Packed with veggies, herbs and fragrant spices, these turkey zucchini meatballs are exceptionally flavorful, light and healthy. I like to serve these scrumptious turkey meatballs as an appetizer, with lemony yogurt sauce for dipping.
There’s no bread, flour or milk in this recipe. It’s amazing they hold together as well as they do. Ottolenghi is a true genius. I say that to myself every time I make these amazing turkey zucchini meatballs.
Do you have any foods that make you swoon? Maybe for you it’s chocolatey desserts or macaroni and cheese? Meatballs do it for me! Whether they’re stuffed or glazed, Swedish or Asian or on spaghetti with tomato sauce, I find them utterly irresistible. I don’t make meatballs very often because I end up eating waaaayyy too many.
The recipe comes from Ottolenghi’s cookbook Jerusalem. If you have the book, you’ll notice that Ottolenghi calls them burgers. I call them meatballs. They don’t look quite like either one. They’re small – two or three bites apiece. They’re served with a lemony yogurt dip and no bun.
I like rolling them in an oblong shape because it makes them more like finger food that you can hold and dip. In fact I often serve them as an appetizers, with lemony yogurt sauce for dipping.
HOW TO MAKE TURKEY ZUCCHINI MEATBALLS
Considering that these turkey zucchini meatballs are made without bread crumbs, it’s surprising how well they hold together and how nicely they brown up. However, rolling them does require a little technique. The mixture is pretty wet so you’re in for some serious frustration if you try to “roll” them like you normally do with meatballs. Here are some tips:
- Scoop up about 2 1/2 tablespoons of the mixture and toss it from hand to hand, giving little squeezes to form it into an oblong shape.
- Three or four tosses and squeezes per meatball should do it.
- Set each formed meatball onto a plate.
- Heat oil in a skillet. When it’s hot, tip the plate towards the pan and use a spatula or a knife to gently slide a few meatballs into the pan.
- Cook the meatballs in batches, turning them until they’re brown on all sides. They brown up quickly.
- Set the browned meatballs on a parchment-lined baking pan.
- Finish cooking them in a 425º oven for 6-7 minutes.
I love to serve these with lemony yogurt sauce on the side. This yogurt-based dip features sumac, a beautiful deep red spice with a lemony flavor that’s very popular in Middle Eastern cooking.
When you pass by the fridge looking for a quick tasty snack, these are hard to resist. They even taste great cold.
Here’s the Turkey Zucchini Meatballs recipe. If you try this, I hope you’ll come back to leave a star rating and a comment. I’d love to know what you think!
PrintOttolenghi’s Turkey Zucchini Meatballs with Lemony Yogurt Sauce
Healthy, delicious, gluten-free turkey meatballs that work well as a main dish or as an appetizer, with lemon dipping sauce.
Adapted from a recipe by Chef Yotam Ottolenghi in his cookbook Jerusalem
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 50 mins
- Yield: 6-8 1x
- Category: Appetizer or Main Course
- Method: oven baked
- Cuisine: Israeli
Ingredients
- For The Yogurt Sauce
- 1/2 cup sour cream *
- 2/3 cup low-fat plain Greek Yogurt
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 small garlic clove, pressed or finely minced
- 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon sumac
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- For The Meatballs
- 1 pound ground turkey (white or dark meat)
- 1 large egg
- 1 large zucchini, grated
- 6 scallions, sliced thin
- 2 tablespoons chopped mint leaves
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves
- 2 large cloves garlic, pressed or finely minced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- Vegetable oil for sautéing
- * For a lower fat sauce you can swap out the sour cream for low fat yogurt. The taste is a bit more tart but still delicious.
Instructions
- Make the Yogurt Sauce Combine all ingredients. Set aside or refrigerate for up to 3 days, until needed.
- Make The Meatballs Preheat oven to 425F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl combine turkey, zucchini, scallions, egg, mint, cilantro, garlic and spices. Using your hands, shape the meatballs (about 2 1/2 tablespoons per ball) by gently squeezing them and tossing them from hand to hand. Set formed meatballs on a large plate. (makes about 18)
- Heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Slide half the meatballs into the pan and brown them on all sides, about 4 minutes. Carefully transfer them to the baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the meatballs, adding extra oil to the pan, if needed. Slide the tray into the center of the oven and cook for 6-7 minutes, until cooked through. Serve with lemony yogurt sauce.
Keywords: meatballs, gluten-free meatballs, ottolenghi meatballs
Step three of instructions most likely has a typo “Slice half of the meatballs” should probably be “Slide half of the meatballs.”
I made the correction. Thanks for your editing help 🙂
Hi. Ive just come across your recipe. Can these be made and then frozen before you put them in the oven.
Hi Paula, I haven’t tried this but I am quite sure it will work well. I like the idea of sautéing them to firm them up, and then freezing them. Then all you have to do is pop them in the oven to cook them through.
