Turkey Meatballs in Curry Sauce is a flavorful dish your whole family will love. Serve it with rice and a simple salad, and you've got a healthy meal!
My family loves meatballs, and I fully support that choice in menu items. Let's face it - meatballs are affordable, delicious, and fun to eat! And there are just so many ways you can experiment with different types of meatballs!
Meatballs don't just have to be made with ground beef and tomato sauce. You can make them with other types of meats (turkey, chicken, pork, and lamb are all possible options), or you could even try making them meatless.
And the options for what types of sauces you can serve them with are basically endless, but today I'm making Turkey Meatballs in Curry Sauce. This recipe is inspired by a Danish dish called Boller i Karry, which is traditionally made with pork meatballs.
When I first saw a version of the recipe, I knew immediately that I wanted to try making something similar for my family with turkey instead, only I wasn't sure how my kids would like it. But, I shouldn't have worried as the whole family loved them!
This recipe may sound a little odd, and that's what drew me to it in the first place. It mixes meatballs (in this case, turkey meatballs), a creamy curry sauce, diced apple, and dill. However, I'd had apple and curry together in mulligatawny and loved it, and curry and dill together in dill pickle soup, and loved that too. It turns out that this recipe works just as well!
How to make Turkey Meatballs in Curry Sauce:
Making these delicious and flavor-filled meatballs involves two steps: making the meatballs, and making the sauce. I guess, technically, there are 3 steps because you'll need to cook some rice (or quinoa, noodles, or other grain) to serve on the side.
Making the meatballs involves mixing all of the meatball ingredients together in a large bowl. I prefer to do this with my hands, but you could also use a large spoon if touching raw meat makes you squeamish.
Tip 💡
Make a double batch of the meatball part of this recipe and freeze half of them (either raw or after they're boiled - step 3 of the recipe) so that you have a quick and easy meal on your hands the next time you decide to serve this dish.
Once the meatball ingredients are evenly mixed, start forming them into balls. I like to make them on the smaller side, about 1-1 ½ inches. Place the meatballs on a large plate or in a container.
Once all of the meatballs are formed, you can start heating the broth to cook the meatballs. I use the same pan I cook the sauce in - a large saute pan. A Dutch oven would work well too. Add the meatballs to the simmering broth and cook for about 10 minutes.
Scoop the meatballs out of the broth with a slotted spoon or strainer and place them on another plate or in a bowl. Pour the broth into a bowl or measuring cup (you will be adding it to the sauce later).
While you're waiting for the meatballs to cook, you can start preparing the sauce. The first step is to get the leek ready. Thinly slice the leek, using only the white and light green parts.
Put the sliced leeks into your salad spinner and cover completely with cold water. Swish the leeks in the water gently. If the water is quite dirty, drain the water and repeat with clean water. Discard the water again, and spin the leeks to dry. If you don't have a salad spinner, wash the leeks in a large bowl, then drain the water and spread the leeks on a clean towel to dry.
Transfer the sliced leeks to a cutting board and mince (I do this in several batches to prevent my cutting board from getting too overwhelmed by the leeks).
Cook the leeks until soft in some butter, then add flour and curry powder and cook until fragrant. Very slowly pour in the reserved broth, stirring well to prevent lumps. Once all of the broth has been added, add the meatballs and simmer. Stir in the whipping cream and cook until warm, then stir in the diced apples and dill.
Serve with cooked rice (or brown rice, quinoa, noodles, or other grains) and garnish with additional dill if desired.
Turkey Meatballs in Curry Sauce Ingredients:
- Ground turkey - feel free to replace turkey with ground chicken or pork
- Small onion
- Garlic
- Breadcrumbs or panko - use gluten-free breadcrumbs to make these meatballs gluten-free
- Large egg
- Kosher salt - this is a great recipe to use MSG-salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Ground allspice - tip: for maximum flavor, buy and store your allspice whole. Grind just what you need to use for a recipe only as you need it. This keeps the allspice fresher and more flavorful.
