Savory pumpkin turkey meatballs in a creamy, dairy-free, paleo and Whole30 harvest tomato sauce with pumpkin and spices. Â Makes a cozy, healthy and filling dinner and the leftovers are great for a next-day lunch. Â Gluten-free, grain-free, kid approved and easy to make!
If you’re anything like me, you might be looking at the title of this recipe and feeling sort of torn about the combination of flavors I’m proposing here. Â On one hand, it makes perfect sense – pumpkin is a veggie after all, and typically veggies mix in seamlessly with meatballs and sauces.
But, then again, it’s pumpkin.
The veggie that we accept without question in our pies, cookies, muffins, and even soups and chilis this time of year, but, um, meatballs?! Â Turkey meatballs? Â And tomato sauce? Did you put pumpkin spice in there too?!
Well, um, yes.  Trust me – I had the same feeling about this recipe all the way up until the moment not I, but my kids and husband tasted it and gave me the seal of approval.  And well, I liked it too, but, I’m way too emotional about (and critical of) my recipes to trust my own opinion of them anymore.
Anyway, once I realized that yes – pumpkin and turkey meatballs can actually be great friends, I relaxed a little bit and just enjoyed the unique combination of flavors that happens to be oh-so-autumn-harvest-ish.
Super cozy – super healthy – filling, warming, and even Whole30 compliant as well.
And I haven’t even gotten into how easy this recipe actually is! Â As far as meatball recipes go, this is almost as simple as it gets. Â The meatball mixture comes together quickly, then we just stick ’em in the oven and let ’em bake! Â No browning in the pan necessary and no added oils either.
While the meatballs bake, we make our sauce on the stovetop. Â It’s a mixture of tomato sauce, pumpkin puree, bone broth and coconut milk (for an ultra creamy sauce!) with lots of savory herbs and spices plus onions and garlic for classic flavor.
You can adjust the ratio of broth/coconut milk based on how creamy you want the sauce. Â I used 1/2 cup of each which created a nice thick and creamy sauce, but feel free to experiment and taste along the way.
I will say that even with the 1/2 cup of coconut milk added, the sauce doesn’t taste at all “coconutty” (this is a very popular question!) since all the other flavors greatly overpower the small amount of coconut flavor from the milk.
As for the herbs and spices, I used a mix of fresh minced poultry herbs in the meatballs, but dry seasonings in the sauce.  And as I mentioned earlier, I did add pumpkin pie spice to the sauce, which my family wound up loving, but, it’s totally optional based on your tastes.  I wasn’t sure I’d like it, but was pleasantly surprised to find it added a nice touch to the flavor of the sauce.
For serving, I decided to go with spiralized white sweet potato noodles, but you can really serve this with anything you want – swoodles and zoodles totally optional!
These would be great with roasted potatoes, cauliflower, brussels sprouts or kale, or any combination of sides you can think of. Â One of my favorites are my roasted brussels sprouts with apples and bacon.
If you do want to try spiralizing white sweet potato, I recommend this spiralizer – I started using it about a month ago and it works better for tough veggies like sweet potatoes and butternut squash than any other I’ve used. Â Are you guys ready to cook?! Â Let’s get started!
Pumpkin Turkey Meatballs with Creamy Harvest Tomato Sauce {Whole30}
Turkey Pumpkin Meatballs with Creamy Harvest Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Meatballs:
- 1.25 lbs ground turkey
- 1/2 cup organic pumpkin puree
- 1/4 cup blanched almond flour
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme minced
- 1 tbsp fresh sage minced
- 1 tbsp fresh rosemary minced
Sauce:
- 2 Tbsp organic coconut oil or ghee
- 15 oz can tomato sauce
- 1 1/4 cups organic pumpkin puree or remaining amount from a 15 oz can
- 1/2 cup full fat coconut milk see note**
- 1/2 cup chicken bone broth or homemade bone broth
- 1 small Onion chopped
- 3 cloves Garlic minced
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice optional
- 1/2 tsp dried sage
- 1/2 tsp dried crushed rosemary
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Crushed red pepper optional, for spice
- Chopped parsley for garnish
Instructions
To Make Meatballs:
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Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
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Mix all meatball ingredients in a large bowl with your hands until well combined. Form mixture into 18 balls*
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Bake meatballs (makes 18) on baking sheet at 425 for 15-18 minutes or until no longer pink on the inside, turning once midway.
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Transfer to pot with the sauce (instructions below), allow to simmer in sauce on low heat for about 5 minutes
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To Make Sauce:
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Meanwhile, melt the coconut oil or ghee in a large saucepan or stock pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent and fragrant, then add the garlic and continue to cook for 2 minutes or until soft and fragrant.
