Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Sauce – Nigella

I won Nigella Kitchen when it first came out and I was really excited about this particular prize.  Nigella inspires me and this book inspires me even more.  She has many helpful hints throughout the book and I find myself learning new techniques and better methods.  The recipes appeal to me and I see how I go back to many of them, over and over again.

I have a list of recipes, from Nigella Kitchen that I want to make and hopefully, I will be sharing them with you.  Right now, I am going to share her meatball recipe which I made, recently.

Fortunately, I found the recipe online so I am including it here. 

Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

For the sauce:

• 1 onion, peeled
• 1 celery stalk
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 x 14 ounce cans diced tomatoes 
• 3 1/3 cups (2 full cans) water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt 
• Pepper, to taste

For the meatballs:

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons potato chip crumbs
• 2 tablespoons of finely chopped onion and celery (from the tomato sauce ingredients above)
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

Directions

Put the peeled onion and celery into a processor and blitz to a mush. Or you can chop as finely as humanly possible by hand. Reserve 2 tablespoons for the meatball mixture.  (I chopped but I had to leave Nigella’s wording here.  Who says “blitz to a mush”?  Is that an English expression?  I love it.”

Warm the

 oil in a heavy saucepan or Dutch oven, add the onion and celery mixture, along with the thyme, and cook at moderate to low heat, stirring every now and again, for about 10 minutes.

Add the cans of tomato, filling up each empty can with water to add to the pan. Season with the sugar, salt and pepper, stir and then leave to come to a bubble, and then turn down to let it simmer gently while you get on with the meatballs.

Put all the ingredients for the meatballs, including the reserved chopped onion and celery, and salt according to preference, into a large bowl and mix together, gently, with your hands, wearing disposable vinyl gloves if you feel so inclined. Don’t over-mix, as that will make the meatballs dense-textured and heavy.

When all the meatball ingredients are not too officiously amalgamated, start rolling. The easiest way really to do this is to pinch out an amount about the size of a generously heaped teaspoon and roll into a bowl between the palms of your hands. Put the meatballs on a baking tray, lined with baking parchment or greaseproof paper, as you go. You should get about 50 little meatballs.

Drop these gently into the simmering sauce; I try to let these fall in concentric circles working around the pan from the outside edge inwards, in only the vaguest of fashions.

Let the meatballs cook for 30 minutes, until cooked through. Serve with rice or pasta or however you so please.

The above is almost word to word from her recipe.  I made minor changes but I wanted the wording to stay intact.  She is delightful and I love reading her recipes and the way she words her sentences. 

This is linked to Cookbook Sundays

Sweet Potato & Turkey Combo

I still have a lot of food, left over from Passover and we are attempting to eat it before, it is no longer safe to do so.  It makes for an interesting dinner, a little bit of this and a lot of that.  When we eat leftovers, I usually make something new, to give new meaning to the meal.  Leftovers may be delicious but they are still reheated food.

With a few slices of corned beef, mashed potatoes and zucchini, I made a combo dish of Sweet Potatoes and Turkey with Shallots and Onions.  I should have added some sliced apple or maybe cranberries.  It needed a little sweetness and I prefer to go the natural way, so a fruit hopefully will fill the recipe need.

I haven’t been using my cast iron pans, recently which is a big mistake.  They cook evenly and can go from stove to oven.  Their only drawback is that the larger ones are heavy.

Sweet Potato & Turkey Combo

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 shallots, minced
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 1 cup cooked turkey chunks
• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 1/2 cup organic low-sodium vegetable broth
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried sage
•  ground black pepper, to taste

                                                                                                                                                            DIRECTIONS

In a large cast iron pan or a skillet, add one tablespoon of olive oil. Cook onions and shallots until translucent.  Remove from pan.

Microwave the sweet potato for 4 minutes or whatever your microwave needs to bake the potato.  Of course, you can do this in the oven.  In the skillet cook the chunks to lightly brown. Add to onion mixture.

Add the sweet potato,  vegetable broth, thyme, black pepper,  sage to onion mixture and return to pan.  Cook for a few minutes until heated.

   Mangia Monday   Scrumptious Sunday

   Menu Monday    Frugal Food Thursday

Passover Turkey Meatballs in Carrot Sauce

I copied this recipe from My Sweet and Savory.  I am fascinated by such a thing as carrot sauce and know I want to make it.  I wish, I had seen this before I made sweet and sour meatballs.

