There are days when I want to spend hours in the kitchen, recreating complicated, multi-step recipes. And then there are days, like this past Sunday, when I don’t want to cook but feel obligated to put food on the table. (After a delicious dinner at Pizzeria Delfina the night before, it was definitely an eat-in kind of evening.)
This recipe is perfect for those occasions. It takes about an hour to prepare from start to finish and cleanup is minimal (which I’m guessing is a major plus for most home cooks). You make the meatballs in one bowl and the salad in another. And if you bake (instead of fry and bake) the turkey meatballs, you only have a few dishes to wash. Serve with warm pita bread and hummus, and you have a filling, flavorful and nutritious meal that looks like it took hours to create.
Recipe adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.
- 1 pound ground turkey
- ⅔ cup fresh bread crumbs (see notes*)
- ¼ cup water
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 large egg
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- pinch of cayenne pepper
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
- 1 15 oz. can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- ½ cup pitted green olives, thinly sliced
- ½ teaspoon ground sumac
- chopped fresh parsley (see notes**)
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- pinch of cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- olive oil
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Combine all the meatball ingredients in a medium bowl and mix with your hands. Form into 1½" balls and arrange on a baking sheet lightly greased with olive oil or cooking spray.
- Bake meatballs for 20 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through. Turn the broiler on and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes until meatballs are browned. Serve with chickpea salad.
- Combine all the salad ingredients except the olive oil in a medium bowl. Very lightly smash the chickpeas with a potato masher or fork, leaving small bits. Drizzle with olive oil and stir to combine.
**I used fresh tarragon since that's what I had on hand.
I made these last night (from the cookbook). It is fantastic, especially that chickpea salad. Just wanted to add that you can sear + bake if you have a large oven safe skillet. Just transfer right into the oven when done searing. Then you also can make a bit of a pan sauce when it does cooking (the book doesn’t say to do that, but when you have a bf who loves sauce with his meat…).
You can’t go wrong with a Smitten Kitchen recipe! I bet your meatballs were perfectly browned and I love the idea of making a pan sauce. Now I’m motivated to recreate this meal!