Turkey & Vegetable Meatballs

Ingredients

• 500 g turkey mince
• 1 courgette, grated, excess moisture squeezed out
• 1 carrot, grated
• 50 g breadcrumbs
• 1 egg
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Rocket and seed salad, to serve
• Fresh parsley, to serve

Method

1. Tip the turkey mince into a large bowl with the cooked red lentils, grated courgette (squeeze it hard in a clean tea towel first — wet courgette means slack meatballs), grated carrot, breadcrumbs, egg, crushed garlic and oregano. Season generously with salt and pepper — meatballs need seasoning from the inside, not just the sauce. Mix with your hands until evenly combined, then roll into about 24 walnut-sized balls.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large stainless or cast-iron pan over medium-high heat. Brown the meatballs in two batches, 3–4 minutes a side, turning so they colour all over. Don't crowd the pan — all 24 at once and they steam in their own moisture instead of browning, and you lose the fond that makes the sauce. Lift onto a plate.
3. Blitz the chopped tomatoes with the roasted red pepper until smooth — a stick blender in a jug is easiest.
4. Drop the heat to medium. Pour the tomato and pepper mixture into the same pan with a splash of water to help the tomatoes break down — bare tinned tomatoes simmered briefly taste of heated tin; the extra liquid coaxes them into something that tastes of summer fruit. Add the oregano and a good pinch of salt, and scrape up the browned bits from the base — that's where the flavour lives. The garlic in the meatballs will perfume the sauce as it simmers, so no need to add more here — just keep the heat gentle so nothing scorches and turns bitter.
5. Slide the meatballs back in, spoon the sauce over, then cover and cook for 15 minutes until cooked through and the sauce has thickened and clings to each one.
6. Taste, season, taste again. Adjust now — at the end, not at the table.
7. Plate the meatballs over cooked pasta or rice, spoon the sauce generously over the top, scatter the torn basil or parsley, and finish with a squeeze of lemon to lift everything you've just built.