Cooking is marathon like, at this time of year.  I find myself, making up to 4 food dishes, at one time.  Brownies in the oven, soup on the stove, Mashed Potatoes being added to chopped beef for a Shepherd’s Pie and boiling eggs for the seder table.  As one dish is done, another starts so the kitchen is continually being utilized  It would make a good video, considering the mistakes I make and the challenges that pop up.

As an example, there was no hot water, when I first turned the faucet.  I have dirty dishes constantly that have to be handwashed and often are used, again.  I didn’t even ask myself, “what am I going to do?”   What about at least one shower before the holiday?”  Nope, I barely thought of that although it did cross my mind.  Instead, I plowed on, using cold water until my husband called.  He offered to come home from work early, considering how much had to be done, before Passover, but I was just fine and didn’t even consider his offer.

Why was I so calm?  It seems that every year , something happens before Passover and every year, we make it through.  My father died the week before and as you may or may not know, Jews sit at home for a week, never leaving the house for a week and people come to pay their condolences.  The week was over and Passover was staring me in the face.  Another year, we were blessed to have my daughter get married before the holiday.  If you have ever made a wedding, you know that it is a full time job and I already had one of those besides having a family to take care of and preparation for Passover.  We made it.

My stove broke a few days before and there is no way to cook festive meals without a stove and oven, at least for me.  I called a store to beg them to get me a stove, “yesterday” and the man, I spoke to, was a doll.  First, he was going to have it delivered, the following week—-no help there.  When I explained, he made some calls and was going to get it to me, in two days which would work with a lot of dedication on my family’s part.

Along came the delivery date and, in the morning, I got a call telling me that the company was out of stock, on the stove.  Panic was the name of the game.  This man came through again and got me a better stove for the same price and delivered it, as scheduled.  There are wonderful people in this world.

It seems that, at this time of the year, something happens and I have grown up some and accept that and go with it. So, this morning, when my hot water disappeared, I quietly continued.  My hot water also came back, not too much later.  We do not know the problem and expect to see another cold water phase but, we will deal with it. 

Turkey Meatballs in Carrot Sauce

Ingredients:

1 pound chopped turkey
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, shredded
1 egg
2/4 cup potato starch.
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 -2 cups carrot soup found here
3 tablespoons prepared matbucha

Method:

Mix turkey, onion, egg, carrot and potato starch thoroughly. Form into balls about an inch in size.  If you like them bigger, double the size and increase cooking time.

In large, deep, fryin

Carrots (Photo credit: CLC Photography)

g pan, brown the meatballs in one tablespoon of olive oil.  Brown all sides.  When meatballs are browned, add carrot soup and matbucha.  Gently mix.  Cook for 20 minutes, gently mixing, every few minutes.

The liquid decreases as

it cooks so watch carefully.  Add more soup or water, if the pan is getting dry.

This freezes well.

Mom’s Turkey Loaf — Ellie Krieger

I am a huge Ellie Krieger fan.  Her recipes produce healthy meals, often easy to make, and almost always delicious.  My husband is a meat loaf fan and when he asked for one, I turned to Ellie and ended up with a meat loaf, my husband really liked.  I add some instant mashed potatoes for the filler but I stayed close to Ellie’s choices.  She is usually on target and she is one of the few chefs, I can follow with limited changes.

Turkey Meatloaf – adapted from Ellie Krieger

Ingredients

• 1/2  cup quick-cooking oats
• 1/2 cup instant mashed potatoes
• 1/2 cup vegetable broth
• 1 medium onion, chopped (first cut some slices for the top of loaf)
• 1 pound ground turkey breast
• 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/8 cup ketchup
• ground black pepper to taste
• 1 /2 cup tomato sauce or enough to cover turkey loaf.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl, stir together the oats, mashed potato and broth. Thinly slice 1/4 of the onion and set aside.

Finely chop the remaining onion. In a large bowl combine the turkey mixture, chopped onion, bell pepper, eggs, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, and  pepper. Mix just until well combined. 

Transfer the mixture to a loaf pan. Pour the tomato sauce over the meatloaf and sprinkle with the sliced onions. Bake for about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 to 15 minutes before slicing.

Newlywed Recipe Linky