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This super easy Turkey Sausage Meatball recipe with Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce is perfect for any holiday event. It’s done in less than 30 minutes and can easily be turned into a weeknight keto dinner recipe.
Just by looking at these homemade turkey meatballs, you would never know they have a secret ingredient. Cheese! But where’s the cheese you may ask?
We took ground turkey sausage, formed them into balls and then pressed cheese in the middle and then reformed them into balls. This simple but often never thought of trick really elevated this keto appetizer from yum to WOW, I must make this!
Turkey Sausage Meatballs with Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce
This easy recipe for Turkey Sausage Meatballs with Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce puts store-bought turkey sausage to good use. Look for turkey sausage in bulk (without the casings) in the fresh meat case.
If you can only find it with the casings, just squeeze out the sausage meat and discard the casings. The sweet/tart flavor of cranberry sauce is the perfect complement to the savory flavor of white cheddar and turkey sausage in this recipe!
What are the ingredients to make meatballs?
We keep our ingredients in these turkey meatballs pretty simple because we want the sugar free cranberry sauce to be the star of the show. We used ground turkey sausage, cheddar and ghee to make our meatballs. That’s it.
For this keto sausage ball recipe, we utilized store bought paleo turkey sausage meatballs. Other ingredients for this recipe include:
- fresh cranberries
- water
- granulated erythritol
- sea salt
- minced fresh rosemary
- turkey sausage
- white cheddar cheese
- clarified butter
What is a good seasoning for turkey?
- salt
- pepper
- parsley
- rosemary
- sage
- thyme
How Do You Make Turkey Meatballs?
Turkey meatballs can be as easy or hard to make, well as you make them…
First divide the sausage into 12 equal portions and roll each into a ball. Press a piece of cheese into the center of each ball, and mold the meat around it to seal it in. Chill the meatballs for 5 to 10 minutes in the freezer.
Next, heat the ghee in a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Once hot, add the meatballs, turn the heat down to medium, cover the skillet leaving the lid slightly ajar, and cook 3 minutes.
After that, flip the meatballs over and cover the skillet leaving the lid slightly ajar, and cook 3 minutes.
Finally turn the heat down to medium-low, and then flip the meatballs one more time, cover the skillet leaving the lid slightly ajar, and cook 3 minutes more. Turn off the heat, cover the skillet fully, and let the steam finish cooking the meatballs for 2 minutes.
How to Make Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce
Our sugar free cranberry sauce is a little different than a typical cranberry sauce recipe. We substitute the sugar in a typical high carb cranberry sauce for erythritol.
We add the cranberries, water, erythritol, and salt to a small-medium saucepan over medium heat. As soon as the liquid starts simmering, cover the pan and cook until the cranberries are burst and it has a jam-like consistency, about 3 to 5 minutes. (Watch it closely and turn the heat down if needed so it doesn’t boil over.) Turn off the heat and stir in the rosemary; set aside.
If you love this turkey meatball recipe, you may like these other low carb meatball recipes
- Keto Baked Italian Meatball Recipe (cheese stuffed)
- Low Carb Cheesy Turkey Meatballs with rosemary cream sauce
- Weeknight Italian Style Beef Meatballs
Turkey Sausage Meatballs with Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
Cranberry Sauce:
- 1 cup fresh cranberries
- 1/3 cup water
- 3 tablespoons granulated erythritol
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
Turkey Sausage Meatballs:
- 1 lb turkey sausage
- 1 1/2 oz white cheddar cheese cut into 12 cubes
- 2 tablespoons clarified butter ghee
Instructions
For the Cranberry Sauce:
-
Add the cranberries, water, erythritol, and salt to a small-medium saucepan over medium heat. As soon as the liquid starts simmering, cover the pan and cook until the cranberries are burst and it has a jam-like consistency, about 3 to 5 minutes. (Watch it closely and turn the heat down if needed so it doesn’t boil over.) Turn off the heat and stir in the rosemary; set aside.
For the Turkey Sausage Meatballs:
-
Divide the sausage into 12 equal portions and roll each into a ball. Press a piece of cheese into the center of each ball, and mold the meat around it to seal it in. Chill the meatballs for 5 to 10 minutes in the freezer.
-
Heat the ghee in a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Once hot, add the meatballs, turn the heat down to medium, cover the skillet leaving the lid slightly ajar, and cook 3 minutes.
-
Flip the meatballs over and cover the skillet leaving the lid slightly ajar, and cook 3 minutes.
-
Turn the heat down to medium-low, and then flip the meatballs one more time, cover the skillet leaving the lid slightly ajar, and cook 3 minutes more. Turn off the heat, cover the skillet fully, and let the steam finish cooking the meatballs for 2 minutes.
To Finish:
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Stir the sauce into the meatballs; serve warm.
Recipe Notes
NOTES Sweetness Level of the Cranberry Sauce: If you find that the cranberry sauce isn’t quite sweet enough for you, we recommend adding liquid stevia to taste; start with 3 drops and work up from there.
