Buffalo Turkey Meatballs
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Healthy buffalo turkey meatballs are juicy, delicious, and full of lean protein and hidden veggies. A fantastic ground turkey meal prep idea!
Healthy buffalo turkey meatballs are incredibly juicy, delicious, and full of lean protein and hidden veggies!
This ground turkey meal idea is a huge time saver when you’re busy, and they’re perfect for dinner, party appetizers, or game day snacks.
Best of all, our spicy meatball recipe takes just 30 minutes (or less!) to make. If you’re a buffalo sauce lover – you gotta try these!
3 great reasons to make buffalo turkey meatballs
- Easy ground turkey meal prep idea. You can save prep time by making the meatballs ahead. Just store them in your freezer for a quick heat-and-eat meal on a busy day.
- Adaptable recipe. We aren’t big fans of super spicy food, but it’s really easy to adjust the amount of buffalo sauce, creating a milder or spicier flavor. Plus, it’s adaptable for special diets! With just a couple of changes, you can make it suitable for paleo, Whole30, keto, and gluten free diets.
- Plenty of protein and healthy veggies. Each healthy meatball is loaded with 6 grams of protein, and there are hidden veggies in the meat mixture. Almost 1/2 cup of veggies per serving!
P.S… if you love meatballs, you have to try these Healthy Turkey Meatballs.
Ingredients for buffalo turkey meatballs:
To make these buffalo turkey meatballs you’ll need:
- ground turkey – This lean protein is low in fat, so it’s a lighter option than ground beef.
- Chopped vegetables– For the hidden veggies in these meatballs, we use carrots, celery, and spinach.
- coconut flour – Using coconut flour instead of breadcrumbs makes this a gluten free meatball recipe.
- Buffalo sauce – We buy ready-to-use sauce to keep the prep easy.
ingredient substitutions and turkey meatball variations
This spicy meatball recipe is super versatile. You can change the ingredients according to your taste preference, or for dietary restrictions.
Turkey – You can sub ground chicken, ground pork, or ground beef. If you’re interested, we have a great buffalo chicken meatball recipe.
Veggies -Feel free to omit any of the vegetables in our recipe. Including them does add some extra nutrition, though!
Keto – If you’re strict keto, we recommend omitting the carrots as they are higher in carbs.
Coconut Flour -Feel free to substitute whole wheat breadcrumbs for regular breadcrumbs for the coconut flour.
Whole30/Paleo – To make paleo/whole30 simply omit blue cheese and the yogurt sauce.
Blue Cheese – You can omit the cheese or sub in any cheese you like for blue cheese! Goat cheese or feta are great!
Oil– Any oil will work in this recipe. Avocado, coconut, olive oil, or vegetable oil will all work
Buffalo sauce – You could use BBQ sauce instead of buffalo sauce in this recipe and they would be delicious! If you would like to make your own sauce, it’s really simple.
Just melt 4 tablespoons butter in a saucepan, then whisk in 1/2 cup hot sauce, 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, and 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder.
To tone down the heat in the spicy meatballs, reduce the amount of hot sauce to 1/3 cup.
Looking for other ways to use buffalo sauce? We use it in a lot of our recipes, from buffalo chicken soup and buffalo chicken salad to buffalo chicken casserole
How to make buffalo turkey meatballs:
Buffalo turkey meatballs are SUPER simple to make.
- Simply chop your veggies (I actually just give mine a quick whirl in this food processor – it’s the best!)
- Stir all ingredients together
- Roll into balls, bake and enjoy!
A little tip – we love using a cookie scoop for these meatballs. That way your hands don’t get dirty and you can ensure that they’re all the same size!
tips for making our spicy turkey meatball recipe
- Chop the veggies in very small pieces. This ensures that they cook quickly, and it also helps them stay hidden inside the meatball mixture.
- Try to keep the veggie pieces similar in size so they cook evenly.The easiest way to do this is by using a small food processor.
