I had a full weekend of keto experimentation which culminated with an incredible ad-hoc recipe that must be documented and shared with the world. Since I’ve gone keto, I’ve been eating a lot of red meat and I wanted to lighten things up a little, so I picked up some organic ground turkey. Usually I make turkey meatloaf, but I had a vision of Italian style meatballs on fat head flat bread, so I got out the Cuisinart and went to town.
The mushrooms are the secret ingredient in this recipe, acting both as a binder and a hydrating ingredient, keeping the turkey from drying out. The key is chopping and cooking them first. I like the Cuisinart for this, but you could easily chop them by hand for an even smoother affect.
Ingredients:
- 1.5 pounds of organic ground turkey
- 2 T + 2T butter
- 10 crimini mushrooms, de-stemmed
- 1/2 onion, quartered
- 1 c almond flour
- 2 eggs
- 2 T dried Italian herb blend
- 1 T granulated garlic
- 2/3 bag organic frozen spinach, slightly thawed
- 1.5 c grated Parmesan
- salt and white pepper
- 2, 14 oz cans of organic tomato sauce
- 2 T dried Italian herb blend
- 1T granulated garlic
- salt and white pepper to taste
Procedures:
- Throw the mushrooms and onion in the Cuisinart and pulse about 10-15 times to get a rough chop on them.
- Cook the mixture with 2 T of butter melted a hot sauté pan for 5-7 minutes until soft. Place in a bowl and set aside in the freezer to cool quickly.
- Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, add the ground turkey, almond flour, eggs, herb blend, garlic, spinach and Parmesan.
- Add the mushroom/onion mix and use hands to incorporate (don’t forget to remove your rings first!), rolling into 1/2 c size balls.
- Turn on a sauté pan to medium/high and wait for the pan to heat up. Add 2 T of butter.
- Place the meatballs in the pan without overloading them (depending on the pan, you should be able to fit 8 meatballs at a time.
- Brown the first side for 5 minutes and gently turn using tongs.
- While the meatballs cook, start a pot with the 2 cans of sauce, herbs and garlic on med-low.
- Once the meatballs have been browned on all sides, drop them gently into the sauce and allow to cook on med-low for another 20 minutes, once the sauce has boiled.
These are the best meatballs I’ve ever made, hands down, and I just threw them together without a recipe. Please let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments below, or follow me on Twitter for more delicious recipes.
Free to Feast 