Moroccan Turkey Meatballs

There are some work days where you literally cannot stare at the screen anymore and you have to walk away. That was me yesterday. I was staring at the screen trying to figure out the backend to a CMS for like four hours and everything I was doing wasn’t rendering exactly what I wanted. My neck and shoulders started to get tight and sore and I just knew I had to step away and revisit whatever I was doing at a later time. I definitely carry stress on my shoulders and luckily I had a chiropractor appointment yesterday after work because as soon as the chiro got his hands on me to adjust me, he immediately said, “you’re stressed!” Definitely an understatement for yesterday!

However, today is a brand new day and I’m super excited about today because it’s our second design meeting for our new house! Today is the fun stuff. We get to actually choose finishes, colors, and actually DESIGN! Last week was boring electrical and my brain was literally fried after that meeting. I can’t wait to share more details with you!

I don’t cook with moroccan flavors often and quite honestly, I don’t know why! These moroccan turkey meatballs are just a flavor bomb. They’re tender and moist but seriously, the warm spicy flavors that is moroccan cooking has me wanting to cook like this all the time! The meatballs sit in a flavorful tomato-base sauce and just watching it simmer and bubble away on the stove made my stomach growl. Dinner could not have come fast enough!

These moroccan turkey meatballs have so much flavor that they are the perfect addition on top of plain cauliflower rice or plain white or brown rice. We topped cauliflower rice with these moroccan meatballs because at the time, I had so many bags of cauliflower rice from Trader Joe’s that we had to use up!

Moroccan Turkey Meatballs

Moroccan turkey meatballs are like a flavor bomb! So much flavor combined into a meatball and simmered in a delicious and unique red sauce.

4 from 2 votes

Prep Time: 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes minutes

Servings: 22 meatballs

Author: Julie Chiou

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Ingredients 

½1x2x3x

US CustomaryMetric

For the meatballs

• ▢ 1 pound ground turkey
• ▢ ½ cup plain breadcrumbs
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon finely minced fresh ginger
• ▢ 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ▢ ½ teaspoon allspice
• ▢ ¾ teaspoon ground coriander
• ▢ Pinch of ground cinnamon
• ▢ ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ▢ 1 large egg
• ▢ Handful of chopped parsley leaves
• ▢ Salt and pepper

For the sauce

• ▢ 15 ounce can of tomato sauce
• ▢ 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• ▢ ½ teaspoon sweet paprika
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
• ▢ Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
• ▢ Salt and pepper, to taste

The default measuring system for this website is US Customary. Unit conversions are provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. While we strive to provide accurate unit conversions, please be aware that there may be some discrepancies.

Equipment

• Large rimmed baking sheet
• Cookie scoop

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Instructions

• Place wax paper on a large baking sheet. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, add all the ingredients for the meatballs into the bowl. Gently, using your hands, mix everything together, careful not to overwork the meat.
• Using a medium scoop, scoop and roll out the meat mixture into balls and place on wax paper.
• At this point, you can place half the meatballs in a freezer-safe plastic bag or proceed to cook them all.
• To cook: heat up a large skillet over medium-high heat and add olive oil to the pan. Brown all four sides and cook until meatballs are cooked through, about 7-10 minutes.
• While the meatballs are cooking, in a small saucepan, make the sauce. Add all the ingredients to the saucepan and bring to a low simmer.
• Once the meatballs are done cooking, keep in the skillet and pour the sauce into the skillet and bring to a gentle simmer and toss around the meatballs in the sauce.
• To serve: divide meatballs evenly on a bed of cauliflower rice or white/brown rice then spoon sauce over the meatballs.

NUTRITION FACTS

Serving: 0.25 of recipe | Calories: 283 kcal | Carbohydrates: 22 g | Protein: 28 g | Fat: 10 g | Fiber: 3 g | Sugar: 7 g

This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition information can vary for a variety of reasons. For the most precise nutritional data use your preferred nutrition calculator based on the actual ingredients you used in the recipe.

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: Moroccan

Keyword: turkey

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