Thai turkey meatballs are baked, then combined with spiralized zucchini noodles, and covered with a soy/sriracha/lime/honey glaze in this yummy dish!
I saw this recipe on Pinterest recently, and though it sounded really good! Sometimes cooking with ground turkey can be rather “bland”, but these Thai turkey meatballs, zoodles, and glaze were packed with flavor! Hooray! They are delicious, and one serving comes in at about 300 calories!
The turkey meatballs are filled with green onions, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, cilantro and fresh grated ginger, so you KNOW they will be good! Knowing these Thai turkey meatballs are baked, not fried, and also accompanied zucchini noodles, helped me decide to try this simple yet delicious recipe!
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How To Make Thai Turkey Meatballs and Zoodles
The first thing you will need to do is make the meatballs. Place ground turkey, garlic, ginger, green onions, cilantro, soy sauce, sesame oil, and chia seeds into a large mixing bowl. NOTE: The chia seeds will help the meatballs to hold together (without having to use eggs).
Mix all of the ingredients together using your (clean) hands or a fork. You want this Thai turkey meatballs mixture to be very well combined. Cover the bowl, and refrigerate the mixture for 30 minutes (this helps the chia seeds to work as a gel to firmly hold ingredients together).
Form The Meatballs
Before shaping the Thai turkey meatballs, preheat your oven to 400° F. and line a 13×9 inch baking sheet with parchment paper. To form the meatballs, place a heaping Tablespoon of the turkey mixture into your hands, and gently roll the meat into a meatball. This recipe will make approximately 18 meatballs.
PLEASE NOTE: This recipe, as written, yields 3 servings (with 3 meatballs per serving). You, obviously will have leftover meatballs. You can freeze leftover baked meatballs OR you can double the amount of zucchini and sauce used, in order to make 6 servings.
As you finish rolling each meatball, place it onto the parchment paper lined baking sheet. Be sure to leave space between each meatball.
Bake The Thai Turkey Meatballs
Place the meatballs into the preheated 400° F oven. Set a timer for 10 minutes, and bake.
Prepare The Glaze and Zoodles While Meatballs Bake
While the meatballs are baking, whisk together the ingredients for the Asian-inspired glaze. These ingredients are soy sauce, fresh squeezed lime juice, honey and sriracha sauce. Set aside.
While the meatballs are baking, spiralize the 3 zucchini into spaghetti-style noodles, then “trim” the noodles into smaller lengths. If you don’t own a spiralizer, use a vegetable peeler to peel the length of the zucchini into long strips, then cut into thin strands.
I like to blot the noodles semi-“dry”, using paper towels. This helps to absorb a lot of their natural moisture. When done, set zoodles aside.
Flip Meatballs
After the Thai turkey meatballs have baked for 10 minutes, remove from oven and quickly flip each one to other side. The first photo below, shows what they looked like after 10 minutes.
Pop ’em back into the oven and continue baking for another 10 minutes. When done, the meatballs should be cooked all the way through, and will be nice and golden brown on the outside. The second photo below shows what they looked like when done baking.
To Finish Making Thai Turkey Meatballs and Zoodles
Pour the glaze into a large skillet. Bring the glaze to a boil over medium-high heat. Let it cook until it thickens a bit (usually about a minute), stirring often. Add half of the meatballs (9) to the skillet, and stir to cover them with the glaze. Push the Thai turkey meatballs to one side of skillet, then add the zucchini noodles. Stir to cover with glaze.
Cook for 4-5 minutes (al dente), then the Thai turkey meatballs and zoodles are ready to serve!
To Serve This Dish
This recipe is written to yield THREE servings, with 3 meatballs per serving . Portion out the zucchini onto three individual plates, and top each with three meatballs (or 4, if you’re feeling quite hungry!). Since the recipe only utilizes HALF of the meatballs made, it is very easy to freeze them, to use the next time you make this recipe!
I really hope you will try this recipe for Thai turkey meatballs and zucchini noodles. Pretty sure you will really like it! By the way… you can also substitute ground chicken breast for the turkey, too, if you prefer!
Looking For Other MEATBALL Recipes?
You can find all of my recipes in the Recipe Index. located at the top of the page. A few favorite meatball recipes include:
- Mom’s Swedish Meatballs and Rice
- Hawaiian Meatballs and Rice
- Easy Meatballs For Spaghetti
- BBQ Glazed Cheese & Spinach Meatballs
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Recipe Adapted From: https://inspiralized.com/thai-chicken-meatballs-with-zucchini-noodles/
- 1 pound ground turkey breast
- 3 cloves garlic , finely minced
- 1½ teaspoons fresh ginger , peeled and grated
- 3 stems green onions (scallions) , chopped (white/light green parts only)
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves , finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1½ teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
- 2 Tablespoons chia seeds
- 3 medium zucchinis
- 3 Tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
- 1/2 large lime (juice of)
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 1 Tablespoon sriracha sauce
Place meatball ingredients into a large mixing bowl. NOTE: Chia seeds help meatball ingredients bind together (without using eggs). Mix all the ingredients together using your hands (or fork), until fully combined. Cover bowl, and refrigerate for 30 minutes, to let chia seeds "gel" ingredients.
Preheat oven to 400° F. and line a 13x9 inch baking sheet with parchment paper. To make meatballs: place a heaping Tablespoon of turkey mixture into your hands, and gently roll between both hands into a meatball. As you finish rolling each meatball, place it onto the parchment paper lined baking sheet. Be sure to leave space between meatballs. This recipe yields about 18 meatballs. PLEASE NOTE: Recipe, as written, yields 3 servings (with 3 meatballs per serving). You will have leftover meatballs. You can freeze leftover baked meatballs OR you can double the amount of zucchini and glaze used, in order to make 6 servings (3 meatballs each).
Place the meatballs into preheated 400° F oven. Set a timer for 10 minutes, and bake. After meatballs have baked for 10 minutes, remove from oven and quickly turn each one to other side. Pop 'em back into oven and continue baking for another 10 minutes. When done, meatballs should be cooked all the way through, and will be nice and golden brown on the outside. Remove from oven.
While meatballs are baking, whisk glaze ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside. While meatballs are baking, spiralize 3 zucchini into spaghetti-style noodles, then "trim" the noodles into smaller lengths. Blot the zoodles semi-"dry", using paper towels. This helps absorb a lot of their natural moisture. Set aside.
Pour glaze into a large skillet. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Let it cook until it thickens a bit (about a minute), stirring often. Add half of the meatballs (9) to skillet, and stir gently, to cover with glaze. Push meatballs to one side of skillet, then add zucchini noodles. Stir, to cover with glaze. Cook for 4-5 minutes (al dente), then it's ready to serve!
To serve, divide zucchini noodles onto 3 plates; top each serving with 3 meatballs. ENJOY!
NOTE: Since the recipe only utilizes HALF of the meatballs made, it is very easy to freeze them, to use the next time you make this recipe!
Here’s one more to pin on your Pinterest boards!