- Reduced-sodium chicken broth
- Large leek
- Butter
- All-purpose flour - substitute an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend to make this recipe gluten-free
- Curry powder
- Whipping cream
- Small tart-sweet apple (Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Kanzi, Jazz, etc.)
- Minced fresh dill
- Cooked rice - or serve with quinoa, noodles, or another cooked grain.
Turkey Meatballs in Curry Sauce Substitutions:
Instead of the ground turkey, feel free to make your meatballs with ground pork (this is the traditional ingredient for this recipe), ground chicken, or ground beef. You could also use a combination of any of these.
If you don't have any reduced-sodium chicken broth, replace it with reduced-sodium vegetable broth. You can also use regular (not reduced-sodium) versions of either of these, but the sodium content of your finished recipe will be higher.
If you need to reduce fat or saturated fat in your diet, feel free to replace the whipping cream with half-and-half cream or even evaporated milk. The finished recipe will be slightly less creamy.
Want more recipes with curry?
Turkey Meatballs in Curry Sauce Nutrition Notes:
The nutrition information in the recipe below uses ground turkey for the meatballs, and white rice to serve. If you use ground pork for the meatballs instead of turkey, the fat and calories in your meatballs will be slightly higher. If you serve your meatballs with a different grain or noodles, your nutrition information may vary slightly.
To make this recipe gluten-free, replace the breadcrumbs or panko in the meatballs with gluten-free breadcrumbs or panko and replace the all-purpose flour in the sauce with a gluten-free flour blend.
Turkey Meatballs in Curry Sauce
Equipment
- Box Grater optional, for grating the onion
- Saute Pan or Dutch oven
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 ½ pounds ground turkey
- 1 small onion grated or minced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup breadcrumbs or panko (use gluten-free breadcrumbs or panko to make this recipe gluten-free)
- 1 large egg lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt or use MSG-salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- 3 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
Curry Sauce
- 1 large leek
- 2 Tablespoons butter you can use either salted or unsalted butter here
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt or use MSG-salt
- 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour substitute an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend to make this recipe gluten-free
- 1 Tablespoon curry powder
- ½ cup whipping cream
- 1 small tart-sweet apple (Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Kanzi, Jazz, etc.) peeled, cored, and chopped fine
- 2 Tablespoons minced fresh dill
- 4 cups cooked rice to serve
Instructions
Meatballs
- Add 1 ½ pounds (680 g) ground turkey, minced onion, minced garlic, 1 cup breadcrumbs or panko, 1 large egg, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, and ½ teaspoon ground allspice to a large bowl. Mix together with a wooden spoon or your hands until evenly mixed. Form the mixture into 1 - 1 ½ inch meatballs.
- Bring 3 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth to a boil over medium-high to high heat in a saute pan or Dutch oven. Add the meatballs to the broth and reduce the temperature to medium. Simmer the meatballs in the broth until they are cooked through, 8-10 minutes.
- Transfer the meatballs from the broth to a large, clean plate using a slotted spoon. Pour the broth into a large measuring cup and set aside. Wipe the pan clean or allow it to dry.
Curry Sauce
- Cut off the bottom of the leek, and thinly slice it from the bottom. Use only the white and light green parts of the leek, discard any tough, dark green outer leaves, as well as the dark green tops. Place the sliced leeks in a salad spinner and immerse in cold water. Swish the leeks around to remove any dirt between the layers of leeks. If the leeks were particularly dirty, change the water once. Discard the water and spin the leeks until dry.
- Melt 2 Tablespoons butter in the saute pan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the sliced leeks and ½ teaspoon kosher salt and cook until soft, about 6 minutes. Sprinkle 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour and 1 Tablespoon curry powder over the leeks, and stir. Cook the flour until it starts to turn brown, and the curry powder is fragrant about 2 minutes.
- Very gradually add the reserved chicken broth, stirring while you add it to prevent any lumps. Once all of the broth has been added, add the meatballs and simmer, uncovered for about 8 minutes until the sauce has thickened.
- Stir in ½ cup whipping cream, and cook for about 2-3 more minutes. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the chopped apple and 2 Tablespoons minced fresh dill. Serve over cooked rice, and garnish with more dill if desired.
Nutrition
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