Cooking for someone who doesn’t like the taste or texture of onions?  Try substituting with fennel!  Raw it has a slight licorice taste however when you cook it down it doesn’t taste like much.  It’s refreshing and adds a nice crunch!!  In addition, fennel is high in vitamin C, B vitamins, and fiber as well as being soothing to the stomach and intestines.  My recipe below has both onion and fennel but you can simply omit the onion and double the fennel if need be.  Also, adding veggies to your ground meat can help you extend the serving sizes and feed more people.  This is a good tip if you’re wanting to buy organic on a budget.

Fennel bulb, sliced

Yields: 7-8 meatballs

Ingredients:

• 1 pound organic turkey breast (90-94 percent lean)
• 1/2 cup cooked quinoa (instead of bread crumbs; provides extra moisture and protein)
• 1/2 cup chopped fennel bulb
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 3-4 chopped fresh garlic cloves
• 2 tbsp dried or fresh Italian parsley
• 3 tbsp good olive oil plus a bit more for brushing meatballs
• 1 organic large egg, lightly beaten (optional)
• Celtic sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• One jar marinara sauce, preferably organic
• One box dried quinoa pasta, preferably Andean Dream

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together all the ingredients with a fork or gently with your hands
3. Lightly roll the mixture into 2 inch round meatballs and place on a parchment lined baking sheet
4. Spray or brush the meatballs with extra oil (I use my Misto olive oil sprayer or Kelapo coconut oil cooking spray)
5. Bake meatballs for 30 minutes or until tops are brown and center is completely cooked (or bake for 25 minutes and broil on high for the last 5 minutes to brown tops)
6. While the meatballs are baking, place the marinara sauce in a sauce pot on low to warm through and in another pot boil about 4-6 quarts of filtered water
7. Cook the pasta according to the package directions, 6-8 mins, and drain
   

   My favorite pasta brand!

   

   Great Target find! So good

8. Serve about 3/4 cups of pasta, 1/2 cup sauce, and 2-3 meatballs for each person
9. I also served mine with roasted eggplant
10. Top with Parmesan cheese, parsley and enjoy!

Served on an 8.5″ salad plate