Chefs Plate – Apricot Glazed Turkey Meatballs
You read my Chefs Plate Meal Kit unboxing post right? If you haven’t, head on over here, because this is all about my first experience cooking a Chefs Plate recipe! Here’s my review of their Apricot Glazed Turkey Meatball (with yellow beans, leeks, and quinoa) recipe.
I was sold when I saw this over on Chefs Plate’s Instagram account.
And really, I have never made meatballs from scratch before, so I figure, this is a good time to start.
The recipe card that comes with the meal kit includes:
Serving Information (2)
Recipe Difficulty (medium)
Prep Time (25 minutes)
Ingredient List (read on)
Nutrition information
6 Images + Instructions
Ingredients
I’ll translate them into Canadian measurements
12 oz Ground Turkey (340 grams)
5 oz Quinoa (142 grams)
1 Apricot (small)
1 Leek (small)
6 oz Sweet Peas (170 grams)
3 springs Dill
4 oz Yellow Wax Beans (113 grams)
1 Lemon
1 1/2 oz Soy Sauce – Gluten Free (2.5 tablespoon)
3 grams Five Spice (base on eyeing, I would say it’s about 2 teaspoons)
1 oz Apricot Jam (30 ml)
Cooking these meal kits, you don’t have to worry about the measurements since everything is pre-measured and portioned out for you. And now that I’m typing the ingredients list out, having everything in oz definitely isn’t making me want to shop for these at the supermarket to try and make this at home.
Before you start cooking, have 1 large fry pan, 1 small pot, and 1 small sauce pan ready to go. You’ll need all 3! Below are Chef’s Plate’s instructions. I will, however, removing the numbers since a lot of the steps, you have to do simultaneously for you to complete it in their “25 min” prep time.
Instructions
(my comments/addition will be in brackets)
Prepare the ingredients
- read the entire recipe card (definitely do that to see what you can do at the same time while prepping)
- Wash & dry all produce
- Halve, pit, and small dice the apricot
- Remove the stems from the yellow wax beans. Cut the beans in half. (There were no stems to remove on these beans they provided)
- Roughly chop the dill fronds
- Halve the leek lengthwise and thinly slice into half-moons
- Remove the sweet peas from the pods (This takes a bit of time but hey you’re using fresh ingredients! If you’re making this at home, you can always replace this with frozen peas!)
Really, just have your mise en place ready to go.
Cook the quinoa
- In a small pot, add the quinoa and 1 1/2 cups of water. Season with salt and bring to a boil on high
- Once boiling, cover with a tight-fitting lid and reduce heat to low.
- Cook for 15 minutes until all the water has been absorbed.
- Remove pot from heat and set aside, covered, for 5 minutes. Fluff Quinoa with a fork
Cook the apricot glaze
- In a small pot, add the apricot, soy sauce, apricot jam, juice from half the lemon and 1/4 cup water.
- Over medium heat, bring to a gentle boil. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and cook for 5 min. Remove the lid and cook for (another) 5 minutes until thickened.
- Remove pot from heat. Mash the glaze with a fork.
**Do not taste test while it’s still HOT, I burnt my tongue! Also tasting the sauce on its own (after it’s cooled), it tastes quite salty..but trust me, it works with the dish.
Cook the turkey meatballs
- Meanwhile (so while the quinoa and the glaze is cooking), mix the ground turkey, Chinese five-spice, salt and pepper (in a large bowl).
- Form 10 equal meatballs (I used my cookie dough scoop and it formed 11)
- In a medium pan, add 1 tbsp cooking oil over medium heat. (If you live like a bachelor and don’t have anything in your pantry, cooking oil is not included with the kit 🙂 )
- When the oil starts to shimmer, add the meatballs and cook for 3 minutes per side, or until turkey reaches 165°F.
- Remove meatballs from an. Reserve cooking juices. (by now, your quinoa should already be set aside and fluffed.)
Cook the leek and finish the quinoa
- In the pan used for the meatballs, add the yellow wax beans, and leek. Cook for 5 min, tossing occasionally, until the vegetables soften. Season with salt.
- Add the dill, sweet peas, cooked quinoa and remaining juice from the lemon. Toss to combine. Remove pan from heat.
Plate and serve
- Plate the quinoa with the turkey meatballs and apricot glaze on top.
Plated and portioned the way I did, I actually got 3 servings out of the recipe!
By the time I’m writing this, I’ve gotten into my 3rd box. I’ll share one of the 2 recipes from my 2nd box. All I can say for now is Ravioli! You can check it out on my Instagram account!
If you want to cook with me and give Chef’s Plate a try. I do have a little referral link and code you can use. By clicking here, you get 3 Free plates for your first delivery ($32.85 value). Or you can enter my referral tag #3platesFromExtraChewyCA upon check out!
*Update*
Looks like Chef’s Plate have joined the Ebates.ca family! Join Ebates and every time you order, you can get $7.50 cash back! I believe the first time you join Ebates, you’ll also get a $5 bonus cash to your account right away. With the help of Ebates.ca, Chef’s Plate is almost more affordable than buying weekly groceries!
Happy Cooking!