Turkey Meatballs in Cilantro-Lemon Sauce

I love to cook with lemon. Especially in the summer, it’s refreshing and light. This cilantro-lemon sauce is super easy to put together.

I make it for my turkey meatballs and also for my chard or spinach patties.

This meatball dish is very easy to make. You can also make it with ground chicken if you’d like.

Start with 2lb of ground turkey or chicken…

In a separate bowl, place 5 slices of bread (I used whole wheat but you can go with white or a combination of both). Add some water and let the bread soak for a few minutes. I always use bread in my meatballs instead of bread crumbs. The wet bread makes the meatballs very soft.

Squeeze the bread of the access water and add it to the ground turkey. Also add 2 eggs, salt, and pepper.

Dig in with your hands and mix it all well. Make sure there are no big chunks of bread left. Then leave the mixture aside.

For the sauce, we need 2.5 cups of chicken broth, two lemons halved, one bunch of cilantro, washed and chopped, and eight garlic cloves minced.

Start with enough olive oil to just cover the bottom of a wide pan…

When the oil is hot, lower the heat to medium-high and add the garlic cloves to the pan. Cook this, stirring frequently, for just a couple of minutes until the garlic is fragrant.

Then add the broth, cilantro, the juice of the lemons, and a bit of pepper. I didn’t add any more salt because the broth is pretty salty. Let this come to a boil…

Then make medium size meatballs and place them gently in the sauce

Cover the pot, lower the heat to medium, and cook for 20-25 minutes.

That is all there is to it.

It’s a simple and refreshing dish. You can serve it over rice or quinoa… But this last time that I made it I served it over bulgur with a side of simple green beans. You can learn how to make bulgur here.

Turkey Meatballs in Cilantro-Lemon Sauce Recipe:

Ingredients:

For the Meatballs:

2lb ground turkey

5 slices of bread soaked in water

2 eggs

Salt and pepper

For the Sauce:

Enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a wide pan

8 cloves of garlic, minced

Juice from 2 lemons

1 bunch of cilantro, washed and chopped

2.5 cups chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions:

1. Mix well all the ingredients of the meatballs. Set aside.
2. Heat olive oil in a wide pan.
3. Add garlic and cook for two minutes on medium-high heat.
4. Add broth, cilantro, lemon juice, and pepper. Stir and bring to boil.
5. Make medium size meatballs and place them in the sauce.
6. Cover the pan and cook on medium heat for 25 minutes.
7. Serve over rice, quinoa, or bulgur.

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