We love a good meatball from time to time. While beef seems to be the traditional meat to enjoy in a spherical shape, other types of meat (or even meat substitutes) can be used. Today, we’re thrilled to be trying out the Trader Joe’s Turkey Meatballs, which swap out the beef content with everyone’s favorite tasty gobblers.
One package should contain about a dozen meatballs — ours had 13, but we decided to cook six for this review.
If you’re in a hurry, these can be microwaved, and you can speed things up even more if you decide to thaw these out beforehand. We microwaved ours from frozen to see how they would turn out. (You can see the full cooking instructions at the bottom of this article.)
These actually come out pretty well when cooked this way. We found the consistency to be just a little bit rubbery in the middle, but aside from that, our batch survived the microwave process quite well. They’re dry on the outside, with a nice juiciness to the inside.
The flavor is a bit subtler than we were expecting. If you are used to meatballs made of beef, this might come as a disappointment. That red meat flavor just isn’t there, with the leaner turkey flavor fading to the background a bit. Personally, we thought they tasted pretty good, all things considered, but they’re not going to replace beef if that is what you’re truly craving.
We also tried these with a little bit of Trader Joe’s Organic Kansas City Style BBQ Sauce, and the combo was amazing. If the turkey flavor is a bit too subtle for your liking, you should definitely try a good dipping sauce. This elevates the flavor to a whole new level.
If you stick with a single serving, you’ll be consuming about 100 calories (45 from fat) and 400 mg of sodium. That means our serving of six would have 300 calories (135 from fat) and 1,200 mg of sodium. That’s not bad as far as calories are concerned, but the sodium level is through the roof. Plus, these are more of a side than a main meal, and if this is the only thing you’re eating, a six-meatball serving is likely to leave you a bit hungry still.
The Trader Joe’s Turkey Meatballs make for a decent enough snack, all things considered. We don’t recommend making a full meal of them, but we do recommend a good dipping sauce — BBQ in particular.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for these Trader Joe’s frozen meatballs, check out our package scans below.
