These meatballs were inspired by what remained in my fridge on Saturday, the day before I grocery shop….a package of lean ground turkey, eggs, a bunch of fresh herbs, half a red pepper, some finely chopped onions and some garlic. I added in some almond flour that I had in my pantry and created these awesome protein-packed meatballs.
What I love about these meatballs is that they are super moist and incredibly flavourful, which is rare for turkey meat, which tends to taste dry and bland. These meatballs are also great because they can be eaten by those on grain-free, low-carb or paleo style diets and they work great as a portable snack option too!
Plus they are chock-full of herbs that fight inflammation and cancer, freshen your breath, and provide a great dose of vitamins A, C and K as well as a good dose of folate and iron. You have to try them out yourself to believe something so good for you can still taste this good! Happy and healthy cooking!
Italian Paleo Turkey Meatballs
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Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground turkey (essentially one package)
- 3 tbsp almond flour
- 1 egg
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- ¼ cup parsley, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp fresh sage, finely chopped
- 2 tbsps fresh basil, finely chopped
- ¾ tsp sea salt
- ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 red pepper, finely diced
- 1/4 almond flour, for rolling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients, with the exception of the 1/4 cup of almond flour, until well combined.
- Wet your hands slightly and form 1 1/2-inch meatballs. Roll them in the almond flour and place them on a parchment-paper-lined cookie sheet.
- Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until no longer pink inside.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
GF, DF, SF, GF, Paleo, Primal
2 comments
Hey Michelle: Love all your recipes and how much you enjoy experimenting with stuff. (We met at last summer’s CanFit.)
In addition to my own active living business, I am also the Mom of two athletes. I get really excited about making your fab recipes because I know they are healthy for the kids. I would really like to be able to make more of the Smart Snacking for Sports, but one of my guys is anaphylactic to cashews, pistachios, brazil nuts and mangoes. He is 21 and not likely to outgrow any of it. He also has asthma.
They are currently training upwards of 4 and 5 hours a day, as their season starts end of Feb. He is exhausted and far away from home.
He used to eat almonds to maintain a tolerance, but had an allergic scare last year (undeclared cashews) and now will only eat peanut butter and nothing else. So my question to you is…in all those delicious recipes that call for cashew butter, pecans, walnuts…etc. I need a common, workable substitute.
(Like when there is an egg allergy and the substitute is apple sauce for example).
Right now I will make him the High Protein Peanut Butter Cups & Peanut Butter Chocolate Granola Bars. But it would be nice to have the option to branch out a bit with things like Cacao Coconut Energy Balls. What do you recommend replacing the almonds and walnuts, or tree nuts in general with?
Hi Kym!
Thanks so much! I am glad you are enjoying my recipes and that you are cooking healthy for your family! Allergies can be super scary to deal with. There is research coming out that shows a potential connection between healing the gut and allergies – for example here are a few articles to check out:
– https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3881164/
– https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4443817/
Although still in its infant stages, this may be something worth exploring further from a prevention perspective.
In terms of a substitute, it would depend on the individual recipe of course, but you could try coconut butter, sunflower seed butter, or peanut butter. Instead of nuts I also often sub seeds like hemp seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. I will try to create a few snack recipes in the next few weeks that don’t contain tree nuts 🙂