Rainbow Turkey Meatballs in Velvety Sauce with Hidden Vegetables - photo 1
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Rainbow Turkey Meatballs in Velvety Sauce with Hidden Vegetables

Pikantne Kids' Lunches For Kids Main Dishes 70 min Easy 13 wyświetleń ~22.47 PLN - (0)
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Description

This dish is the essence of a healthy and tasty meal for the little ones, designed with young gourmets and their nutritional needs in mind. Tender, juicy meatballs made from lean turkey, enriched with nutritious millet and grated carrot, are incredibly soft and easy to chew even for small children. The secret of the dish is the velvety, naturally sweet tomato sauce, in which we cleverly hid a wealth of vegetables such as zucchini and bell pepper. By blending it into a smooth mass, even the pickiest toddlers will eat it with appetite, unaware of how many vitamins they are absorbing. Served with fluffy millet, it creates a complete, balanced meal that provides protein for muscle building, complex carbohydrates for energy, and fiber and vitamins that support immunity. The dish is colorful, mild in flavor, and encourages eating, and its preparation is a great way to introduce healthy eating habits from an early age.

Ingredients (14)

Servings:
4
  • Ground turkey meat (from the thigh) 400 g
  • Millet (dry) 150 g
  • Carrot 1.3 szt.
  • Onion 0.7 szt.
  • Egg 0.8 szt.
  • Tomato passata 500 g
  • Zucchini 0.8 szt.
  • Red bell pepper 100 g
  • Garlic 1 ząbek
  • Olive oil 15 ml
  • 🌿 Przyprawy
  • Sweet paprika powder 1.5 łyżeczki
  • Dried marjoram 1 łyżeczka
  • ✨ Opcjonalne
  • Natural yogurt 40 g
  • Nutritional yeast flakes 5 g
💰 Szacowany koszt dania: ~22.47 PLN (5.62 PLN/porcję)

💡 Kliknij na składnik aby oznaczyć jako użyty

Preparation steps

Preparing millet groats

1

Start by preparing the millet, which will be a side for the meatballs. Measure out 150g of dry millet. Pour it into a fine mesh strainer. Rinse the millet first with cold water, then with very hot water from the kettle. This step is crucial as it removes the bitterness that naturally occurs in millet.

Ingredients: Millet (dry)
Use a sieve with really small holes so that the fine grains of the groats don't escape. Pouring with hot water is the most important step - don't skip it, otherwise the groats will be bitter and the child may not accept them.
2

Rinse the groats and place them in a small pot with a thick bottom. Pour in 300 ml of cold water (the ratio is always 2:1, meaning two parts water to one part groats). Place the pot over medium heat and bring to a boil. Once the water starts boiling, reduce the heat to the minimum, cover the pot with a lid, and cook for about 15-20 minutes, until the groats absorb all the water. After this time, remove the pot from the heat and let it sit covered for another 10 minutes, so the groats can 'finish cooking' and become fluffy.

Ingredients: Millet (dry)
Do not stir the groats while cooking! This will make it sticky. Just let it quietly absorb the water. After cooking, you can gently fluff it with a fork to separate the grains. You will add half of the cooked groats to the meatballs, and serve the rest as a side dish.

Rainbow Turkey Meatballs

3

In a large bowl, place 400g of ground turkey. Peel the carrot and grate it on the finest grater – this way it will be practically undetectable in the meatballs. Finely chop half of the onion (50g) into very small cubes. Add the grated carrot, chopped onion, one egg, about half of the cooked millet (the rest will be used for serving), 3g (one teaspoon) of sweet paprika, and 2g (one teaspoon) of marjoram to the bowl with the meat. Mix the mixture thoroughly with your hands until all the ingredients are evenly combined.

Ingredients: Ground turkey meat (from the thigh), Carrot, Onion, Egg, Sweet paprika powder, Dried marjoram
It's best to mix the mixture by hand - you'll feel its consistency. Don't knead it too long, just until the ingredients are combined, otherwise the meatballs may become tough. If the mixture seems too loose, you can add a little more millet.
4

Prepare a small bowl of cold water. Wet your hands in the water before shaping each meatball - this will prevent the meat from sticking to your hands. Take small portions of the mixture (about the amount that fits on one tablespoon) and roll them in your hands, forming neat, small balls the size of a walnut. Place the finished meatballs on a cutting board or a large plate.

The small size of the meatballs is perfect for little mouths and hands. Try to make them all similar in size so they cook evenly. This is a great time to involve an older child in helping in the kitchen!

