Easy Turkey Ball Curry
Spiced with coriander and smoked paprika, these turkey balls are such a tasty treat. In this Easy Turkey Ball Curry, they are added to a gloriously spiced tomato curry sauce that is sure to tantalize your tastebuds.
Back in the day, before Brad Pitt gained and lost his swoon-worthiness, he played the part of “Paul”, an errant son in “A River Runs Through It“. This movie followed Paul and his brother as they fly-fished their way from boys to men, in the mountains of Missoula, Montana.
If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it – it was mesmerizing and haunting, heart breaking and thought provoking, it was filled with analogies that related back to this thing we call life.
There was one scene early on in this movie when a young Paul refused to eat his plate of oatmeal and sat there for hours! And when I say hours – I mean from breakfast to almost dinner time! When I first watched that scene, I couldn’t help chuckling!
Then, I had my daughter and guess what?! She would pull the exact same stunt every time I put a plate of veggies in front of her! Yup – now that scene was not so chuckle-inducing!
Back then, I would try to come up with games and little tricks to get her to eat at least a few veggies…and the distractions helped some. However, it wasn’t until I started employing my mom’s tactics that she started asking for seconds -of VEGGIES!
My mom’s tactic to get my sister and I to not only eat our veggies, but lick our plates clean was to put all vegetables into a curry. With coconut milk and onions and all sorts of spices – specially coriander and cumin – we hardly recognized the veggies we were devouring!
When I found out that this month’s Recipe Redux theme was “Spooky Spices“, I felt challenged to use coriander powder: a spice I have been a little conservative in using, in spite of my mom’s persuasions.
Coriander powder comes from the coriander seeds of the same plant that cilantro leaves come from. Yes, all parts of the coriander plant -even the roots- are used as flavor enhancers, but, each part has it’s own distinctive flavor.
While I did not add any veggies to this curry; diced carrots, peppers, and celery would be a wonderful taste and texture addition.
What I have done is add coriander powder to the turkey balls before they were baked, and to the curry, and topped it all off with cilantro. Tomato paste and coconut milk help marry all the spices and what you end up with is a curry with depth and flavor – that pairs well with rice or beet roti!
Ingredients
For the turkey balls:
- 3 tablespoons almond meal
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
For the curry
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 onions diced
- 2 inch piece of ginger finely chopped
- 6 pieces garlic chopped
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 cup coconut milk can use almond milk or regular milk too
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/4 teaspoon red chili powder
- salt and pepper
- handful of cilantro
Instructions
For the turkey balls:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Add the almond meal, turkey, egg, coriander, cayenne, smoked paprika, salt,
and pepper together into a bowl and mix well. - Form into balls and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.
- Remove from oven and set aside.
For the curry:
- Add diced onions and oil to a pan over medium heat and saute 10 minutes.
- Grate the ginger and add it along with the copped garlic to the onion and saute 5 minutes.
- Then add in the water, coconut milk, tomato paste, coriander, cumin, smoked paprika, cayenne, turmeric powder, red chili powder and mix well.
- Then ad in the baked turkey balls and cover and simmer 5 more minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste and garnish with cilantro and enjoy!
Nutrition
These look absolutely delicious, Shashi! So sweet that your mom’s veggie-eating tactics work for your own children. I bet she loves that…
I love coriander. . but then again, I love cilantro!! love that you used it here in this fabulous curry and love the turkey balls inside. . what a great idea! love and pinned!
this is an awesome dish…suddenly I am craving for a meat balls curry.Instead of making meat balls,I’ll try to buy some and want to cook like this….
Yum this one looks like such a delicious looking recipe 🙂 So warm and comforting, I just want to get a fork and dive on in.
I think I saw that Brad Pitt movie years ago but forgot he was even in it! He’s been in so many movies over the years.
Hope you are having a great weekend.
I could make a meal out of just the meatballs, but I sure wouldn’t refuse that curry. YUM!
Over here, we only have turkey once a year, during Christmas. The curry is so inviting and love its spiciness like crazy.
That’s a lip smacking bowl of curry with luscious gravy!!! Sneaking veggies is a tried and tested classic trick that our Moms used and we still continue using it… lol!!
A spicy turkey feast in a bowl to dive the fork in… Yum!!!!!!!
My mum would do the same thing when I was a kid and since then, curries have ALWAYS been a favorite of mine and can practically eat ANY vegetable that is cooked in it. I loveeeeee this recipe and that curry looks DIVINE!!!!!!!
It’s very true…I will eat anything when it’s smothered in a curry! I can pretty much SEE the flavor in this, that’s how vibrant it is. Mmm.
Yummmm I love curry! And it is a great way to sneak in vegetables. I can’t imagine why anyone would refuse to eat oatmeal, though. They obviously weren’t drowning theirs in brown sugar like I do!
Haha Yes, curry is def one of the bulletproof way to get people to eat veggies! Love all the warm spices in this dish..I wish I can just dig right in!
I agree with you… Brad Pitt has totally lost is swoon-worthiness. Now on the other hand… this meatball curry has me totally swooning. I could dive right in. I am not a fresh coriander fan… but I do love the seeds toasted and ground up for spicing up a curry. This looks amazing. 🙂
Ooh I don’t thin I’ve seen that Brad Pitt movie, let alone heard of it! Will have to try and get my hands on a copy asap! I’ve been on a curry kick over the past few months and as a result, my veggie intake ha gone through the roof…not a bad thing ;)! This looks fab- love that you incorporated turkey into this Shashi- such an underrated meat!
I love, love, love curry! In fact I eat it like once or twice a week (twice because I usually have leftovers and can turn it into another dinner 🙂 ) Of course, I have to order in because I’ve never attempted to make it myself.. but maybe I should give it a shot! This recipe looks so delicious!
I was so into Brand Pitt around the time when “A River Runs Through It“ was released! <3 I should watch that movie…haven't seen for long time! Hmm these turkey balls look so yummy with curry. I LOVE curry!