Italian Turkey Meatballs
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Italian turkey meatballs are perfect for a quick meal, and they’re delicious plain or with sauce! This ground turkey meatballs recipe is low fat, high protein and easy to make gluten free too.
Whether you’re Italian or not, there’s no denying that there are few better things in life than a big bowl of pasta with meatballs!
This recipe is a favorite because ground turkey meatballs are low in fat AND high in protein. Classic Italian meatball recipes often call for ground beef and/or ground pork, so our recipe is a much healthier option.
If you’re looking for easy ways to meal prep lunches and dinners, you’ll absolutely love this recipe! Not only do meatballs freeze well, but they’re also super versatile. You can serve them in sauce with pasta, eat them as-is for a post-workout snack, or make some meatball subs for game day!
Liz’s Tips for the Best Turkey Meatballs
- Use a large cookie scoop to form equal-sized meatballs. I portion the mixture with a cookie scoop first, then roll it into balls.
- Wetting your hands lightly with water will help prevent the mixture from sticking to them.
- Double the recipe and freeze some ground turkey meatballs for easy meal prep. These freeze perfectly for up to 6 months in gallon-sized freezer storage bags. Once frozen, you can defrost as many at a time as you want!
Ingredients
The ingredients in our recipe are basic and should be easy to find at any store. But if you need to use substitutes, there are plenty of options listed below.
Substitutions
Ground Turkey: Personally, we think the Italian turkey meatballs are fantastic as-is. But, if you can definitely use a different type of ground meat. Or, try our recipes for Ground Beef Meatballs and Ground Chicken Meatballs.
Egg: If you have an egg allergy, you can skip the egg altogether, or use a flax egg instead. The egg helps bind the meat mixture together.
Breadcrumbs: You can use whole wheat breadcrumbs, panko, Italian seasoned breadcrumbs, or regular breadcrumbs. Gluten-free meatballs are another healthy option. You can make meatballs without breadcrumbs, or substitute gluten-free breadcrumbs for regular breadcrumbs.
Fresh Herbs: Fresh herbs are so much better than dried! If you have fresh basil or parsley on hand, sub in 1 tablespoon of minced fresh herbs for 1/2 teaspoon of dried herbs.
Extra Veggies: You can add in chopped spinach or kale for an extra boost of nutrients. We like to pulse spinach in the food processor so it gets super fine. This way, you can’t even taste it!
Parmesan Cheese: Cheese is optional in meatballs but we highly recommend it. It helps to make the meatballs super tender and flavorful.
How to Bake Italian Turkey Meatballs
- Measure all ingredients into a large bowl.
- Mix well to combine. You can use a large spoon, but we use our hands.
- Portion the meatball mixture. You’ll have enough for about 24 meatballs, each about 1.5 tablespoons in size. Using a cookie scoop will make the job easier.
- Bake at 400°F. for 20 minutes. To help them cook evenly, use tongs to turn the meatballs over after the first 10 minutes.
Cook the meatballs in tomato sauce after baking them. They’re delicious on their own, but so yummy when you let them cook low and slow!
Other Cooking Options
On the stovetop: You can easily make cook the meatballs in a skillet on the stovetop. Heat some olive oil in the skillet over medium heat. Add the meatballs to the pan and cook for 10-15 minutes, turning every 3 minutes until all sides are browned.
In the air fryer: Air fry at 400°F for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through to an internal temperature of 165°F.
Instant Pot We don’t recommend cooking ground turkey meatballs in a pressure cooker, but it is possible. Place meatballs on top of a trivet, stacking as needed.
Put the lid on your IP and make sure the pressure release valve is set to sealing. Lastly, manually set the unit to pressure cook at High pressure for 7 minutes.
storage
Refrigerator: In a covered container in the refrigerator, the meatballs will keep for up to 4 days.
Freezing: You can freeze the fully cooked turkey meatballs in a freezer-safe airtight container for up to 6 months. We don’t recommend freezing raw turkey meatballs.
Reheating: There are plenty of options for reheating leftovers! Either microwave them at 50% power, warm them up in a pot of sauce over medium heat, or reheat them on a sheet pan in a 350°F. oven or toaster oven.
Serving Ideas
The Italian turkey meatballs are delicious on their own but here are some other ideas:
- With Crockpot Tomato Sauce – The key to the best turkey meatballs ever is cooking them IN sauce after they have been baked. I like to let my meatballs cook low and slow for hours in our homemade sauce. Cooking in jarred sauce also works!
- Over pasta: We like to serve them over homemade ricotta cavatelli – so yummy!
