Baked Turkey Zucchini Meatballs

Super juicy and tender Turkey Veggie toddler meatballs. You’ll want to make a large batch of these meatballs: they are so moist thanks to the zucchini and so flavorful thanks to the feta cheese that your kids will eat them in 0 seconds!

I served them altogether with some cous cous, but a nice idea could be to let them swim in a sea of homemade marinara sauce!! (if you want to try my marinara sauce, check this recipe)

polpette tacchino zucchine long

Meatballs loaded with veggies are a nice way to offer healthy nutrients to your picky kids without them even noticing 🙂

In the video recipe I mixed the ingredients with a fork/wooden spoon. If your kids are very picky and they are suspicious of every single colored spot in their food you can easily put all the ingredients in a food processor and create a nice, smooth, uniform mix so that your meatballs will be spotless 🙂

polpette tacchino zucchine2

USEFUL TIP: I usually prepare a nice amount of meatballs enough for a family dinner + following day lunchbox for the kids + amount for another family meal to freeze and use when you have no time to cook!! Freeze the meatballs before baking them so that, when needed, you will only have to display them (frozen) on a baking sheet, drizzle some Extra Virgin Oil of Olive on top and bake them. The taste will be exactly the same of the ones you prepared and baked immediately 🙂 Usually when you bake something from frozen the baking time is around 50% longer than from room temperature. In this case, instead of baking for 25 minutes, you should bake the meatballs for about 35 min.

5 from 1 vote
Baked Turkey Zucchini Meatballs
Ingredients
  • 1.4 lb ground turkey 650gr.
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 egg
  • 1 Tbsp fresh thyme minced
  • 1 Cup grated zucchini 500gr. or 3 medium zucchini
  • 3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Oil of Olive
  • 1 small shallot
  • 5 oz. Feta cheese 140gr.
  • 1 Cup breadcrumbs 200gr.
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven at 400F/180C
  2. Grate the zucchini finely.
  3. Squeeze them with your hands to remove the extra liquid.
  4. In a medium size bowl add all the ingredients: the ground turkey, the squeezed zucchini, the minced garlic, the minced fresh thyme, the egg, the feta cheese and the minced shallot.
  5. Mix everything very well. If you want you can use a kitchen mixer for a smoother result.
  6. Place the breadcrumbs in a dish.
  7. With the help of two teaspoons create small tiny turkey balls
  8. Coat them with the breadcrumbs
  9. Line the meatballs on a parchment paper on a baking sheet. Drizzle some Extra Virgin Oil of Olive on top
  10. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
  11. Enjoy!!

8 Comments

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  • Reply
    Rachel
    March 12, 2016 at 5:14 am

    My little one can’t have dairy, what can I replace the feta cheese with? Can I leave it out?

    Thank you so much for sharing it looks delicious!

    • User Avatar
      Reply
      Barbara Lamperti
      March 12, 2016 at 5:30 pm

      Hi Rachel! Feta cheese gives a nice touch of saltiness to the overall flavor. You can skip it but I would suggest to add something else to replace the flavor. What about sun dried tomatoes or black olives? very thinly minced so that your little one will be able to eat them. You can also totally skip the cheese but the overall flavor of the meatballs will be a bit too bland. Thank you for watching BuonaPappa!! ciao, b

      • Reply
        Rachel
        March 20, 2016 at 10:07 pm

        No Thank you! I love your recipes! And I’ll definitely give it a try! 🙂

  • Reply
    Eugenia
    October 7, 2016 at 4:05 am

    Hello! Can you please let me know if you can substitute an onion for the shallot? You are very talented and I love your recipes. Best regards 🙂

    • User Avatar
      Reply
      Barbara Lamperti
      October 17, 2016 at 9:57 pm

      Hi Eugenia!
      sure, onions are shallots are from the same family. Personally I find that shallots have a sweeter and less intense flavor. Thank you so much for your comment, you’re very kind!!! ciao, b

  • Reply
    Rudi
    June 20, 2020 at 5:46 pm

    I love these. I just had a question. If using olive oil, how did you not burn yours at the bottom? They look perfect! I’m not using very much olive oil at all and the get a little burnt on the bottom.

    • User Avatar
      Reply
      Barbara Lamperti
      October 19, 2020 at 9:19 pm

      Hi Rudi! Thank you so much!!
      I only use olive oil when cooking 🙂
      I drizzle the oil on top so that basically there is no or minimum oil at the bottom. I hope it helps! Ciao, b

  • Reply
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