These lean turkey meatballs, with just a little ooey gooey soft mozza inside are a perfectly paired with an Italian inspired tomato sauce and are cooked under pressure for 10 minutes.
No more dried out turkey meatballs with this method, AND bonus points for being freezer friendly, and awesome on reheat!
If you have been following along on this blog for more than a day (thank you!!), you know that I LOVE LOVE LOVE using my Instant Pot for meal prep ( I have a whole post all about that here).
There is not a week that goes by that my Instant Pot adventures don't make it onto my Instagram Story. It is a tool I use ALL.THE.TIME.
I haven't always been a fan of turkey meatballs as they have a tendency to dry out - especially on reheat. I also struggled a bit with greasy meatballs in the Instant Pot until I realized the Instant Pot does turkey meatballs perfectly!
So, when doing Instant Pot meatballs, always swap the ground beef for a lean protein such as ground turkey or ground chicken.
This isn't because it is "healthier" per se, it is because when you cook meatballs in your pot, you don't have the opportunity to drain the excess fat, and your sauce will be very very oily.
Rest assured, making stuffed meatballs isn't nearly as scary as it looks. I simply flatten out the turkey, place a mozza ball in the middle, and then close my hand around it.
I promise, these are much less work than they look, and are 100% worth it!
It is as simple as, mix up the meatball mix, roll em up, add sauce to the pot. Pressure up for 10 minutes!
You can take it next level and cook your rice pot in pot style using a long leg trivet and a oven safe bowl.
I do 1:1 ratio of white basmati rice to water, and then place the trivet in the sauce, with the rice bowl on top, and then you have cooked both components at the same time!
I use a few accessories to do this type of cooking. You can find my post on accessories here, and all of my (affiliate) product suggestions here.
This recipe is great to put the the fridge for 4 days of lunches, or freeze them in these freezer friendly glass storage containers with freezer tape labels, for up to 4 months.
Recipe
Meal Prep Instant Pot Italian Stuffed Meatballs
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 2 pounds ground Turkey or Chicken - NOT beef
- 1 egg
- 1, 200 g package cocktail size Bocconcini cheese balls
- 1 garlic clove minced
- ½ Tablespoon oregano
Sauce
- 769 mL can crushed tomatoes not diced tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- ⅓ cup chopped fresh basil
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon sugar to offset the tomato acidity
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 cups water very important so you don't get scorching and the BURN signal
Rice
- 1 cup rice
- 1 cup water
Instructions
Meatballs
- Mix all of the meatball ingredients (EXCEPT THE CHEESE BALLS) together in a bowl - do not over mix.
- Form meatballs around cheese ball.
- Set meatballs aside
Sauce
- Add all of the sauce ingredients into the inner liner of the instant pot.
- Stir to combine.
- Place meatballs in the sauce (it is ok to stack them).
- Spoon sauce over the meatballs.
- If you are doing pot in pot rice, pour the rice and 1 cup water into your oven proof bowl, and place the trivet and bowl in the pot now. Otherwise skip this step.
- Put the Instant Pot lid on, set to sealing, and set on manual, high pressure for 10 minutes.
- Do a quick release after the pressure cycle
Assembly
- Portion meatballs into storage containers with rice.
Nutrition
So, there you have it, all of my secrets for awesome meal prep Instant Pot meatballs!
If you like the idea of Instant Pot meatballs, you might like these Sweet and Sour Instant Pot Meatballs too!
Brooke Lannert says
Hello - These look so good! If I want to freeze these do I have to cook them first or can I just put them together and place in the freezer until I am ready to use? Thanks!