Turkey Meatballs in Sauce
Creamy and saucy turkey meatballs in roasted pepper sauce. Made with no cream, instead this sauce is made with cashews, which adds the richness and the creaminess to the sauce.
Today I’m sharing another recipe that is perfect to keep you in line with your new year resolutions. Baked saucy turkey meatballs in insanely creamy roasted pepper sauce with basic veggie hash. This entire meal is so good and quick to make
Made with Italian style turkey meatballs from my friends at Shady Brook Farms. They’re all about no-growth promoting antibiotics or added hormones or steroids in their meats and I totally love that!
These turkey meatballs are cheese stuffed and are super flavorful. So basically all the guess work is already done for you. All you have to do is sear them lightly in a skillet and then finish baking them in the oven with roasted pepper sauce. This roasted pepper sauce is made with cashews. The cashews add the creaminess to the sauce that you normally would add with cream or cheese.
It’s insanely creamy, luscious, and saucy. Then everything is baked a top of finely cubed zucchini, yellow squash, and red onion. You have a complete meal in no time to serve over brown rice of cauliflower mash as a low carb option.
Turkey Meatballs in Sauce
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 40 mins
- Total Time: 55 mins
- Yield: 4
- Category: Main
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
Creamy and saucy turkey meatballs in roasted pepper sauce. Made with no cream, instead this sauce is made with cashews, which adds the richness and the creaminess to the sauce.
Ingredients
- 12 oz. jar roasted red peppers, drained
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1 Tbsp. dried basil
- 4 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
- ¼ cup cashews, unsalted
- ½ cup water
- 1 (8 oz.) small zucchini, small diced
- 1 (8 oz.) small yellow squash, small diced
- 1 cup chopped red onion
- 16 oz. pre-made turkey meatballs (see note)
- fresh chopped parsley, to garnish
- crumbled feta cheese, optional
- salt and black pepper
- to serve: brown rice, cauliflower mash
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a high-power blender, combine roasted peppers, garlic, basil, 2 Tablespoons of olive oil, cashews, and water. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Blend the mixture on high until well blended and smooth. Set aside.
- Combine the zucchini, yellow squash, and onions in a 9 X 9 casserole dish (or similar size). Season the vegetables with salt and pepper, and toss to combine. Set aside.
- In a non-stick skillet, heat the remaining 2 Tablespoons of olive oil over medium-hight heat. Once the oil is hot, add the meatballs to the skillet and quickly sear on all sides, about 3-4 minutes total. Transfer the meatballs to the casserole dish and pour the red pepper sauce over the meatballs and the vegetables.
- Bake 25-35 or until the meatballs are fully cooked and the vegetables are tender. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley and feta, if desired. Serve over cooked brown rice or cauliflower mash for low carb option.
Notes
- Meatballs: This recipe can be made with frozen meatballs. Skip the step of searing the meatballs and simply add them to a casserole dish, add sauce, and bake.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 583
- Sugar: 4.5 g
- Sodium: 813.1 mg
- Fat: 44.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 17.1 g
- Protein: 33.8 g
- Cholesterol: 103.5 mg
Hi! I'm Katya -- a former corporate paralegal turned full-time recipe developer and blogger behind Little Broken. Here you'll find family-friendly and seasonal recipes made from real ingredients.
We made this tonight and HOLY MOLY! The veggies were perfectly tender and I loved knowing how clean the ingredients were for the sauce. This is going in our weekly roatation for sure!
I’m giving it a 5 even the sauce was very watery. I tried to mitigate this by adding 2 TBS flour mixed with 2 TBS cold water to the sauce prior to baking. It didn’t work I think because of the water the zucchini let’s go while cooking. Regardless, I spooned the sauce over the meatballs and rice and it was delicious! Everyone loved it!
If I am allergic to cashews is there an alternative to making this a creamy sauce? How much cream cheese would be used?
I haven’t tried it with any other nuts so I can’t answer with certainty.
I just made this for the first time tonight, and it was excellent! Very flavorful. My husband loved it too. I used already cooked turkey meatballs because I couldn’t find the ones you recommended. I didn’t do anything to them other than put them on top of the veggies in the pan and then covered them both with the sauce, and they were excellent! I will be making this for years to come! 🙂
Wondering what is making the fat content so high on this recipe?? 44.5 grams of fat for one serving is a lot. Or is that for the entire 4 servings?
I suggest calculating your own nutrition info as this nutrition info is only an estimate since I’m not a nutritionist. Thanks.
This was absolutely delicious. My partner went back for thirds!
That’s awesome! Thank you.
Can you do your own roasted red peppers instead of a jar?
You definitely can!
Can you make ahead of time and freeze?
It should freeze okay. The veggies might be a little soggy though.
This looks incredible! Yum!
Thank you!