Holiday meals can be a challenge when you're trying to lose weight. Holiday's can be especially difficult if you just had weight loss surgery. These Cranberry Sage, & Gruyere Turkey Meatballs are perfect for you if you are in the soft food stage after weight loss surgery.
Turkey can be dry if it's not cooked right. After weight loss surgery dry meats are often not tolerated well. No one wants to feel sick or worse get sick at a holiday gathering. Ground turkey is softer and often better tolerated. This turkey meatball recipe combines all the flavors of Thanksgiving wrapped into one protein-rich ball.
I used extra lean ground turkey. If you need more moisture you can get the lean ground turkey. The difference is that the extra lean has less fat than lean. Yes, this means fewer calories, but also less moisture. You may need the extra bit of fat to make the meat moister.
If you are afraid of the dried cranberries having too much sugar, you can get no sugar added or just leave them out. Each turkey meatball only has a few cranberries anyway, so shouldn't be an issue.
Make sure you spray your sheet pan with cooking spray so the turkey meatballs don't stick.
Cranberry, Sage, & Gruyere Turkey Meatballs
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground turkey
- ⅓ cup breadcrumbs plain
- 1 egg
- ⅓ cup Gruyere shredded
- ⅓ cup dried cranberries no sugar added
- Pinch of salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon dried sage
- Prepared turkey gravy
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Coat a sheet pan with olive oil spray.
- Combine turkey, gruyere, cranberries, breadcrumbs, sage, salt, and pepper.
- Form into balls using about 1 ½-2 tablespoons of the meat mixture to make 1-½ ounce meatballs.
- Place turkey meatballs on a prepared sheet pan.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until meatball reach 165 degrees F.
- Serve with homemade or prepared turkey gravy.
Notes
Nutrition
Barbara says
These look very good, but am a little unsure about the gravy. Would a jarred or gravy made from a mix be ok? Does you nutritional info include that? Thanks!
Jennifer Lynn-Pullman says
Hi Barbara! Any gravy would be fine. You just want to make sure the turkey meatballs are moist enough for you to handle. You may not need gravy. The nutrition info does not include the gravy, because of variations in what people will choose to use.
Jason says
These are amazing! Thank you so much! I'm 6 weeks post op (GS) and can tolerate quite well. I hope you post more recipes, I'm trying them all! Thank you so much.