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
Shashi, I love turkey and I love curry. What a wonderful combination. I want it in my house! It’s gluten free which is my definition of happiness lately! I’ve been so busy lately optimizing my ads on my site and getting into new networks, I completely neglected commenting for almost a month. But I am back!
Fabulous curry Shashi. You have tempted me soooooo much.
i just started using coriander, I love it in poultry dishes!
It’s a great movie and I wish they would make more movies like A River Runs Through It. I don’t think Brad’s lost his swooniness – I think his star is very much still on the rise. I also used to hide al manner of vegetables in curries and casseroles and sauces. These turkey balls look like they’re packed with flavour. This is a great curry that everyone in my family would love xx
I love that movie – one of my all time favorites. I keep thinking that we will take a trip and learn to fly fish but it probably won’t happen anytime soon.
This curry looks good – I just want to sample all of your food!!
This curry sounds delicious – that color is fantastic – btw, is there a recipe for the “beet roti”
Thanks so much Sam – I hope to post that “beet roti” recipe soon!
That movie was actually just on TV the other day, but I think I missed the oatmeal scene… and it’s a good thing, too, because I absolutely adore oatmeal and have no idea how people can hate on it! Then again, I was a horribly picky eater as a kid, and I actually remember sitting at the table for hours refusing to eat. It got to the point where my mom just gave up trying to get me to eat things I didn’t like and made a separate meal for me. She never let’s me forget it, either 😆
I love oatmeal too – but, the stuf on his plate didn’t look anything like your bowls of oats!
Your mom is a sweetheart, Amanda – and haha – sometimes we all need reminders right? 😉
Hey … hidden veggies!! I would eat absolutely ANYTHING too if it was hidden away in this beauty of a curry. Look at all those amazing spices in there!!
Aww-thanks so much Helen!
Haha I totally remember that scene! I was the same way about veggies when I was younger too and curry was always a sure way for me to eat them 🙂 You can bet I would be licking the plate clean if this dish was served to me, it looks incredible! Love all the spices in here especially the coriander 🙂
Thanks so much Kelly! Curry is like chocolate – it makes every food all better 😉
Hehe I love your mums tip-put it all in a curry! 😀
Lorraine – she is a wise women – eh?! 🙂
you are so creative. I love meat and veggies and curry… so i love YOU
Aww-I love those healthy bites you make …so I love YOU too, my sweet friend! 🙂
So genius! Am definitely trying this with my older daughter! And A River Runs Through It Brad Pitt? Ah, the memories! :)-Ashley
Thanks Ashley – those were the days when I thought Brad Pitt was yum 🙂
It has been forever since I watched “A River Runs through It” but I remember liking it. Or maybe I just liked Brad Pitt. 😉 I would have licked my plate clean of veggies if you fed me this curry too!!! It looks delicious! Love the spices in the turkey balls. Pinned!
Thanks so much Lindsey! I don’t blame you – those were Brad Pitt’s “yummiest” days!
I love anything in curry! So your mom’s veggie trick would definitely have worked on me. 🙂 This is a great recipe — wonderful way to use ground turkey. And all the other great flavors you’ve crammed into one little recipe! This really is outstanding — thanks.
Thanks so very much!
I love coriander and cilatntro (it was the focus of my post today too – lol!) This looks amazing and I can really relate to doctoring up foods in sauces and spices so that your kids don’t know what the heck is going on…they just like it. 🙂
Haha – Thanks so much Marjory – yup, I am all about pulling the wool over my daughter’s eyes when it comes to veggies! 🙂
Your creamy white bean chili sounds PHENOMENAL!
This looks amazingly good! Yummy! =)
Thank you Jess!