- Avoid over mixing the ingredients. To prevent the buffalo turkey meatballs from falling apart, you need to incorporate the ingredients together. But, if you work the mixture too much, your turkey meatballs will end up dry and tough.
- Use a cookie scoop, or wet your hands with water to prevent the mixture from sticking.
- Use a rimmed baking sheet to prevent spills. Arrange the ground turkey meatballs in a single layer on the sheet pan. Be sure to leave some space between each – an inch or so is good. You want to do this to allow the oven heat to circulate around the balls. If they’re placed too close together, they end up steaming rather than browning.
how to serve buffalo turkey meatballs:
These are pretty versatile and go well with anything! We like to serve them over a salad with the Greek yogurt sauce included in the recipe – but here are some other ideas:
- Over rice – I like to make rice in my instant pot, using this recipe. They’re also delicious with cauliflower fried rice.
- With roasted veggies- They’re good with garlic rosemary brussels sprouts and crispy roasted potatoes!
- As an appetizer – I’ve brought these to parties with a big bowl of dipping sauce and they’re always a hit!
- Sliders- Spicy meatball sliders would be yummy!
No matter how you enjoy them, these buffalo turkey meatballs are a yummy meal anyone will like! They’re great for meal prepping, serving at a party, or just having in the fridge for a quick snack!
storing and freezing
After they are cooked, the meatballs will stay good in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Freezing– Once cooked, turkey meatballs can be frozen for up to 3 months, but we do not recommend freezing the raw meatball mixture.
Reheating – When you’re ready to reheat and serve, just pop them in the microwave for a few minutes and they’re good to go! You can also reheat them over medium heat on the stove.
Other healthy buffalo sauce recipes:
We love all things buffalo! Here are some of our other favorite buffalo recipes!
Love ground turkey? Check out this list of the Best Ground Turkey Recipes!
Buffalo Turkey Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground turkey
- ½ cup carrots minced
- ¼ cup celery minced
- ¼ cup onion minced
- 1 cup spinach minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ¼ cup buffalo sauce
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 3 tablespoons coconut flour
- ⅓ cup crumbled blue cheese *OMIT if whole30/paleo
Optional: rice, cauliflower rice or spinach for serving
Optional sauce:
- ½ cup greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon buffalo sauce
Instructions
Oven Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and prepare a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Chop all vegetables. In a large bowl combine all ingredients. (You can mix by hand or in a stand mixer on low.)
- Roll into 1.5 inch meatballs and place on a lined baking sheet.
- Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes until edges of meatballs are browned. Allow to cool + enjoy!
- For the optional greek yogurt sauce just stir together.
Air Fryer Instructions
- Chop all vegetables. In a large bowl combine all ingredients. (You can mix by hand or in a stand mixer on low.)
- Roll into 1.5 inch balls and place in greased air fryer basket (I spray with cooking spray)
- Air Fry at 400 for 12-15 minutes until golden brown, allow to cool + enjoy!
- You'll need to air fry the meatballs in 2-3 separate batches. I put 12 in the basket each time.
- For the optional greek yogurt sauce just stir together.
Notes
- Turkey – You can sub ground turkey for ground chicken and ground beef
- Veggies – If you don’t like celery, carrots, or spinach – simply omit
- Whole30/Paleo – To make paleo/whole30 simply omit blue cheese and the yogurt sauce
- Coconut Flour – You can use whole wheat breadcrumbs instead of coconut flour
We had these for supper tonight and they were so good! We substituted with ground chicken as that is what we had on hand. They were very flavorful and we didn’t even use the Greek yogurt sauce. We will definitely be making these again!
So happy you liked them! Thanks Casie!
I LOVE these meatballs. They are so easy, healthy, and sooooo tasty!
Thank you so much, Stacy!
I LOVE this recipe! The flavor is awesome! It is very easy to make and my family loves the meatballs! I always make a double batch so we can have them for snacks.
Thank you so much!
