Warning: this protein & veggie-packed dinner might just have you doing backflips in your kitchen. If you’ve been following AK for a while now, there’s a good chance you’ve made one of my epic meatballs recipes (like my famous ginger chicken meatballs). I LOVE making delicious meatball dishes for dinner because they’re super versatile, kid-friendly, and easier to make than you think!
These Greek turkey meatballs have tons of flavorful herbs rolled right into them and are served with beautiful veggies, bright lemon orzo, and a creamy, tangy feta sauce. One word to describe a bite of this combo: magical. This dish is the perfect well-rounded dinner with everything you could want — lots of protein, plenty of veggies, grains, and of course, incredible flavors.
Serve this gorgeous bowl with olives, pita, and extra herbs and sauce if you’d like! I included easy ways to prep them ahead of time and even freeze them for later to make weeknight dinners a breeze.
Everything you’ll need to make these Greek turkey meatballs
This recipe is truly one of the best sheet pan meals. Herby Greek turkey meatballs baked on one pan with the veggies then served with a flavorful lemon orzo and a creamy, tangy feta yogurt sauce. YUM. Here’s everything you’ll need to make them:
- For the sauce: we’re using my go-to creamy feta yogurt dressing that’s the perfect combo of tangy, creamy and salty.
- For the meatballs: you’ll need some lean ground turkey, an egg & breadcrumbs for binding, red onion, fresh herbs like parsley and mint, dried oregano, and plenty of salt & pepper.
- For the veggies: the meatballs will bake right up with bell peppers and red onion.
- For the orzo: you’ll get plenty of flavor for the orzo with lemon juice, lemon zest, a little butter or olive oil, salt & pepper.
More delicious ways to serve these meatballs
I love the combo of the lemon orzo and feta sauce with these healthy Greek turkey meatballs, but you could also:
- Swap the orzo for quinoa, rice, farro or couscous
- Try my Homemade Tzatziki Sauce in place of the feta sauce
- Mix in some pitted, sliced kalamata olives with the orzo for extra bites of flavor
- Serve with pita and extra feta sauce for dipping!
Can I make the gluten free?
Sure! Feel free to add 2-3 tablespoons of coconut flour to the meatball mixture instead of the breadcrumbs, or simply use gluten free breadcrumbs.
You can then serve the meatballs with quinoa or rice instead of orzo, or simply enjoy them with the sauce.
Tip for forming your meatballs
I recommend wetting your hands, coating them with a little olive oil, or spraying your hands with a little nonstick cooking spray before rolling your meatballs to prevent the mixture from sticking. So easy!
Make these baked Greek turkey meatballs ahead of time
There are two easy ways that you can actually make these Greek turkey meatballs ahead of time and cook them up when you’re ready!
- From cooked: mix and form the meatballs, then bake them as directed or cook them in a skillet. Once cooked, store them in the fridge for up to 2-3 days until you’re ready to continue with the recipe.
- From raw: mix and form the meatballs, then place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Tightly cover the meatballs with plastic wrap and put them in the fridge until you are ready to cook them. You can prep these meatballs 1-2 days ahead of time. Once ready to cook, simply follow the recipe as written.
How to freeze these meatballs for later
- Cook first, then freeze: place your cooked Greek turkey meatballs and peppers in a freezer-safe, airtight container or bag and freeze them for up to 3 months. *Be sure you don’t overcook the peppers before freezing them. When you’re ready to enjoy, let your container of meatballs & peppers thaw in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight. When they’re almost done thawing you can make the orzo and sauce. Finally, heat the meatballs and peppers in a pan until they’re nice and warm, and serve with the orzo and sauce!
- Freeze before cooking: you can also freeze these meatballs before cooking them! Form your meatballs as instructed, place them on a baking sheet, and put them in the freezer for 1-2 hours. This is called a flash freeze. Then, transfer your frozen meatballs to an airtight, freezer-friendly bag or container and place in the freezer for up to 3 months. To thaw them, simply place them in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight and then cook them as directed in the recipe.
Recommended tools
Check out all of my kitchen essentials here!
More meatball recipes you’ll love
- Sweet & Spicy Sesame Chicken Meatball Bowls
- One Pan Cilantro Chicken Meatballs in Mango Coconut Sauce
- Firecracker Chicken Meatballs with Cilantro Coconut Pineapple Rice
- One Pan Ginger Chicken Meatballs with Peanut Sauce
- One Pan Enchilada Zucchini Turkey Meatballs and Rice
Get even more dinner recipes here!
I hope you love these delicious Greek turkey meatballs with orzo and feta sauce! If you make them be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know how you liked them. Enjoy, xo!
