I’ve been doing Whole30 for the month of January and feeling great! Since 99% of my meals are cooked at home when doing Whole30, I have to step outside of the box more than usual and really mix up my variety of recipes.
I remembered the asian turkey meatball recipe I’ve made before, but I’ve always failed at the stir fry portion of it. I’ve tried frozen veggies and it was sog-city. I’ve tried fresh veggies, and they ended up crunchy and sauce turned out bad. But finally last night, it all came together! And to top it off, my husband finally had high praises for this recipe, so I figured it was good enough to share on the blog 🙂
I decided to use fresh veggies (so they didn’t get soggy) and make sure I cooked them long enough so they weren’t crunchy. Sometimes I try to rush cooking veggies on the stove top — I practiced patience this time! I also used a brand new sauce recipe I threw together, and waited to add it until the end of the cooking process (again, to reduce the sog factor). I got the new sauce recipe idea because I had leftover mushroom chicken broth in the fridge. I used my “base” asian marinade recipe (coconut aminos, spices, lime, almond butter) and added the broth for extra flavor, nutrients, and substance to the recipe.
If you’re not following Whole30 or Paleo, you can make rice or quinoa with this recipe to round out the meal with more starches. Or you can always add cauliflower rice for more veggies.
ASIAN TURKEY MEATBALLS
Meatball Ingredients:
- 2.5 lbs ground turkey
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp cayenne
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 2 tbsp soy sauce, tamari sauce (gluten free), or coconut aminos (gluten and soy free)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- Pinch of salt and pepper
Sauce Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup coconut aminos (or tamari or soy sauce if not Whole30/Paleo)
- Juice of 1/2 – 1 lime
- 1 tbsp almond butter (or nut butter of choice)
- 1/4 cup mushroom chicken bone broth (or other broth of choice – the mushroom gives it a great flavor though!)
- ginger, cayenne, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper to taste – I just did a few “shakes” of each!
Stir Fry Veggies:
- 2-3 carrots, julienned
- 1 small zucchini, julienned
- 1 red pepper, julienned
- 1 yellow pepper, julienned
- 1-2 cups broccoli florets (the smaller they are, the faster they cook!)
These are just suggestions – feel free to add your own mix of veggies!
Instructions
- First, prep your veggies! Dice onions and garlic. Chop carrots, peppers, zucchini, and broccoli.
- Set oven to broil
- Mix meatball ingredients together and form into ~20 meatballs. These are very sticky – wet your hands with some water before forming meatballs. Place on an oven-safe cooling rack and place over a baking sheet, lined with aluminum foil.
- Place in oven for about 5 minutes on broil, then set oven temperature to 400 degrees. Cook for about 20 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees (this may vary, depending on the size of your meatballs!)
- While the meatballs are are cooking, grab a large skillet pan and heat to medium-high heat. Add 1 tbsp coconut oil and 1 tsp sesame oil.
- While skillet is heating, grab a small bowl and mix together coconut aminos, garlic powder, cayenne, ginger, almond butter, lime juice, and bone broth. Set aside.
- Add carrots to skillet and cook about two to four minutes, until soft. Add some salt and pepper.
- Add broccoli next for about one to two minutes, until soft.
- Add zucchini and peppers and cook until soft. Add some salt and pepper.
- Add about 1/2 of the sauce to the skillet and mix with the vegetables. Once it starts to bubble, set the stove to simmer. Let the veggies cook in the sauce until the meatballs are done, stirring occasionally.
- Once the meatballs are done, remove from oven. Then throw it all in a bowl, add more sauce on top, serve, and enjoy 🙂
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