These Spanakopita Meatballs are made with ground turkey, fresh spinach, dill, green onions, and feta cheese. The best part is the lemon butter! It’s mixed into the meatballs and also drizzled on top before baking. These come out incredibly moist and are so flavorful, and incredibly easy to make.
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Finally, two of my food obsessions – meatballs and spanakopita – have come together to form the ultimate deliciousness. Spanakopita meatballs are everything you love about spanakopita in meatball form!
These spinach and feta meatballs are made with lean ground turkey, which can often dry out. Not these. They’re perfectly moist for two reasons:
The first, we’re using a lemon butter sauce both inside AND outside the meatballs to add lots of flavor and moisture. This is something I do when I make baked keftedes, too.
The second, we’re baking the meatballs and making them large-ish in size, like dinner meatballs, so they don’t overcook easily.
Another thing I love about this recipe – you don’t have to precook anything, even the spinach! Just add chopped raw fresh spinach in the mix. You may think it’s not going to work but it will – trust me. I use the same method when I make Spanakopita turkey burgers – this recipe is very similar.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Ground turkey – or ground chicken. Feel free to try with another ground meat like beef, lamb, pork, or a mix. I do recommend using a lean option for any of these, since we’re using butter in the mix as well.
- Fresh spinach – baby or mature will be fine. I haven’t tried with frozen but it should work just fine, just make sure it’s fully defrosted and the liquid squeezed out as much as possible.
- Green onions – finely diced red, yellow, or white onion will work too, but will have a stronger flavor.
- Fresh dill – or dried. Feel free to use other herbs in place of or in addition to, like mint or parsley.
- Feta cheese – I always recommend buying a block and crumbling it yourself, but pre-crumbled will work too.
- Panko breadcrumbs
- Eggs
- Salted butter – or unsalted, with a little salt added to the melted butter mix. You can use olive oil if you want instead of butter, but I really love the flavor of butter with spanakopita.
- Lemon juice and zest
- Salt and Pepper
How to make Spanakopita Turkey Meatballs
First, make a lemon butter sauce. Melt some butter in a small bowl and add lemon zest and lemon juice to it.
Then, in a large bowl, mix half of the lemon butter sauce with the spinach, dill, green onions, breadcrumbs, feta cheese, eggs, salt, and pepper. Mix it really well – the spinach will get a bit softer and wilt down a little.
Then, add the ground turkey. I recommend mixing it with your hands. Form into meatballs (I like using a large portion scoop for this), place in a parchment covered baking dish, and drizzle with the remaining lemon butter sauce. Bake until the internal temperature is 165 degrees F (don’t overcook them!) and serve, with the drippings from the bottom of the pan drizzled on top.
These meatballs don’t get super brown on top, and that’s fine!
I purposefully skipped any intentional browning for these meatballs in favor of making them as moist as possible. Blasphemy? Maybe. I stand by it.
Pan frying them, or using the broiler at the end of baking will give them some browning on the outside. Feel free to do this if you want, but since ground turkey tends to overcook so easily, I opted to skip this.
Why is there no garlic?!
Spanakopita does not have garlic! Well, at least the spanakopita I grew up with. Feel free to add some minced garlic to the meatball mix if you want. But I have an unpopular opinion that sometimes garlic doesn’t belong in things, you know? …blasphemy again? I also stand by this.
Can I make smaller meatballs?
Sure! Keep in mind you should bake them for less time, and they will have a tendency to overcook a bit easier. So make sure you monitor them.
What to serve with Spanakopita meatballs
These meatballs are perfect for dinner served with a simple pilaf and/or a Greek salad. They’d also be great with homemade tzatziki sauce on pita bread for a sandwich.
Other Spanakopita inspired recipes with spinach and feta
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Spanakopita Turkey Meatballs
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons salted butter melted, or olive oil
- juice and zest of one lemon about 2 tablespoons juice and 1 teaspoon zest
- 2 cups roughly chopped fresh spinach baby spinach or mature is fine
- 4 oz. feta cheese crumbled
- ¼ cup fresh dill roughly chopped
- 3 green onions thinly sliced, both green and white parts
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 lb. ground turkey or chicken
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Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet or baking dish with parchment paper for easy clean-up (alternatively, you can use baking spray, more butter, or some olive oil to grease the pan). Set aside.
- In a small bowl or glass measuring cup, add the 4 tablespoons salted butter and melt in the microwave. Stir in the juice and zest of one lemon into the melted butter.
- In a large bowl, pour in half the lemon butter mixture (about 3 tablespoons). Add the 2 cups roughly chopped fresh spinach, crumbled 4 oz. feta cheese, chopped ¼ cup fresh dill, thinly sliced 3 green onions, 2 eggs, ½ cup panko breadcrumbs, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Stir to mix together well – the spinach will wilt a bit as you do this.
- Add the 1 lb. ground turkey to the bowl and mix gently together until everything is well incorporated. Using your hands is the best way to mix meatballs to prevent over-mixing.
- Form the mixture into 12 large-ish meatballs. I like to use a large portion/ice cream scoop for this (see notes). Place in prepared baking dish. Spoon or brush the remaining melted butter and lemon mixture evenly on top of the meatballs.
- Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the meatballs is 165 degrees F. (Try not to overcook them as turkey tends to dry out easily. Keep in mind if you made smaller sized meatballs, you will need to bake it for less time).
- Serve – I recommend drizzling with the drippings from the bottom of the pan!
Notes
- I use this large portion scoop to make larger sized meatballs. It helps get them in uniform size and it’s easy to measure out the mixture without over-handling it. You can scoop directly into the prepared baking dish (this will result in one flatter side), or you can scoop it into your hands for a gently coaxing into a more proper round shape.
- These meatballs aren’t particularly browned on the outside, which is one of the reasons why this recipe is so easy and comes out so moist. If you want browning, feel free to pan fry these meatballs in oil or butter before putting into the baking dish, or broil toward the end of cooking so the top gets browned (just make sure to use a broiler safe dish and not use parchment paper). Keep in mind, turkey tends to overcook easily, and if you use one of these techniques to brown the meatballs they may come out a bit dryer.
- To make these dairy free, swap out the feta cheese for a vegan substitute and use olive oil instead of butter.
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and reflects one serving of the recipe (total servings indicated at top of recipe card). It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
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