I made these as burgers instead of meatballs and they were a huge hit! I froze 2 of them (raw) and they cooked up beautifully a few weeks later. These are so easy to meal prep and keep on hand. Oh, and don’t skip the yogurt sauce!
I made these recently as burgers (instead of meatballs) and they were a huge hit! I put 2 in the freezer (raw) for later use, they froze, defrosted and cooked up really well. I plan to make these as part of my regular meal prep since they are easy to batch produce and freeze! Oh and don’t skip the yogurt sauce 😻
Love this idea!! Totally going to try it!
My substitutions:
Ground chicken, shredded the carrots, shredded zucchini in place of the spinach, omitted the cheese.
SO YUMMY!! I love the taste that the celery adds to these and the Buffalo sauce amount it just perfect. Love how adaptable and versatile this recipe is!
Thank you so much, Kaitlin! Love to hear this!
I made these tonight and they were delicious! Will definitely be making these again.
Thanks, Caroline!! So glad you liked them!
In the weekly rotation at my house per my husbands request and I am not complaining about it! I love how good these taste and they have hidden veggies too! I love to double the recipe to take some for lunches and freeze some so we can zap them quickly on weeknights!
Thanks, Ashley! We always do a double batch and freeze them – they make for the perfect quick weeknight meal!
I made this tonight and they turned out so yummy with a little kick! I have also made her other turkey meatball recipe as well and love both of them! Highly recommend for a healthy delicious dinner.
Thank you so much, Sondra! Glad you liked them!
Prepped these today for meal prep. I tripled the recipe and got 3 dozen meatballs and four, 8oz burgers. I’m going to use the traeger to grill them for dinner tomorrow. The meatballs are so delicious!!! Love your recipes!
Thanks, Margaret! Great idea to turn them into burgers – I need to try that!!
So versatile, easy and not dry or mushy!
So glad you liked them, Kate!
So tasty!!! And it has extra veges it in, bonus!! I could make these meatballs with everything I had on hand. Simple easy ingredients and so delicious!! I will definitely be making this again!!
So glad you liked them, Ashley!
I love this recipe! These meatballs are delicious and easy to make! I have made these twice now and both times they came out great! I like to serve over cauliflower rice and bring for lunch. Thank you for sharing!
So glad you like them Katie!! Thanks for giving them a try 🙂
This recipe is so good! My fiancee tried it and LOVED it (he didn’t even notice it had veggies hidden in it lol)! I didn’t use the cheese, because said fiancee eats like a toddler, but if I were making them for me I’m sure it would be amazing! Thanks for sharing this!!
So glad you and your fiancee liked it, Emily! This is one of my favorite ways to hide veggies 🙂
I have made these a few times and they are becoming a freezer staple! I usually put a few in a bag and freeze them and take them out as needed. I eat these with anything! Rice, quinoa, veggies, cauli-tots, sweet potato fries etc..
love them!
So glad you like them, Michaela! They’re perfect for putting in the freezer for a future meal1
How spicy is the sauce.? My husband and I like a little spice but not really HOT!!! I know that is very individual question. We all have different taste buds.
Thanks
Marilyn Sponheimer
Hi Marilyn – It’s hard to answer that.. I personally don’t think Frank’s Red Hot is very spicy, but you could always cut the amount in the batter in half and add more on top after they’re baked if you’re worried about spice!
They were great! Even my husband liked them. 🙂
So glad you both liked them, Amy!
I just made these for lunch and really liked the flavor! I omitted the blue cheese for whole 30 but can’t wait to try again with it. They did fall apart a bit when cooking (I did stove top rather than oven) so I might try it with an egg to bind them more next time.
Glad you liked them, Valerie! These are not meant to be cooked on the stovetop, which is why they fell apart – because there are so many veggies in them, they really can’t be flipped, and will likely stick to a pan! Next time try them on parchment in the oven 🙂
My entire family is obsessed with these. We have them for dinner almost every week because they’re THAT good.
I love hearing that, Angela!! They’re always a big hit at our house too 🙂