Greek Turkey Meatballs – 11sp

I’ve wanted to experiment for turkey mince for quite a while but I was always put off with how flavourless turkey was. This week I decided that now was the time to give it a bit of a makeover and what better way to do that then to make some lovely meatballs! ‘Saganaki’ refers to a small frying pan that Greek dishes are often cooked in. In this case I used a large frying pan which can be put straight in the oven. If you don’t have a frying pan suitable for the oven just pop the meatballs and sauce into a baking dish before you add the cheese and then pop that in the oven. This is a lovely dish, really easy to make and is a little bit different to your usual meatball dish. I have to admit, after eating this, I may be a turkey convert! This recipe has been adapted from another recipe online. You can view the original recipe here.

Ingredients

Serves 4 = 11sp (previously 11pp) each

For the meatballs

450g extra lean turkey mince

2 spring onion, very finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Pinch of crushed chillies

1 tsp oregano

Finely grated zest of one lemon

For the sauce

2 red onion, thinly sliced

1 pepper, thinly sliced

1 clove of garlic, chopped

Pinch of caster sugar

Pinch of crushed chillies (and a dash of Tabasco if you like it spicy)

2 tsp oregano

400g box of passata

100g light feta cheese, finely crumbled

80g light mozzarella cheese

1 spring onion, sliced

200g pasta of your choice (I used tagliatelle)

Method

Pre heat your oven to 180c.

Into a large bowl add your spring onions, garlic, crushed chillies, oregano (1 tsp) lemon and turkey mince. Season well with salt and pepper and get your hands in there to give everything a good mix.

Once nicely combined, take tablespoon sized lumps and roll into some nice meatball shapes. Using this much mince gives you 16 meatballs.

Spray a large frying pan with low cal cooking spray and cook the meatballs for around 5 minutes until they start to nicely brown (if you have a small frying pan you might need to do this in two batches). Once all the meatballs are cooked, remove from the pan and pop to one side on a plate.

To the same frying pan add some more low cal spray and a drop of water and fry your onions and peppers until the onions are nice and soft. Then add your garlic and cook for a few more minutes. Then add your passata, pinch of sugar, pinch of crushed chillies, 2 tsp oregano and a good seasoning of salt and pepper, add the meatballs (and a small splash of water if you prefer yours saucy, we like it thick) and leave to simmer for 10 minutes.

At this point pop your kettle on and weigh out your pasta ready for cooking. If you are having linguine/tagliatelle like we did then pop this on to cook for 12 minutes.

Whilst the pasta is cooking, pop your feta on top of your meatballs, season with black pepper and then top with your mozzarella. Pop in the oven for 10 minutes (or until your pasta is ready and the cheese is nice and melty).

Serve the lovely meatballs on top of your pasta, add some salad leaves and dress with a slice of lemon for squeezing. The lemon really adds a nice flavour so try and include it if you can.

Enjoy!