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Lower the heat, then add the tomato sauce, pumpkin, broth, coconut milk, Italian seasoning, pumpkin pie spice, dried sage, dried rosemary and stir to combine well. Season with salt, black pepper or crushed red pepper, if desired. Stir to combine flavors, then cover and allow to simmer for 5 minutes prior to adding the meatballs. After adding meatballs, continue to simmer on low heat about 5 minutes prior to serving.
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Serve over your favorite veggie noodles (I love sweet potato noodles with these!
Recipe Notes
*If your mixture is sticky, wet your hands a bit before rolling into balls, as needed. **Blend your coconut milk to a smooth consistency before adding. If you prefer a slightly thinner sauce, use 1/4 cup coconut milk and 3/4 cup broth instead of 1/2 and 1/2.
Nutrition
What I Used To Make My Pumpkin Turkey Meatballs:
Want More Fall-Themed Whole30 Dinner Recipes? Â Try One of These!
Caramelized Onion Apple and Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash
Turkey Meatballs with Apples and Herbs
Creamy Tomato Basil Chicken with Roasted Butternut Squash
Roasted Acorn Squash with Sausage Apple Cranberry Pecan Stuffing
Tell Me!
Favorite savory pumpkin recipe?
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Love this fall themed twist on classic meatballs! Can’t wait to try with some spaghetti squash!
My family has enjoyed all your recipes from your Blog.
Do you have a book of your recipes
Can you use regular flour instead of the almond flour? Not super concerned about the recipe being Paleo – just think it looks good but my son is allergic to almonds.
These look delish!! Can’t wait to try for fall.
Enjoy!
Made this for dinner, the sauce smells so heavenly and tastes yummy too! Going to serve this with organic cauliflower rice and a salad! Thanks for sharing all your delicious ideas!
That sounds great! So happy you like it 🙂
What an amazing recipe! The flavors are amazing and it was a huge hit with my 10 month old twins! However, my meatballs fell apart very easily. I doubled the recipe for leftovers… Any suggestions to help with this issue? I plan on making this again in the near future but would like to perfect it!
Hmm, not sure, you may want to add a second egg to get them to stick more? Glad you enjoyed anyway 🙂
I had never used pumpkin in a savory meal and let me tell you we enjoyed it very much. I love the flavor and will be making this meal over and over again.
That’s great! So happy to hear it worked out 🙂
Hi! Love this recipe – just wondering how many meatballs are in one serving, in regards to the nutritional information?
Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful recipes with us! Have you ever thought about putting them all in a cookbook I would definitely buy it. This recipe was the BOMB, they seriously were SO yummy thank you!
I’m hoping to do a cookbook in the near future! So glad you’re enjoying the recipes 🙂
I really want to try this recipe but can’t have any nuts. Do you think it would work with coconut flour?
Coconut flour would make the meatballs too dry and crumbly, you can try eliminating the flour entirely and still get the same flavor and they should still stick together! Or, you could try subbing in flaxseed, maybe a Tbsp less.
How about regular flour?
I’m not sure, if you’re able to eat gluten you could always go with bread crumbs, I suppose.
DELISH!!! Made for lunch and was a hit for the entire family!
Awesome! So happy to hear that 🙂
This recipe was delicious. Served with some garlic zoodles. I will definitely be doing it again and again! To make fast work of forming the meatballs, I used a small scooper. Thanks for a great recipe!
That sounds great! So happy you enjoyed 🙂
Delicious and moist, super easy to make and the sauce was incredibly yummy!! Such a wonderful comfort food!!
Glad you enjoyed!
Really good. I toned down the amount of fresh herbs in the meatballs and they were still plenty flavorful. I put these over brown rice pasta but would love to do spiralized veggies next time. This was a perfect dish for fall and the meatballs came out absolutely perfect.
This was delightful. I normally really dislike the addition of coconut milk to recipes but this was so creamy and wonderful. Thanks for a great recipe that will certainly be added to our dinner rotation.
This turned it so good! I never would have thought to mix pumpkin in a red sauce. I didn’t have fresh herbs so I just used a tsp each of dry. I also served over mashed cauliflower and it was a hit! Thanks!
It is wonderful to be here with everyone, I have a lot of knowledge from what you share, to say thank you, the information and knowledge here helps me a lot
Made this tonight and it was delicious! I served over butternut squash ravioli (my husband over rice) and I honestly felt like it was something I ordered from a gourmet restaurant! So quick and easy for a weeknight dinner as well. Great recipe!
This was absolutely delicious! So fresh and flavorful; perfect for the first day of Fall! I put the meatballs and sauce over mashed cauliflower. My fiance had three servings! Two thumbs up and highly recommend! I’ll be making this one again.
Can this be made ahead and frozen?
Is it possible to make this ahead of time and freeze it?