Turkey Meatball Meal Prep

This sweet and spicy turkey meatball meal prep is a great Sunday recipe to set yourself up with healthy meals throughout the week. Easy oven baked meatballs come together in a rich, sweet and spicy glaze and are served with some green beans and bone broth rice to make a wholesome and nourishing lunch or dinner. It’s simple, delicious and reheats really well!

I’ve been experimenting with meal prep lately as I look at how to ensure I am eating healthy and balanced meals during my busy week.

One thing I’ve noticed with some meal prep recipes is that they don’t actually reheat very well. The structure and texture seems to change and they are just not quite as delicious as they are the day you made them.

But not these turkey meatballs. Not only are they delicious fresh, but reheated they taste exactly the same making it such a good meal prep recipe. Plus the sweet and spicy honey sriracha glaze makes these meatballs so tasty and delicious I actually WANT to eat them for lunch or dinner throughout the week.

Not too spicy, not too sweet, just the goldilocks of sticky sauce perfection.

Meatballs are always such a fun thing to eat so I hope you love this recipe as much as I do and please let me know if you want to see more healthy meal prep recipes from me!

Key Ingredients

There are a couple of components to this recipe with the first being the turkey meatballs themselves, followed by the sticky sauce and then your sides.

Note all ingredients and their quantities are laid out in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

• Turkey mince – I like to use turkey mince as it’s lower in calories and fat than regular mince and still a good source of protein, not to mention it has a lot of flavour. My preference is ground turkey breast rather than mince from the darker meat, again as it’s lower in fat. You can use chicken mince instead with similar results.
• Panko breadcrumbs – absorbs the moisture to prevent our meatballs becoming dry.
• Egg – to bind the meatballs and ensure they don’t fall apart.
• Baby spinach – I am all about sneaking in green veggies where possible and this is a great way to add some extra nutrients.
• Parsley – gives the meatballs some extra flavour and freshness.
• Seasoning – keeping things simple as the sauce will add most of the flavour and using garlic powder, salt and black pepper.
• Sauce – for the sauce, we’re combining soy sauce, honey, rice wine vinegar, sirarcha, sesame oil, ginger and garlic which will give the perfect combination of salty, sweet, spicy and tangy.
• Sides – I am serving these meatballs simply with green beans and a simple bone broth rice which adds a little extra protein and flavour but you can use any combination of vegetables or rice such as basmati or brown rice instead.

Order of operations

It can sometimes be quite frustrating to meal prep because you end up with a bunch of pans on the go and it can feel like it simply takes too much time, especially if you’re taking time out of your weekend to do it.

The below order of operations will help you stay organised and ensure that you know exactly what to do when for the best efficiency in the kitchen so you can move on with your day. Also make sure you have your containers washed and ready to use before you start!

1. Make the meatballs
2. Put on the rice
3. Cook the beans
4. Cook the sauce
5. Toss the meatballs with the sauce
6. Divide everything between your containers

This recipe also is going to make 6 portions at around 400 calories, however if you need to eat more, then you can divide it between 4 containers instead. As an example, I usually eat 1 portion and my husband eats 1.5 portions.

Step-By-Step Instructions

Now that you know what you’re doing in the kitchen, we’ll start by making the meatballs.

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a large baking tray with baking paper. Prep your ingredients by chopping your spinach, parsley and garlic and then place all of the meatball ingredients into a large mixing bowl.

Use a wooden spoon or your hands to mix everything together until well combined. Honestly I find hands work the best here. Next grab a little olive oil and rub it on your hands, this is going to help prevent the meat sticking to your hands.

Grab approx tablespoon amounts of the mixture and roll into balls and place onto the baking tray. Repeat until the mixture is all used.

If you want to stick to the calories and serving size of this recipe, you’ll need 30 meatballs in total from this amount of meat. This works out to be approx. 30-32 grams per meatball.

Bake the meatballs for 20 minutes, turning halfway through.

While the meatballs are cooking you can prep your sides and make the sauce for the meatballs.

For the sides, I am keeping things simple by using my rice cooker to cook the rice so I can just let it do its thing while I cook my beans in a frying pan with a tiny bit of olive oil or water and salt and pepper. You can also steam or bake the beans. I recommend only half cooking the beans as when reheated, they’ll steam again so this step prevents them from being soggy when reheated.

Make the sauce by combining all of the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and placing on the stove to bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Once the meatballs are cooked, place them into a large bowl and pour over the sauce. Toss to combine making sure all of the meatballs are covered in the sauce.

Divide the rice, beans and meatballs between your containers. I also like to sprinkle the meatballs with some sesame seeds but this is optional. Place on the lids and put the containers in the fridge until ready to eat.

Storage and Reheating instructions

This recipe makes 6 portions making it perfect to feed 2 people for 3 meals. This meal prep will last in the fridge for up to 4 days.

To reheat, I just keep it in the container and microwave it for approximately 3 minutes, but the amount of time will depend on your microwave. You want the meatballs hot in the middle and the rice to be steaming.

If you’re only making this for one person and don’t want to eat 6 meals of this recipe for the week (totally get that!), you can just make the meatballs and freeze in portions for up to 3 months and then just defrost in the fridge or at room temperature before heating and serving with sides of your choice.

Best containers for meal prep

Meal prep containers can get quite expensive! The ones I have used in these photos are the 1 litre glass containers from Kmart. They are a nice thick glass base with a plastic lid and are a great affordable option at just $5 per container.

The glass container is dishwasher safe while the lid gets handwashed which is what most containers are. The lids do warp slightly but I am not sure it would be much different with more expensive brands.

More meal prep recipes:

Air Fryer Salmon Bowls
Roasted Vegetable Bowls with Green Goddess Sauce
Teriyaki Buddha Bowls
Easy Chicken Fried Rice
Honey Soy Chicken