A new take on turkey meatballs — apples and cranberries

Turkey meatballs have become a major part of my redone Italian recipe file when cooking at home. I also make them for parties, serving them in my low-salt, low-fat homemade Italian tomato sauce (we call it gravy in my family).

So I was excited to see this take on turkey meatballs that includes apples in the meat mixture and a cranberry sauce. The recipe appeared in a recent LoseIt newsletter where LoseIt linked to another site that had the recipe and lots of photos. Here’s the ingredient list:

For the Meatballs:

• 1 pound 93% lean ground turkey
• 1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup shredded tart apple, such as Granny Smith, washed with peel on
• 1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped sage
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• Chopped fresh parsley, optional for garnish

For the Cranberry Sauce:

• 1 cup whole berry cranberry sauce
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• Zest of 1 orange
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed orange juice

I will omit the salt and substitute panko breadcrumbs for regular because they are lower in salt. I’m also using an egg white rather than a whole egg. I also took out the product brand names in the original recipe.

I will likely try these for a holiday party very soon.

John