Ground Turkey Firecracker Meatballs

During this quarantine, my family decided to use HelloFresh for some of our dinners. We absolutely love HelloFresh because of we receive all the ingredients for the delicious recipes, which is very convenient since my family is super busy.

The Firecracker Meatballs are one of the most popular dishes that HelloFresh has to offer, and was one of the first recipes sent to us! When we tasted these meatballs, we were blown away by the flavors and how simple and easy this dish was to create.

I found cooking with HelloFresh so easy to fit within my healthy eating since ingredients were simple to swap out. Some HelloFresh recipes have an insane amount of calories! But, if you look and plan ahead, you can create the same dish with the same flavors, but lighter!

For this recipe, the dish was around 780 calories and had 44 grams of fat. When trying to lose weight, some of those ingredients are fat heavy and too high in calories. But, there are great alternatives to swap with.

So if you want to cook with a lighter twist on these delicious meatballs, read the recipe

below!!

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Ingredients (Serves 4)

Anything with * is the lighter alternative

Original Firecracker Meatballs Lighter Firecracker Meatballs

20 oz ground beef *20 oz ground turkey

1 cup Jasmine Rice 1 cup Jasmine Rice

Green Beans Green Beans

1/2 cup Panko Breadcrumbs 1/2 cup Panko Breadcrumbs

4 Scallions 4 Scallions

Fresh Ginger Fresh Ginger

4 TBSP Soy Sauce 4 TBSP Soy Sauce

4 TBSP Mayo *4 TBSP Light Mayo

4 TSP Honey 4 TSP Honey

4 TBSP Sour Cream *4 TBSP Plain Fat Free Greek Yogurt

2 TBSP Sesame Seeds 2 TBSP Sesame Seeds

Korean Chili Flakes Korean Chili Flakes

With just these 3 simple ingredient swaps, it makes such a difference to this dish calories wise! I love ground turkey, and I always swap this with ground beef because it is just a leaner meat. Even with switching the meat, there is no difference in taste! I hope you enjoy this fun easy recipe!

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425. Thinly slice scallions, separating whites from greens. Peel and mince ginger

2. Mix in a bowl, mayo, yogurt, honey, 4 tsp of soy sauce (save the rest later), and sriracha

3. Toast sesame seeds by stirring in a pot with a drizzle of oil. Then add rice, and a 1 1/2 cup water, and salt. Bring to a boil, cover, then let simmer. Cook for 15-18 mins.

4. In a separate bowl, combine beef, panko, ginger, scallion whites, remaining soy sauce, salt and pepper. Form into 10-12 meatballs.

5. Place meatballs on one side of a lightly oiled baking sheet. On another baking sheet, toss green beans with a drizzle of oil, salt, and pepper. Roast on top rack until meatballs are cooked through and green beans are browned and tender, 14-16 minutes.

6. Fluff rice with a fork; season with salt and pepper. Divide between bowls or plates. Carefully add meatballs to bowl with sauce; toss to coat. *To make this lighter, I just add the sauce on top rather than coating all the meatballs*

7. Serve and enjoy! 🤩