I love Italian food and this recipe certainly met my needs for cheesy tomato flavours. It was very easy to make and cook. The recipe is accurate in terms of method. I ended up making 9 meatballs as it was easier to divide up. You can cut down a bit on the marinara sauce if the dish isn’t too big. The meatballs have a perfect texture and the flavour of herby meatball with cheese and tomato is delicious. I like meatballs to be coated in sauce rather than swamped. I had three with salad which was filling. I kept two so I could have meatball sandwiches for lunches. I use this low carb hot dog roll which has 2.7g Carbs. These sandwiches are seriously good. Regardless of the confused nutritional information, this recipe is delicious and well worth making.
Please note: The nutrition on the site is somewhat confusing as it states ‘amount per serving’ 1 meatball yet also states ‘servings 3’. I would suggest that you go by the ‘amount/serving as 1 meatball’. The recipe adds the marinara sauce in separately so you need to make allowance for that. Choose a low carb marinara sauce and add that to the meatball carbs. You don’t need that much marinara sauce.
Prep time: 5 mins | Cook time: 30 mins | Servings: 3
Nutrition/ 1 meatball: Calories 167 | Fat 12.4g | Carbohydrates 1.2g | Protein 12.8g
Ingredients:
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 tsp each onion powder (heaped)
- 1 tsp each garlic powder (heaped)
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp freshly chopped parsley
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup finely grated pecorino romano or parmesan cheese (I used fresh parmesan)
- 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese, optional (I used lactose-free cheddar)
- Olive oil
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- freshly cracked black pepper
- 24 ounces of marinara sauce ( I used very low carb marinara sauce)
Method:
- Make the turkey meatballs by adding the ground turkey to a large bowl along with the onion and garlic powder, egg, parsley, oregano, pepper flakes, grated pecorino cheese, 1 teaspoon salt, a few cracks of pepper, and mix to combine. Make sure not to overmix as that will make the meatballs tough.
- Form the meatballs, you should be able to make around 7 meatballs the size of a large golf ball. Once formed, place into the freezer for 20 minutes.
- Add the marinara sauce to a pan and bring to a simmer.
- Next, heat a tbsp olive oil in a large pan. Once hot, add the meatballs to the pan and cook until well browned, about 1-2 minutes. Flip and repeat, then place immediately into the marinara sauce. Gently simmer the meatballs for 20 minutes, ensure they are well covered and submerged in the sauce.
- Once the meatballs are cooked you can serve as they are, or remove the pan from the heat and cover the meatballs in grated cheese. Place the pan with the cheese covered meatballs 10 inches from the broiler set on high and cook just until the cheese is melted, don’t walk away.
- Remove from broiler, garnish with parsley, serve & enjoy!
Note: the meatballs will keep in fridge for 5 days, or can be frozen for 3 months.
essentialonion 