Tips for making turkey meatballs moist, italian style

I'm doing Italian style and will simmer them in some marinara sauce I've got going on the stove now. I can't use eggs as binder either because of someone with allergy. I have Ener-G egg substitute, lethicin (I don't know that this acts as binder, though), ground flax, yogurt. Shall I soak bread in mild? Shall I use grated apple (I heard this was goo for turkey burgers), or minced bell pepper and onion saute a little or not? Need to do this soon.

nutcakes
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3 Comments

luvcookbooks
luvcookbooks January 7, 2015
Hi nutcakes, I found a thread but can't copy and paste from my phone. Some suggestions: grated zucchini sounds delectable but out of season, fresh bread crumbs soaked in milk and wrung out, ground flax seed to add heart healthy fat, cooked rice and grated pecorino cheese. I would go with a sticky rice, like a short grain Japanese or risotto. I also found a recipe for chicken meatballs w tomato balsamic glaze on the site, it uses eggs but you could sub.
Bon appetit has an amazing recipe for eggplant and porcini meatballs, could take a look for ideas. Porcini would add a nice flavor to the turkey. Let us know what you decide to do!
 
nutcakes
nutcakes January 8, 2015
Thanks to you both. They turned out great. I used I lb lean ground turkey and added: pulverized 1/2 onion and 2 cloves garlic, one large slice stale sourdough bread broken finely in a blender and soaked in milk, salt, pepper and a little pizza sauce seasoning I had on hand, parmesan cheese and a spoonful of plain yogurt. For binding I used a Tbsp flax seed with 2 Tbsp warm water and let it stand until thickened. I tossed lightly and used a small scoop to make scant 1/4 c. balls that I placed on parchment paper and baked until brown. I did that so I wouldn't have to worry about them falling apart when being browned in a pan. Then I put them in the sauce. The one mistake I made was not to squeeze out the excess milk from the bread crumbs. Some liquid seeped out of the balls and burnt on the bottom on the pan. Also I should have put them in a hotter oven so it would brown and finish cooking in the pot. Instead they were really all the way done. But very tender and held together. I will do this again.
 
em-i-lis
em-i-lis January 7, 2015
Hi Nutcakes, Soaking bread in milk always works well, in my opinion. Just be sure to keep the bread chunks on the small side and wring them out well before incorporating into your meat mixture. Greek-style yogurt is also a nice binding agent, and in my turkey meatballs, I often use food-processed chickpeas.
 
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