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Greek Turkey Meatballs with Lemon Orzo & Creamy Feta Yogurt Sauce
Ingredients
- For the feta yogurt sauce:
- ½ cup plain greek yogurt
- ½ cup feta crumbles
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- Freshly ground salt and black pepper, to taste
- 1-3 teaspoons water to thin sauce so you can drizzle it over meatballs
- For the meatballs:
- 1 pound lean ground chicken or turkey (around 93% lean is best)
- 1 egg
- ½ cup breadcrumbs
- ¼ cup finely diced red onion (from about 1/4th large red onion)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced (or sub ½ teaspoon garlic powder)
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- For the veggies:
- 1 red bell pepper, julienned
- 1 orange bell pepper, julienned
- 1 red onion, sliced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Freshly ground salt and pepper
- For the lemon orzo:
- 1 ⅓ cup orzo pasta (8 ounces)
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- Juice from ½ lemon (about 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice)
- 1-2 tablespoons butter (or olive oil)
- Freshly ground salt and pepper, to taste
- Optional: ½ cup pitted and sliced kalamata olives
- To garnish:
- Fresh torn mint and parsley
- For serving:
- Optional: Pita bread
Instructions
- First make the feta yogurt sauce: add yogurt, feta, olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice and garlic powder to the bowl of a food processor or to a blender. Process/blend until smooth and well combined, scraping down the sides as necessary. Add salt and pepper to taste and process once more. If it’s not thin enough, feel free to add 1-3 teaspoons of water so that you can easily drizzle it. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, add the ground chicken or turkey, egg, breadcrumbs, diced red onion, garlic, parsley, mint, oregano, salt and pepper; use clean hands to form into 16 golf ball sized meatballs. Set aside.
- Tip for forming meatballs: keep a small bowl of water to dip your hands in before forming each meatball. It makes it so much easier!
- Add peppers and onions to a medium bowl and drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil and freshly ground salt and pepper. Toss together then add veggies to the prepared pan and spread out evenly. Next nestle the meatballs in between the veggies. Bake for 17-23 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees F.
- While the meatballs are cooking, you can make the orzo: first cook the orzo according to the directions on the package. Once al dente, drain the orzo and add back to the pot, then stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice, butter (or olive oil) and season with salt and pepper to taste. I really like to add a lot of black pepper to mine! Lastly, stir in the kalamata olives.
- To serve: add orzo to plates or bowls, then top with meatballs (4 per person) and peppers/onion mixture. Drizzle with the feta yogurt sauce and garnish with fresh torn mint and parsley. I also love adding fresh pita triangles or pita chips on the side as an option, too! Enjoy! Serves 4.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
This post was originally published on June 6th, 2022, republished on August 23rd, 2023, and republished on March 5th, 2025.
The meatballs lacked flavor, very bland, although the yogurt sauce was very good. But not enough to flavor the meatballs enough. I made other Greek meatball recipes with feta in the meatballs with also spinach and more spices and those were good.
Sorry you didn’t love these! With all of the fresh herbs and seasonings, I’ve always found the meatballs to have plenty of flavor.
Once again, AK hits the mark with flavorful and healthy. Absolutely delicious. Used mini peppers, red onions and fresh garden asparagus because that’s what i had. Love all the layered flavors and textures. A keeper to put in our regular rotation!
This one’s so fun to customize! Glad you loved it!
This was good! Love the flavor in the meatballs. Next time, I’ll make a double batch of the orzo because 8oz wasn’t enough for us to eat twice. The lemon and butter combo was so good
So glad it was a hit! Great idea to make extra orzo, too 🙂
Just posting to say that I make this recipe at least once a month for lunch meal prep. It’s my husband’s favorite thing that I make, and he requests it all the time. I love your website, and everything is always delicious!
Amazing! So happy to hear it’s a favorite!
This is a go-to recipe in my family! So easy to put together. I like to add extra feta crumbles in the meatballs for extra flavor (and because we can never seem to use up the whole container of feta).
So happy to hear that!
While it looked like a lot of fussing at first this dish came together quickly and easily. Very much worth a couple extra dishes. I think the mint was a game changer so try not to skip that. The feta sauce was also delicious. All in all a dish to impress.
Absolutely! Glad it was a hit!
Holy Cow! These were amaaaazing! The feta sauce was a bit tart, so we wound up adding some dill and extra olive oil. Gluten free 4C in the meatballs and casava orzo to make it gluten free. I sauteed the peppers and onions on the stove and let me tell you, my daughter and I are going to make this again tomorrow. Thank you so much!!
Perfect! So happy you both enjoyed!
Hi! I really love your recipes, unfortunately, so many of them include bell peppers. I am extremely allergic to bell peppers, go to hospital allergic. Can you please suggest a good replacement? I am tired of not being able to try so many recipes due to this.
Hi! Feel free to use any veggies you like here. Zucchini would be great!
