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:
Made these last night and we all enjoyed them! I love that they came together so fast! Thanks for creating such great recipes!
I made this gluten free with coconut flour but I think I did something wrong. Does the coconut flour make the meatballs more dried out?
They should not be dry! Did you use fat free turkey? We recommend 93/7 or 90/10
Been making this recipe for a while, and absolutely love the ease of cooking these in tomato basil sauce in the crock pot. Super tender and very delicious!
These look great – I am going to make them tomorrow. How long should I put them in the crockpot with the sauce in the slow cooker? Thank you.
Hi Heidi- I cook the meatballs completely per the directions in the post and then add them to the tomato sauce. I usually cook them for 8 hours, but any amount of time will be fine. The longer they cook the more tender they are!
Thank you for this. My doctor placed me on keto for blood sugar issues/pcos/weightloss and I have a daughter allergic to dairy/beef/pork and my kids really wanted meatball subs for Christmas dinner and I had searched the internet for a while before I found this recipe that could give everyone what they want/ need. You saved Christmas!
So happy you liked them, Rachel! We have lots of Keto friendly/dairy/beef free recipes on our site – hope you find some more you can enjoy!
Obsessed is an understatement. I meal prep these every week because they’re so easy and so delish. I’ve tried making them a variety of ways with substitutes mentioned and every time it’s absolutely amazing. My favorite on the site
Thank you Kim!! I’m so glad you like the meatballs 🙂
We make these all the time for our lunch meal prep! So delicious!
Thank you so much, Amanda! So glad you like the meatballs!
YUM!!!!! These are amazing ! Even by themselves full of flavor, the fresh herbs make a difference.,
So glad you liked them!!
Made these for dinner tonight and they came out amazing! Definitely a family favorite! (Even my picky 3 year old loves them)
This makes me so happy to hear, Jessica! So glad you both enjoy them!
These meatballs are so good. I was nervous I would be able to taste the coconut flour, but I didn’t even notice with sauce on them. This is definitely a new staple in my house.
Thank you so much, Lindsey! You really can’t taste the coconut flour at all 🙂
I make these all the time, but this time made them with my favorite gluten free italian breadcrumbs and added some fresh parm like suggested – I honestly didn’t think it was possible to love them more but I’m OBSESSED. My only regret was not making more because they didn’t last more than two days!
Yay! So glad you like them. We always double the batch and put a bunch of them in the freezer!
I made these with dried herbs because my grocery store didn’t have any of the fresh ones that I needed and the meatballs were still absolutely delicious!! I added a jalapeño because I love spice but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. Served them with whole30 compliant marinara sauce over zoodles. Going to be a weekly dinner for us! Thank you Liz!
So glad you liked them, Courtney! Love the addition of jalapeño
These are awesome for meal prepping! Super easy and this recipe makes a ton! So they will last all week. Also delicious.
Thanks Savannah! We love to meal prep them too 🙂 Glad you enjoy them!
One of my favorite go-to recipes on this site! Gluten free and packed with so much flavor, I always make a double batch with intention to freeze but we end up eating all of it in two days. It’s so good you can eat with or without sauce.
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you like them! They’re great plain.. in a salad.. with sauce.. possibilites are endless 🙂
so good!! i froze half of it and they were super easy!!
So glad you liked them, Gigi!
These are my favorite go-to meal prep recipe!! I love them. So good with pasta or on their own.
I made a batch of these to freeze so I would have meals for surgery recovery. There’s so many things you can do with these and they taste amazing!
Yay!! Totally agree- they’re perfect for stocking your freezer/fridge with! So easy and yummy!
Probably my favorite go to quick dish! I like to add some greens into the mixture and freeze the turkey when they’re cooked.
Thank you so much, Kaitlyn! We always freeze these too – they’re great to be able to defrost for a quick meal!
I have a granddaughter who LOVES meatballs, but I haven’t been able to make them for her since her family began eating grain-free. I am super excited because there isn’t anything in these she can’t have! So, even though I haven’t made them yet, I am giving them 5 stars, because there is hope! Woohoo!
You are so sweet, Linda! I can assure you – grain free meatballs ARE possible!! I grew up in a big Italian family. When you cook these in sauce all day on the stove they get SO tender – your grandaughter will love them!
These turkey meatballs are my go-to meal prep item. I love that they’re Whole 30 friendly, simple ingredients and can eat them for any meal. My personal fave is over zoodles with a good tomato basil marinara!
Thank you so much, Courtney!! I’m with you on the zoodles and marinara.. that’s the best!
The first time I made these I was skeptical because there’s no cheese and no breadcrumbs. I wanted meatballs without the dairy and the extra carbs, but I couldn’t help but wonder if they would actually taste good. THEY DO. THEY TASTE SO GOOD. When I tasted them for the first time, I actually said out loud (to no one by myself and my dog), “Holy (beep beep), these are amazing!!!” (I’m censoring myself so you can keep your blog PG.) Now whenever I’m making them, I double the batch. I make them every 2-3 weeks and always have these delicious and healthy meatballs in my freezer for those nights I don’t want to or don’t have time to cook!
Even I was skeptical about making a cheese and breadcrumb free meatball, but they really ARE delicious!! Love that you double batch them – I do the same thing!!
These meatballs were SO good! We used fresh basil and you’re so right, definitely makes a big difference! We’ll be making these OFTEN!
You’re the sweetest!! I’m so glad you like them!
Sounds tasty! I’ll have to tinker around with this to see if I can find a lower carb substitute for breadcrumbs that won’t compromise texture and flavor.
You could swap the bread crumbs for almond meal! 🙂
Sub oatmeal quick oats for breadcrumbs still very tasty
I’ve never tried quick oats as a sub in this recipe so I’m not sure if it would be successful. I have tried almond meal which is a lower carb option!
I used to smash meatballs in my face like no other! They were absolutely addictive 🙂
They’re sooo good!
Meat balls are something I DO not make often but I LOVEEEEEEE them so I must! They’re just so so so easy!
I love em’ too, girl!