Quick and simple turkey meatball curry includes tender, Thai-flavored meatballs in a delicious creamy red curry sauce. This recipe is not only easy to make, it is also very adaptable depending on your unique taste!
Theoretically, if one were to love both meatballs and curry, it would only follow that the two be married together, am I right?
After the plethora of curry recipes I’ve posted on this site, which have included everything from chicken to shrimp to salmon and every vegetable under the sun and every type of curry, it was only a matter of time that we stew tender meatballs in curry sauce.
This easy turkey meatball curry recipe comes together rather quickly and results in a flavorful comforting meal.
Let’s get saucy!
Ingredients for Turkey Meatball Curry:
Meatballs: Ground Turkey, Tapioca Flour or Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour, Egg, Ginger, Garlic, Green Onion, Sea Salt, and liquid aminos. This combination results in that iconic meatball texture with an amazing burst of flavor!
Curry Sauce: Full-fat canned coconut milk, red curry paste, pure maple syrup, sea salt. This incredibly simple combination results in silky-smooth, creamy sauce that is bursting with curry flavor.
If you’re obsessed with ginger or garlic, feel free to add more here! You can also add a teaspoon or two of fish sauce if you love it.
You can swap the red curry paste for yellow curry paste, green curry paste, or panang curry paste depending on your favorite curry varietal!
Veggies: Yellow onion and bell pepper. These veggies keep it simple and flavorful. You can absolutely add more of your favorite vegetables!
Optional Add Ins: If you’re looking for a complete meal, you can easily add your favorite vegetables to the sauce while you’re cooking the meatballs. Consider carrots, zucchini, broccoli, bok choy, etc.
What Type of Flour Should I Use to Make Gluten-Free Meatballs?:
When I make meatballs, I use almond flour or tapioca flour to help keep them together. You can also use gluten-free all-purpose flour or gluten-free breadcrumbs.
More often than not, I use tapioca flour, which results in a spongy texture. If the turkey you’re using isn’t super moist, you can get away with using no flour. If, however, your ground turkey is very moist, you will need to absorb the moisture with flour.
I have noticed various brands of ground turkey require more or less flour depending on the level of moisture. Start with ½ cup and add more if needed (up to 1 cup).
It’s okay if the meatball mixture is very sticky – it will hold together while cooking.
How to Make Turkey Meatball Curry:
Prepare the red curry sauce by adding the coconut milk, red curry paste, pure maple syrup, and sea salt to a saucepan and bring to a full boil. Reduce the heat and allow the sauce to gently boil while you’re preparing the rest of the recipe. This ensures the sauce turns out thick and flavorful.
Add all of the ingredients for the turkey meatballs to a mixing bowl and use your hands to mix it all together until well-combined (you can also mix the meatball mixture in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment).
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons of avocado oil. Allow the skillet to heat up for a couple of minutes.
Form balls out of the turkey mixture, then place them on the hot skillet. Allow the meatballs to brown for 2 to 3 minutes, until crispy. Flip and continue browning. Roll or flip the balls on an additional side and cook 1 minute longer. It’s okay if the meatballs are more flat than round (this is how mine typically turn out).
Transfer the meatballs to a plate and set aside (note: they will not be cooked through just yet).
Add the onion and bell pepper to the skillet and sauté, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 4 to 5 minutes.
Transfer the meatballs back to the skillet with the onions and bell pepper and pour the red curry sauce over everything. Give it a little stir, bring mixture to a full boil, then reduce the heat and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 to 20 minutes.
Serve meatball curry with your choice of steamed or fried rice or cauliflower rice.
Recipe Adaptations:
- Replace the tapioca flour with gluten-free all-purpose flour.
- If you like a lot of curry sauce, double the sauce recipe.
- Swap green curry paste, yellow curry paste, panang curry paste, etc for the red curry paste.
- Add in any of your favorite veggies!
- Use ground beef or chicken instead of turkey.
Turkey Meatball Curry
Ingredients
Meatballs:
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1 egg well beaten
- 2 Tbsp liquid aminos
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 Tbsp fresh ginger peeled and grated
- 2 green onions finely chopped
- ¼ cup tapioca flour or more if needed*
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 2 to 3 Tbsp avocado oil for cooking meatballs
Red Curry Sauce:
- 1 can coconut milk
- 2 Tbsp red curry paste
- 1 Tbsp pure maple syrup or coconut sugar optional
- ½ tsp sea salt to taste
- ½ red onion
- ½ red bell pepper
Instructions
- Prepare the red curry sauce by adding the coconut milk, red curry paste, pure maple syrup, and sea salt to a saucepan and bring to a full boil. Reduce the heat and allow the sauce to gently boil while you’re preparing the rest of the recipe. This ensures the sauce turns out thick and flavorful.
- Add all of the ingredients for the turkey meatballs to a mixing bowl and use your hands to mix it all together until well-combined (you can also mix the meatball mixture in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment).
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add 2 to 3 tablespoons of avocado oil. Allow the skillet to heat up for a couple of minutes.
- Form balls out of the turkey mixture, then place them on the hot skillet. Allow the meatballs to brown for 2 to 3 minutes, until crispy. Flip and continue browning. Roll or flip the balls on an additional side and cook 1 minute longer. It’s okay if the meatballs are more flat than round (this is how mine typically turn out).
- Transfer the meatballs to a plate and set aside (note: they will not be cooked through just yet).
- Add the onion and bell pepper to the skillet and saute, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 4 to 5 minutes.
- Transfer the meatballs back to the skillet with the onions and bell pepper and pour the red curry sauce over everything. Give it a little stir, bring mixture to a full boil, then reduce the heat and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Serve meatball curry with your choice of steamed or fried rice or cauliflower rice.
Notes
Nutrition
could i use something else besides liquid aminos? Would coconut aminos work?
Hi Hillary!
Absolutely! I use liquid aminos and coconut aminos interchangeably in many recipes. It’ll taste great! xoxo
@Julia,Perfect ! I’ve got all these ingredients at home 🙂
That’s awesome! I hope you love it, Hillary!! xoxo
@Julia, We made this last night! We did have trouble with forming “meatballs” as our ground turkey was pretty wet.. even after adding in more flour. So they turned out to be like mini sliders LOL. BUT we loved the flavors! Only suggestion would to make extra sauce! Ours got sucked up by the meatballs/veg when we let it simmer. Still really flavorful, but I missed the sauce!