Turkey Meatballs with Lemon Sauce

These Turkey Meatballs with Lemon Sauce are stuffed with herbs, garlic, Parmesan, and Romano cheeses and baked with a lemon wine sauce. Delicious! Healthy and flavorful, these turkey meatballs are easy enough for any weeknight meal.

Turkey Meatballs with Lemon Sauce

Turkey meatballs are a healthy alternative to red meat. These are juicy, moist, and loaded with lemon flavor. Best of all, you make these meatballs in less than 15 minutes. Plus, they are baked rather than fried, so the oven does all the work for you.

The lemon sauce is made with only 5 ingredients and bakes with meatballs for the last 12 to 15 minutes in the oven, making them truly delicious. Serve them with your favorite sides, and maybe even a dessert like our lemon pound cake to complete the meal. It’s divine!

How To Make Turkey Meatballs with Lemon Sauce?

When making turkey meatballs, they will need a lot of flavoring, otherwise, they will turn out bland. For this recipe, you will need the following ingredients:

Ingredients Overview:

• lean ground turkey – one pound package of ground turkey is enough for 4 to 5 servings.
• bread crumbs – are needed to make them moist and help bind them together.
• grated cheeses – grated Parmesan and Romano cheeses are needed to add in some natural salt, while they flavor the turkey.
• seasonings – salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper are the spices to flavor the ground turkey and to give them some heat.
• herbs – fresh chopped Italian parsley and some dried oregano to give additional flavor.
• garlic – fresh cloves of garlic finely minced are preferred to give a nutty, pungent flavor to poultry.
• one egg – to help bind the entire mixture.

For the Lemon Sauce:

• white wine – (preferably any drinking wine you have on hand, we used Pinot Grigio).
• freshly squeezed lemon juice – fresh is better and never leaves a bitter aftertaste.
• extra virgin olive oil – to give a healthy fat while it helps balance out the flavors in the sauce.
• garlic powder – a small amount goes a long way.
• crushed red pepper flakes – to give the sauce some heat.
• fresh chopped Italian parsley – is needed for additional freshness, and a clean taste while it brightens up the dish.

Directions to Make These Turkey Meatballs:

There are 3 easy steps to making these Turkey Meatballs. (*Full recipe card below). We used our favorite 3Qt Malacasa baking dish for this recipe, but you can use any rectangular baking dish.

The first step: make the mixture:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F(190.5C). Spray your baking dish with cooking spray and set it aside.
2. Place all the ingredients for the meatballs in a mixing bowl. Use a fork or your hand to mix the turkey mixture, until all the ingredients are well incorporated.

The second step: make the meatballs:

3. Make them into meatballs, grab a spoonful of the mixture, and use your hands to roll them into a ball, the size of a golf ball.

4. Then transfer each one to your baking dish. Try your best to make them all the same size, so they will bake evenly.

Final step: bake them, add the lemon sauce:

5. Pop them into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, you can prepare the lemon wine sauce in a measuring cup, or small mixing bowl.

6. Next, carefully remove the baking dish from the oven, and pour the lemon sauce over the meatballs.

7. Then return them to the oven and continue to bake for an additional 12 to 15 minutes. Remove and serve.

Options to serve them…

Questions & Answers…

1. Can we go ahead and freeze? Yes, you can make the meatballs, and freeze them in a sealed container. Then allow them to completely thaw before baking. Also, keep in mind, that you can freeze leftovers, along with the lemon sauce for another meal in the future.

2. How long will they stay fresh in the refrigerator? Any leftover meat is only good to stay fresh for up to 3 days. After that, you should discard them. If you know you will not have them again during the week, transfer any leftovers to a sealed container and freeze them.

3. Can we use this recipe with other meats or poultry? Yes, you can. Instead of turkey, you can use ground chicken, lamb, or veal and make these juicy, flavorful meatballs.

4. Can we make them gluten-free? Yes, you can use “cornbread crumbs” instead of plain bread crumbs. We prefer to use “plain” bread crumbs and add our own spices and fresh herbs.

More Delicious Recipes You’ll Love!

• Parmesan Crusted Turkey Cutlets
• Roasted Boneless Turkey Breast
• Mom’s Sunday Meatballs
• Turkey Burgers with Fresh Tzatziki Sauce

Your comments help us! If you have any questions, ask away! And if you tried our Turkey Meatballs with Lemon Sauce recipe, let us know and leave a comment!  We’d love to hear from you.   

Happy and Healthy Cooking! 🙂