- Over zoodles (zucchini noodles)– If you don’t have a spiralizer you won’t regret buying one! As much as we love eating pasta, spiralized zucchini is a great lower calorie option. We also like hearts of palm noodles.
- Over a salad – These meatballs are great over spring mix with a yummy dressing. We like our Greek Salad Dressing Recipe or with our Kale Salad with Lemon Dressing.
ground turkey meatball faqs
Turkey meatballs are healthier than beef because ground turkey is a leaner protein. It has fewer calories and less fat than ground beef.
If you make our ground turkey meatballs recipe as written, there will be about 70 calories per meatball.
Turkey meatballs fall apart if they have too little egg, milk, or breadcrumbs in them. You want to ensure you have the right ratio of meat and binders in your filling to make juicy meatballs that stay together.
No, meatballs will not fall apart without breadcrumbs, but they might not be as tender. If you’re not using breadcrumbs in this recipe, you can sub with coconut flour and it will help to bind them.
Italian Turkey Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1 egg
- ½ cup breadcrumbs
- ½ cup minced onion
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic about 3 cloves
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
Oven Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and prepare a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl until thoroughly combined.
- Shape 2 tablespoons of the mixture into a ball, and repeat until 16 meatballs have been formed. Place on a baking sheet.
- Bake the meatballs for 20 minutes at 400 degrees F or until they are golden brown.
- Serve with your favorite sauce and pasta.
Instant Pot Instructions
- Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl until combined. Roll into approximately 2 inch balls and place on cookie sheet.
- Freeze meatballs for 10 minutes to make them easier to handle.
- Once meatballs have been frozen, place trivet insert into Instant Pot. Pour 1 cup of water into bottom of pot.
- Place meatballs on top of trivet, stacking as needed.
- Cover instant pot and make sure the pressure release is set to sealing. Set instant pot to pressure cook for 7 minutes.
- Allow pressure to naturally release for 5 minutes. Release any remaining pressure and remove with tongs.
- See Notes for additional tips/tricks for cooking meatballs in instant pot.
- Serve with your favorite sauce and pasta.
Air Fryer Instructions
- Preheat air fryer to 400 degrees.
- Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl until thoroughly combined
- Roll into approximately 2 inch balls and place in greased air fryer basket
- Air Fry at 400 for 12-15 minutes until golden brown, allow to cool + enjoy!
- Serve with your favorite sauce and pasta.
Notes
Nutrition Facts
Other healthy turkey recipes
We love ground turkey! It’s so versatile and delicious. We have a collection of the Best Healthy Ground Turkey Recipes but here are some of our favs:
It says 4vservings of 4 meatballs at the top of the recipe. In the nutrition section it says serving size 6 meatballs. Can you tell me which 1 is accurate?
Sorry for the typo. This makes approximately 4 servings of 6 2 inch meatballs. The servings will vary greatly depending on how you roll the balls so if you’re tracking calories/macros I would recommend putting this into your app/calculator and dividing by however many meatballs you make.
ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!!
Turkey meatball has great balance of salty and sweet flavors and soft texture. Adding cheese would be great to add touch.
Can I cook the raw meatballs in my sauce? I do so with beef( many Italians do, also sausage!)… adds so much meaty, rich flavor to the sauce, but not sure about lean turkey since not much fat.Thanks…
We love to cook these meatballs in the sauce after they have been baked to ensure they are fully cooked and don’t fall apart. Hope you enjoy!!
I’m excited about making these. Can they be baked in a muffin pan in a silicon cupcake holder?
There’s really no need to do that. I would just roll them in balls and bake on a baking sheet. You’ll just be creating extra dishes for yourself, and I worry they’ll get soggy as the excess water cooks off.
Love! I added fresh parsley, ground fennel seed, minced fresh garlic too. I doubled the recipe using 1 pound of 99% lean and 1 pound of 93% lean Turkey. Thanks for this recipe.
Making these now. Wondering if you’ve experimented with adding mushrooms or black beans? Can wait to make batches of these!
I haven’t added mushrooms – I think those would get soggy. I’m sure the black beans would be fine. I would only add maybe 1/2 cup to the batter!
Easy to make. I cooked them in the oven as above and then made a sauce and put them in to absorb the flavours – delicious!
I never thought making meatballs could be so easy. This is a recipe my family already asked me to make again. I have some picky eaters in the family. Not only did he ate mine and had 4 more meatballs. That was huge win! Fresh ingredients and so easy to found. Now I’m just thinking of the many ways to eat them with.
Thank you for sharing
These were amazing. I was pleasantly surprised!!! I’ll be making them again for sure.