Velvety sauce with hidden vegetables

5

Prepare the vegetables for the sauce. Chop the remaining half of the onion (50g) into small cubes. Peel the garlic and finely chop it or press it through a garlic press. In a wide pot or deep skillet, heat 15g (one tablespoon) of olive oil over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and sauté for about 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it becomes translucent and soft. Then add the garlic and sauté for another minute until it releases its aroma.

Ingredients: Onion, Garlic, Olive oil
Be careful not to burn the garlic, as it will become bitter and ruin the flavor of the entire sauce. One minute on low heat is more than enough. A pot with a wide bottom will be best, where all the meatballs can fit later.
6

In the meantime, wash and prepare the remaining vegetables. Cut the zucchini into half-moons and dice the red bell pepper after removing the seeds. You don't need to chop them very finely, as they will be blended anyway. Add the chopped vegetables to the pot with the onion and garlic. Sauté everything together for about 5-7 minutes, until the vegetables soften.

Ingredients: Zucchini, Red bell pepper
Sautéing the vegetables before adding the passata brings out their natural sweetness, making the sauce tastier and eliminating the need for added sugar.
7

Pour the entire tomato passata (500ml) into the sautéed vegetables. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and cook covered for about 10 minutes. After this time, remove the pot from the heat. Now the most important step: transfer all the contents of the pot to a jug blender or use an immersion blender and blend everything until you have a perfectly smooth, velvety cream. Blend until there are no lumps or pieces of vegetables left.

Ingredients: Tomato passata
If you are using a jug blender, be careful with hot liquids! Never fill the jug to the brim and leave a small opening in the lid for steam to escape. This is the 'magic' part of the recipe that makes the vegetables disappear into the delicious sauce.

Cooking the dish

8

Pour the blended, smooth sauce back into the same pot. Place it over low heat and bring to a gentle simmer (the sauce should be lightly bubbling). Now, very carefully, one by one, add the prepared meatballs to the hot sauce. Arrange them so that they are relatively loose and mostly submerged in the sauce.

Gently place the meatballs in, preferably using a spoon, so they don't fall apart. Don't stir them immediately after adding; give them a moment to set on the outside.
9

Cover the pot with a lid and cook the meatballs in the sauce on very low heat for about 20-25 minutes. Halfway through cooking, you can gently shake the pot to move the meatballs around and prevent them from sticking to the bottom. After this time, the meatballs should be fully cooked. To check, take one out and cut it in half - it should not be raw or pink inside. Finally, optionally stir in nutritional yeast into the sauce to enhance the flavor.

Ingredients: Nutritional yeast flakes
Very low heat is key! Cooking too intensely can cause the meatballs to fall apart and the sauce to burn. Patience will be rewarded with tender and juicy meatballs.

Serving

10

On a small plate for the child, place a portion of the remaining warm millet porridge. Next to it, arrange 3-4 meatballs and generously drizzle them with sauce. To make the dish even more appealing and milder in flavor, you can create a dollop of thick natural yogurt on the sauce and gently swirl it with a toothpick to create a pattern, such as a heart or a spiral.

Ingredients: Natural yogurt
Serve the dish on a colorful plate, which will additionally encourage your little one to eat. You can also arrange the meatballs and groats into a funny face. The dish is complete, but it tastes great with the addition of steamed broccoli florets, which will resemble little 'trees'.

Fun Fact

💡

Introducing vegetables to children in a 'hidden' form (e.g., in blended sauce) is a popular strategy known as 'food hiding'. Research shows that while it is effective in the short term, it is also important to serve vegetables in their natural form so that the child learns their taste and appearance.

Best for

Codzienny obiad dla malucha Posiłek do żłobka lub przedszkola Zdrowa kolacja dla całej rodziny Pierwsze samodzielne posiłki (BLW)

Tips

🍽️ Serving

For variety, you can shape the millet into a 'mound' using a small bowl, and pour the sauce around it, creating a 'volcano with lava'. The meatballs can be 'boulders'. You can also sprinkle the dish with a bit of chopped dill or parsley for added freshness and color. For older children and adults, the sauce can be seasoned with a bit of chili or fresh herbs, such as basil.

🥡 Storage

The dish is perfect for storage. In an airtight container in the refrigerator, it can be kept for up to 3 days. It is also ideal for freezing. It is best to freeze the meatballs together with the sauce in small portions, suitable for one meal for a child. This way, you'll have a ready-made, homemade dinner in just a few minutes.

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