Turkey Meatballs in Creamy Dairy-Free Sauce
This flavorful recipe for turkey meatballs in a creamy dairy-free sauce makes a nutritious and healthy dinner option. When you’re craving comfort food classics these saucy turkey meatballs offer a delicious and healthy alternative to traditional meatball recipes.
Healthy turkey meatballs are made with lean ground turkey meat and seasoned with onions, garlic, and a hint of lemon zest. But what makes them truly irresistible is the flavorful sauce they are smothered in. This sauce is so creamy, yet it is made without heavy cream! Low-calorie almond milk and a robust combination of flavors including sun-dried tomatoes and basil make a delicious sauce your family will love!
Ingredients:
- Ground Turkey: ground turkey is so lean and a very healthy alternative to ground beef. It can be substituted in most recipes that call for ground beef like my Italian Ground Turkey Soup or Turkey Cabbage Roll Casserole.
- Onion and garlic: a classic seasoning for meatballs.
- Panko breadcrumbs: these crunchy breadcrumbs help the meatballs hold together.
- Almond milk: unsweetened almond milk.
- Lemon Zest: the fresh lemon zest perks up the flavor of the ground turkey.
- Sun-dried tomatoes: sun-dried tomatoes have a slightly sweet, tart, and tangy flavor making them a perfect complement to creamy sauces. You can use sun-dried tomatoes in oil or dry packaged.
- Basil: either 2 tablespoons of fresh basil or 1 teaspoon of dried basil.
- Parsley: parsley is one herb that tastes so much better fresh, but in a pinch dry parsley will work. Substitute 1 tablespoon dried for 1/4 cup fresh.
- Chicken broth: keep it healthy, by using less sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth.
Serving Suggestions:
Turkey Meatballs in creamy dairy-free sauce taste great served over a bed of fluffy rice or pasta for a hearty and satisfying meal. Or, for a lighter option, try pairing them with a crisp green salad or steamed vegetables.
Yes, but you will miss out on the flavor those little brown bits add from pan searing. For oven-baking use a parchment-lined baking pan to prevent the lean meatballs from sticking. Bake at 350º F for 15 minutes or until the meatballs reach an internal temperature of 165º F.
This recipe uses a mixture of Panko breadcrumbs and almond milk to hold the meatballs together.
Tip for preparing the ground turkey meatballs.
Ground turkey tends to be a bit sticky so when mixing the meatball ingredients use your fingers to combine the mixture. Lightly oiled hands will also help prevent sticking. A cookie scoop works great for making even-sized meatballs.
more recipes that use lean ground turkey
Easy ground turkey recipes that are simple and delicious!
This post was originally published March 28, 2016. Occasionally I update with fresh tips, content and photos. Current update February 18, 2024.
Turkey Meatballs in Creamy Dairy-Free Sauce
Ingredients
For the meatballs
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1/3 cup Panko bread crumbs
- 2 tbsp unsweetened almond milk
- 1/2 cup onion finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon garlic finely minced
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest grated
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped (not use stems)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil
For the sauce
- 1 cup chicken broth less sodium
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1/3 cup sun dried tomatoes chopped
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 tbsp flour
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º F.
- In a small bowl combine the Panko breadcrumbs and 2 tablespoons of almond milk.
- Using a large skillet heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
- Sauté the onions until soft, about 3 minutes, add the garlic and sauté for an additional minute. Be sure not to burn the garlic. Burnt garlic will taste awful and bitter.
- In a large bowl combine the softened breadcrumbs, sautéed onions, garlic, parsley, lemon zest, salt and pepper.
- Add the ground turkey and toss together. Use your hand and don't over-mix.
- Roll into meatballs slightly smaller than a golf ball. This recipe should make about 16 meatballs.
- In the same skillet you used to sauté the onions and garlic, heat a bit more olive oil if necessary.
- Add the meatballs and cook on all sides until done. About 15 minutes or until meatballs reach an internal temperature of 165º F. Use a spatula to turn the meatballs carefully so they don’t break apart.
- optional: use the skillet to sear the meatballs on all sides, then transfer to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet to finish cooking. Bake 350º F until done (165º F), about 13 minutes).
- Remove the meatballs from the skillet and set aside. (keep warm)
- Add 1 cup of chicken broth to the skillet and heat until boiling. Make sure to scrape all those flavorful bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Reduce to medium heat and whisk in 1 cup almond milk.
- Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes and dried basil.
- Season with salt and pepper
- To thicken the sauce: In a small bowl combine 1 tablespoon flour and 1/4 cup of chicken broth until smooth. Gradually add the flour slurry to the simmering sauce, whisking continually until the cream sauce thickens.
- Add the cooked meatballs to the sauce.
- Simmer the turkey meatballs and sauce on low heat for an additional 10 minutes. Stir occasionally to fully coat the meatballs with sauce.
- Serve with a side dish such as noodles, rice, or potatoes.
Nutrition
What a great way to use Almond Breeze–love this!
Thanks Kristen, it really is a great dairy free replacement for a lot of recipes.
That sauce sounds amazing! Love that it’s dairy free! 🙂
The sauce is really tasty and the meatballs are sooo good. You won’t believe how the hint of lemon add such a dept of flavour to the meatballs.
fantastic diary free recipe
Thank you Nicole 🙂
Ingredients call for almonds not almond milk I would need to use cashew milk as I am allergic to almonds. Looks yummy
I made mine gluten free
Made my own bread crumbs from udi,s bread and used corn starch to thicken
Very good thanks
Great way adapting the recipe to gluten free.