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These Gluten Free Turkey Meatballs with Spinach make a great weeknight dinner or meal prep option. They’re flavored with Italian seasoning and have a touch of spinach added. Serve with your favorite marinara sauce and gluten free pasta or spaghetti squash.
Easy Paleo Turkey Meatballs
These Gluten Free Turkey Meatballs with Spinach are a recipe that we’ve been loving for years. These meatballs are seriously amazing, especially for meal prep!
Make a double or triple batch of these Italian flavored meatballs, then use some right away and save some for later. Meatballs are great to keep in the freezer because they’re quick and easy to pull out at a moment’s notice and reheat in your favorite store-bought or homemade marinara sauce.
This gluten free meatballs recipe is seriously so simple and makes the best turkey meatballs ever!
Ingredients Needed:
This gluten free meatballs recipe is made with a super simple list of ingredients! Here’s what you’ll need:
- Turkey: you’ll need 1 pound of light or dark ground turkey for this recipe.
- Frozen Spinach: you’ll need to defrost and drain the frozen spinach before adding it to the meatball mixture. Make sure you squeeze out as much excess water as possible so they’re not watery.
- Onion: finely minced or grated onion adds delicious flavor to the meatball mix.
- Egg: eggs are the key to gluten free meatballs that hold their shape.
- Seasonings: we’re seasoning with a mix of onion powder, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and dried basil.
How to Make Gluten Free Meatballs
This turkey meatball recipe is ready in just 25 minutes!
- Mix the ingredients: In a large bowl, mix together all of the meatball ingredients until combined.
- Form the meatballs: Measure out ¼ cup of meat and roll that into a meatball. Place onto a baking sheet, then repeat with the remaining meat mixture.
- Bake and serve: Bake at 400ºF for 15-18 minutes, then serve as desired.
Do You Put Egg in Turkey Meatballs?
Definitely! Classic meatballs are held together usually with both eggs and moist breadcrumbs. Since we’re not using breadcrumbs in this turkey meatball recipe, the eggs are key so that the meatballs don’t fall apart.
How Do You Make Turkey Meatballs Not Fall Apart?
We already know egg is what binds the meatballs together. Make sure that the meatball mixture is fully combined so the egg is well incorporated throughout.
Another thing you can do to make sure meatballs don’t fall apart is wet your hands when you roll them up. The extra moisture makes the mix stickier.
Tips and Notes for Baked Turkey Meatballs
- Don’t overwork the meat. Over-mixed meat can become dry and tough. Mix so that everything is incorporated, but no more.
- If the meat mix is hard to work with, stick it in the fridge for 10 minutes. This firms it up a bit so it doesn’t stick to your hands as you work.
- Check for doneness. Use a meat thermometer to check that the meatballs are done. The internal temperature should be 165ºF.
- Make them crispier. To brown your meatballs more, broil them for 2-3 minutes after baking.
- Swap the meat. Ground chicken works great in this recipe too!
Serving Suggestions
These meatballs, of course, are perfect with your favorite store-bought or homemade marinara sauce. I love to serve them over a pile of gluten free pasta or spaghetti squash.
The spaghetti and meatballs meal is perfect on its own, but feel free to serve it up with any of your favorite side dishes.
Serve with:
- Air fryer broccoli
- Air fryer asparagus with lemon and parmesan
- Gluten free garlic bread
- Oven roasted vegetables
How to Store
These meatballs can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. They can also be frozen for up to 2 months.
Freezer Directions
To freeze the meatballs, let them cool completely at room temperature, then transfer them to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Let the meatballs freeze for at least 1 hour, then transfer them to a long term storage container. When you’re ready to serve, defrost in the fridge overnight, then warm up in your favorite pasta sauce over low heat.
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Gluten Free Turkey Meatballs with Spinach
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground turkey light or dark meat
- 1 cup frozen spinach defrosted, drained, squeezed to remove excess water
- 1/2 small onion finely minced or grated
- 1 egg
- 1-1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ºF and lightly oil a baking sheet.
- Add all ingredients to a large bowl and mix together until fully combined.
