Clean Eating Danish Meatballs

Brace yourself. This recipe is amazing!

I recently asked my Facebook fans to send me some recipes that they wanted to have “cleaned up”.

I received one recipe in particular that I just had to try immediately.

Danish Meatballs.

I have no idea what the original recipe tastes like because I never made it. I simply took the recipe Lynn sent (posted below) and started making substitutions. Apparently, the original recipe came from a cookbook called “Eat Drink & Be Chinaberry”. I’m not sure what the title is referring to, but I’m so grateful for the recipe. My son loved it, as did the rest of my family, and it was something wonderfully different for dinner.

Prep time: It took me about an hour to prepare the whole thing.

Here is the list of the original ingredients. Due to copyright laws, I will only repeat the ingredients. Not the instructions. But it should give you a fair idea of which substitutions I made. Following that is my clean eating version.

You simply MUST try these!

Danish Meatballs – Original Recipe

Ingredients
1 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 pound ground veal or pork
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 Tbsp. grated onion
1/4 cup half and half
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/8 tsp allspice

Dill Sauce – Original Recipe
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups chicken broth
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp dill weed
1 cup sour cream

____________________

Recipe Redo:
Danish Meatballs – Clean Eating Recipe
(Makes 40 meatballs)

Ingredients

Meatballs:
1 package ground turkey meat (about 1 pound, give or take.)
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tbsp. dried onion
1/4 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used this recipe)
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1 whole egg

Dill sauce:
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 cups chicken stock (I used this recipe)
1 tsp salt (omit if you use prepared stock or broth)
2 tsp. dried dill weed
1 tsp garlic powder
1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt

Directions

MEATBALLS:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Note: If you want to have a grain with this dish, put on a pot of brown rice or some whole wheat noodles while you make this recipe.

Step 1 – Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Step 2 – Place all the meatball ingredients in a mixing bowl…

…and mix with your hands until well blended.

Step 3 – Roll the meat blend into small (about 1 inch in diameter) balls and place on your cookie sheets. You can place them somewhat close together. They don’t spread during baking. Just be sure there is some room between them so the heat can circulate well around them. On a standard cookie sheet, I got about 20.

Step 4 – Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until they reach at least 170 degrees F. I baked mine a little longer just to get a nice golden “glow” to them.

Step 5 – Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly. (Enough so you don’t burn yourself!)

Note: Once the meatballs are in the oven, move on to making the sauce. Both should finish about the same time.

DILL SAUCE:

Step 1 – While the meatballs are in the oven, place your olive oil and flour in a medium-sized pot.

Step 2 – Warm this mixture over medium-high heat. It will be “paste-like” at first. But then…

… it’ll get a little “crumbly”.

Step 3 – Once you have crumbs, slowly add your chicken stock/broth stirring vigorously with a whisk. The idea is to get the crumbs to dissolve into the broth. Once dissolved, add your salt (optional), dill and garlic. Allow the mixture to simmer slightly until it has thickened a bit.

Step 4 – Once the sauce has thickened, remove the pot from the stove. Whisk in your yogurt, and the sauce is done!

Step 5 – Combine the sauce and meatballs and you’ve got a fantastic meal!

Lynn suggested serving this dish over brown rice or egg noodles. I have no idea if egg noodles are clean. And since I never have any in the house anyway, I opted for the brown rice. It was yummy!

Eat and Enjoy!

Munchkin Helpers:

If you have little ones, here’s how they can help (With close supervision, of course).

If you are very thorough about washing their hands and making sure they don’t taste anything, you can have them “moosh” the raw turkey meat. But this is better for older kids who know not to eat raw meat.

Nutritional Content
1 serving = 5 meatballs + 1/2 cup sauce (no grains or pasta).

Calories: 153
Total Fat: 7 gm
Saturated Fats: 2 gm
Trans Fats: 0 gm
Cholesterol: 47 mg
Sodium: 161 mg
Carbohydrates: 6 gm
Dietary fiber: 1 gm
Sugars: 2 gm
Protein: 15 gm
Estimated Glycemic Load: 4

Nutritional Information estimated at Nutritiondata.com. Data may not be accurate.

Caution: Any time a child is in the kitchen, they will require close supervision. Munchkin Helpers suggestions should be applied with common sense to your own child, taking their own capabilities into account. Do not assume that because it says here that your child can do something, that they can, in fact do it. Please use common sense when in the kitchen with your child(ren).

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