I am so glad I tried these. They are yummy! Love the mix of flavors. Thank you!
I made these tonight as an appetizer, since the main course (fresh, homemade artisan bread and homemade french onion soup) comes later. These are light and delicate, but packed with flavor. They aren’t hard to shape if you just follow the directions and toss back and forth. They held together just fine. They are really delicious, and with the lemony yogurt sauce they are absolutely fantastic.
I think these are going to become a favorite in this house!
★★★★★
I often make these as an appetizer too – love them as a starter. I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed them. The rest of your dinner sounds amazing too! Thanks for letting me know Dave.
I am always looking for new uses for ground turkey (it’s always in my freezer!), and these look so yummy! I love that they’re full of zucchini too. And I really like the addition of sumac to the yogurt sauce!
I just want to mention that while these meatballs were delicious and versatile (i used dill and parsley instead of cilantro and mint), the recipe says to use wax paper on the baking tray which is actually not supposed to be used in the oven. Luckily I noticed this quite quickly as the paper started to melt and smoke (https://www.marthastewart.com/269281/parchment-vs-wax-paper). Also, another suggestion would be to shred the zucchini and then put it in a strainer with a bit of salt so that it will drain some of the moisture from the zucchini, as I found that the meatballs let out a ton of liquid as they were cooking. These were quite yummy and well seasoned but I would use parchment paper instead of wax or even just grease the pan.
Thanks so much for catching my error with the wax paper Emily! Fixed it!!
Do you think it would be ok to make the meatballs in advance (either formed or unformed…?) and then refrigerate them for a couple hours before cooking them? Or should I cook them and reheat? Thanks!!
Hi Eric. I think it would be fine to make the meatball mixture in advance and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready for form them. It might even make them easier to form because the fridge will firm everything up. I definitely wouldn’t form them first because the mixture is kind of wet and they would lose their shape. You can also form them and brown them and keep them in the fridge, covered, until you’re ready to finish them in the oven. I think that would work really well! Once they’re browned you can set them up on the parchment-lined tray, cover with foil, store in the fridge, and all you have to do is pop the tray in the oven. You might need a few extra minutes of cooking time if you’re going right from the cold fridge to the oven. Enjoy!
Just made them and they turned out great!! Excellent recipe with no need for substitutions/changes.
These were absolutely DELICIOUS! I had never used sumac before…it was awesome to try something completely new. I’m always very skeptical of turkey meatballs, but they are so flavorful – I can’t stop eating them!
I’m so glad you enjoyed!!
Made these last night and they were yummy! Everybody loved them and perfect for a weeknight meal.
I have someone in my near family who can’t eat beef or pork. This meatball recipe
is PERFECTO. I love the yogurt sauce you whipped up to go with it. Lots of interesting non Italian spices, which makes it more unique. Bottom line–I like it!
I love these Lisa! We are going in for round two tonight. Thank you for expanding my weeknight repertoire!!
I came across this recipe on ChowStalker and it is on my list to make this coming week! I’ve spent the last 30 min or more looking through so many more delicious recipes and pinning many to try. Thanks for sharing these recipes – the food and your photos are gorgeous and everything looks delicious!
Following up from my last comment…I made these today and they were SOOO good! Perfect blend of spices and so flavorful, complimented by the tartness of the yogurt sauce. These are definitely going into the regular dinner rotation!
Thanks Mandy – I’m so glad you followed up to let me know how they turned out! They’re in my regular dinner rotation too!
Made these last night. They were awesome! Light, fluffy and utterly delicious.
Funny thing, I had never used Sumac before, but just so happens I bought some in a health food store in Tel Aviv last week and was waiting for a recipe calling for it to come around.
I made these tonight and I had to leave the kitchen so I would stop eating them! They were delicious! The cilantro and mint were great. I had a few adjustments but it turned out great. I used an egg white instead of a whole egg, and had no sumac, so I grated a little lemon zest into the sauce and I did not have sour cream so I used all greek yogurt. It was easy and delicious. My husband and daughter loved them too. Thanks for a great and easy recipe!
Cannot wait to make these. I am a meatball fanatic, and these look healthy as well.
A fellow meatball fanatic! 🙂
Lisa, These sound amazing! Can’t wait to try them out. I’m a sucker for cilantro and cumin! I’ve never tried sumac though…any info or tips about getting/using it?
Mindy, I learned about sumac in Istanbul. You can sprinkle it on cucumbers, salads, fish, chicken, dips, or anything that you would sprinkle lemon juice on. It has a bright, tart, lemony flavor. You can order it from Penzeys https://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/results.html?id=TAPZQtxN or you can find it in the Boston/Cambridge area at Sofra or Formaggio Kitchen.
Definitely making these this week! They look yummy.