Turkey Zucchini Meatballs are made with fresh zucchini and lean ground turkey. The zucchini makes these meatballs super juicy and tender. We love to make a bunch of these meatballs and freeze them for easy meals.
Why You’ll Love These Turkey Zucchini Meatballs
These Turkey Zucchini Meatballs are an excellent way to use up the zucchini from your garden. Even if you have to go grab some at the store, these meatballs are totally worth it.
- Delicious & Juicy: The zucchini makes these turkey meatballs super moist, even though ground turkey can tend to be dry. It also adds a wonderful flavor to the ground turkey.
- Freezer Friendly: These meatballs freeze perfectly, so go ahead and make a few batches and freeze for easy meals later on.
- Kid Approved: When our kids were little they loved these meatballs (and still do) so it was a great way to sneak in some extra vegetables.
How To Make
Start by grating the zucchini and squeezing out the excess moisture. Make sure that the zucchini is very dry before adding to the meatball mixture.
Add ground turkey, bread crumbs, ricotta cheese, salt, pepper, garlic powder and eggs to a bowl and mix together until combined.
Form into balls about the size of golf balls and fry in a skillet with a shallow layer of olive oil.
Can I Bake These Meatballs?
Yes, you can also bake these turkey zucchini meatballs in the oven if you don’t want to fry them. Place them on a baking sheet in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.
Frying does add a bit more flavor, but we do often bake these meatballs so it all depends on what you feel like doing.
Variations
Besides zucchini you can use different vegetables like chopped broccoli, spinach or eggplant. One of our favorite meatball recipes are these chicken and broccoli meatballs that we’ve been making for years.
You can also use ground chicken or ground beef to make this same recipe. Or, instead of ricotta cheese, try using cottage cheese!
How To Serve These Meatballs
Serve these turkey meatballs with your favorite marinara sauce, with or without pasta! Often we’ll just eat these meatballs with a salad or a vegetable side.
However, our kids do love pasta, so feel free to cook up your favorite kind to serve with these meatballs.
Looking For More Meatball Recipes?
- Grandma’s Sunday Meatballs & Sauce
- Chicken & Broccoli Meatballs
- Cheeseburger Meatballs
- Thai Shrimp Meatballs
Turkey Zucchini Meatballs
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 Servings 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeThese delicious turkey meatballs are packed with fresh zucchini to make them juicy and tender!
Ingredients
- 2 lb. ground turkey, 93% lean (not extra lean)
- 1/4 cup bread crumbs
- 2 cups grated zucchini, squeezed dry with paper towels
- 1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 (24 oz.) jar marinara sauce
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Mix all of the ingredients (except for the sauce) in a bowl and mix well to combine.
- Portion out into balls with a medium scooper, you’ll get about 28 meatballs.
- Place the meatballs on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray and bake for 20-25 minutes until the meatballs are no longer pink inside.
- Warm the marinara sauce and serve with the meatballs.
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
These meatballs are seriously awesome. Love this recipe and bookmarked to happen here soon!
Thanks Matt, My little guy was sick all week and we were tired of soup…He loved them so it was a success!