- Scoop out about 1/4 cup of meat using a scooper or your hands, and roll into meatballs and place on the baking sheet. If the mixture is tricky to work with you can refrigerate it for about 10 minutes and use lightly wet hands to form the meat into balls.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15-18 minutes, or until the turkey registers an internal temperature of 165ºF. If desired, you can broil on high for about 2-3 minutes to give the meatballs a browned exterior.
- Serve with your favorite marinara sauce and serve with spaghetti squash, pasta or choice of side.
Notes
- Ground chicken can be substituted for ground turkey.
- To freeze meatballs, let fully cool and then transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Let freeze for at least 1 hour, and then transfer to a long term storage bag or container. Store for up to 2 months. Defrost in the refrigerator overnight, or warm up in your favorite pasta sauce over low heat.
- This recipe was originally published in 2013, and updated with new photographs in 2020.
Delicious! I used fresh, chopped, packed one cup of baby spinach. I would appreciate having the nutrition info with the recipe.
I just made these and they are delicious!
Super easy recipe with easy pantry ingredients. My husband loved these so I see this recipe being a staple for our family.
Made these with grass fed beef and our 2.5 yr old loved them she even ate two for breakfast!
How cool! healthy meatballs and with veggies. Brilliant, will surely give this recipe a go this weekend!
These were so delicious! No additions necessary 🤌🏽 The only thing I did different was put them in the air fryer and they perfectly browned. Will definitely be making again and again ♥️
These turned out great! I made the meatballs larger than I should’ve, so cooked them for longer and also opted to broil at the end. But they were so flavorful and delicious! Huge hit with the family!
Great meatballs! Full of flavour and not dry. This will be a weekly meal. I used zucchini instead of spinach because I have a picky eater, he doesn’t eat veggies so I was able to sneak it in.
These are amazing – easy and delicious. Question: to freeze, I assume you cook first? Thanks
Actually either one will work! But it’s probably easier to freeze after cooking. You can defrost overnight or you can warm up in tomato sauce on stove top or even in a slow cooker. If you did want to freeze them before cooking, it’s easiest to cook from frozen in tomato sauce.
Do you post the nutrition content for your recipes anywhere? I am trying to use MyFitnessPal and I wanted to know how many servings this recipe makes.
It serves 4. Working on adding them 🙂
Thx for a great recipe! Had a 3lb Jennie-O ground turkey. Tripled the recipe with a few changes so I could use the fresh ingredients I had. One whole small red onion, four garlic cloves smashed in a baggie, 5 unpacked cups of fresh spinach chopped really well and only 2 extra large brown eggs. The recipe yielded 2 baking trays of 15-20 meatballs. 350 oven for total of 40 mins. The meat will drain the liquid from the spinach so when I flipped the meat after 20 mins I also drained the spinach liquid. As one reviewer mentioned, even before they went into the oven, my family smelled them and couldn’t wait to eat. Thanks again!
Quick questions, the ingredients list says “1 cup handful of frozen spinach”
What exactly is that measurement? Thanks1
Do you think I could sub frozen chopped kale for the spinach? Do you think I would have to do anything different? Thanks!
Yes.
I loved them, hubby loved them. Is going on my regular meals list.
I love these meatballs! I’ve made them several times now, no modifications required. I often double the batch and put some in the freezer. I recommend that you include a suggested amount for the salt instead of “to taste.” Nobody’s going to taste a raw meatball 🙂
can I use fresh spinach? Chopped? Any suggestions on how much?
Made these tonight. First, when I was just mixing the ingredients, it smelled AMAZING. Then while the meatballs were cooking, other people in the house were commenting on how great it smelled. Finally, they tasted JUST as good as they smelled! Great, easy recipe! I will definitely be adding to my favorite week night dinner collection.
I haven’t make turkey balls in so long! It’s about time I MAKE THEM AGAIN! 🙂
Tried the recipe tonight. I cut the onions down to 1/2 of an onion and still too much. I would suggest 1/4 of an onion and sauté them first. Outside of the onions the overall flavor was good.