mixture before baking. They were absolutely delicious this time, too! I served it with whole wheat pasta and pre-made marinara from Costco. This is my new go-to baked meatball recipe. Thanks, emcglone.
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4.5 stars! Made this today and we loved them! I wanted meatballs I could bake and we are also trying to be healthier (although I did use some for Swedish meatballs tonight, which is not so healthy but yummy!). I used a 3# package of 85% lean turkey and 2-9 oz. packages of frozen spinach. I got LOTS of meatballs, about 70+ so mine are smaller than the poster's were. It was a lot of spinach, kinda too much, but the overall flavor was so good and most importantly, my little one ate them and said 'more, please'. I also used whole wheat Italian seasoned breadcrumbs; I mixed the Worchester sauce in with the turkey/egg/breadcrumbs simply because I've always done it that way. Next time I may try less spinach and either brown rice or quinoa instead of bread crumbs (trying to eat less processed stuff) but most definitely will make this again, and I have a ton in the freezer which is wonderful for quick future meals.
Tweaks
-
4.5 stars! Made this today and we loved them! I wanted meatballs I could bake and we are also trying to be healthier (although I did use some for Swedish meatballs tonight, which is not so healthy but yummy!). I used a 3# package of 85% lean turkey and 2-9 oz. packages of frozen spinach. I got LOTS of meatballs, about 70+ so mine are smaller than the poster's were. It was a lot of spinach, kinda too much, but the overall flavor was so good and most importantly, my little one ate them and said 'more, please'. I also used whole wheat Italian seasoned breadcrumbs; I mixed the Worchester sauce in with the turkey/egg/breadcrumbs simply because I've always done it that way. Next time I may try less spinach and either brown rice or quinoa instead of bread crumbs (trying to eat less processed stuff) but most definitely will make this again, and I have a ton in the freezer which is wonderful for quick future meals.