This meal was amazing! So fresh, flavourful & delicious. I roasted cherry tomatoes with the peppers for my daughters who don’t like peppers and served with sliced cucumber. Everyone devoured it (a rare occurrence). This one will be in our regular rotation now for sure!
Amazing! One of our fav dinners, too 🙂
Another delicious recipe! It was just the right amount of lemon and I like the salty ‘funk’ that the feta dressing added! My mom and I shared it and I’ll be having the leftovers for 2 more lunches.
Absolutely! Glad you both enjoyed 🙂
Great recipe– everyone in the family loved it. I used ground turkey for the meatballs and quinoa instead of orzo since that’s what I had in the pantry.. I didn’t have mint or fresh lemon on hand so I skipped the mint and while not ideal, I subbed bottled lemon juice and it was still amazing. Thanks for a really good, healthy recipe!
Perfect! This one’s flexible 🙂 So glad everyone loved it!
This was so delicious! I have a Ninja Combi so I converted it and cooked it all at once. I also just mixed the meatballs with a wooden spoon, turned them out onto the pan and used the spoon to make a rectangle. I then used a spatula to cut them into square meatballs. I added about a 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan too. I’ve made it twice. I added the Kalamata olives and spinach to the orzo. It’s a beautiful dish.
Perfect! So glad it turned out delicious!
I made this as written and absolutely loved it. It will be in my regular rotation, and I’m excited to make it for others!
Made this delish meal with a few modifications (no mint, & rice instead of orzo, because I didnt have either.) Husband and I really enjoyed it! Simple and delicious!
Perfect! Glad it was a hit!
I made this last night! Tasted amazing- so fresh and I love the summer vibes!
So glad you loved it!
Delish. One of the best meals I’ve made, such good flavors
So happy to hear that!
Fabulous flavors that everyone loved! This recipe will definitely become part of our rotation. Thinking about serving it over a bed of arugula from time to time just to change things up a bit. Light and delightful either way!
So happy to hear that! And love the idea of serving with arugula 🙂
So fresh, so mediterranean- how could you not feel amazing after eating these?? Also, I don’t like things super lemon-y so I cut the amount of lemon in the sauce and orzo by about half
Perfect! So glad you enjoyed!
This was such a good recipe! My boyfriend loved it and we add it to our bi-weekly food roster! For a quick substitute to the dressing I just used tzatziki and crumble feta on top! I also add a can of drained chickpeas to my orzo for extra protein!
Love that! Perfect weeknight dinner 🙂
This is a fabulous recipe. A wonderful bouquet of flavors. Well written instructions and fun to make.
So glad you loved it!
This is a fabulous recipe. A wonderful bouquet of flavors. Well written instructions and fun to make.
This looks wonderful. I am wondering if the yogurt sauce can be made ahead of time. And what would you serve with this dish for a side dish. Thank you
Yes, feel free to make it ahead of time! I typically just serve this meal as is because of the veggie, meat, and grain components all in one, but check out more of my side dishes here 🙂
This is delicious and healthy! Perfect for spring when you want something somewhat comforting but with a brighter flavor profile. The meatballs are especially forgiving because I accidentally had my meat thermometer set to Celsius so I baked them way longer than necessary and they were not dried out at all! The feta sauce is also divine and the lemony orzo with olives is a prefect compliment. Being able to cook the meatballs and veggies all on one sheet tray is also helpful!
Absolutely! So easy and delicious 🙂
I just prepared this recipe for dinner, and I will be putting it on repeat! It was very easy to make, and it was refreshingly light and delicious! I had some leftover feta cheese, so I added to the meatball mixture. I also plan to make a bunch of the meatballs and freeze them for later.
Amazing! So happy you love it!
This was super easy to make and so flavourful!
One of our favorite dinners! Glad you enjoyed 🙂
I have been making this recipe for over a year now, maybe 2! It is such a great recipe!
I have made it for 5 families after they’ve had babies and every single one swoons over it! The last family even said, “is this THE famous dinner?!” Because they’ve heard about it so many times! And bonus.. I just double the recipe and we get to eat it for dinner too! 🙂
Thank you!
One of our favs, too! The perfect weeknight dinner 🙂
This was pretty good! The prep time is pretty long so definitely not a weeknight kind of meal, more so meal prep, but nonetheless very flavorful and i dont like mint so i used dill instead 🙂
Feel free to roll the meatballs ahead of time, too, to save time!
This was a huge hit at dinner time. These came together quickly and packed so much flavor that this truly felt like restaurant quality food at home. Delicious!
So happy to hear that! One of our fav dinners, too 🙂
I made this exactly as written and it was very good!I would double the sauce next time as it’s yummy!
So glad you loved it!
Made this for supper tonight. I loved it. There were great instructions for freezing the meatballs before or after cooking. I froze my meatballs before cooking. I thought the recipe was clear and easy to follow. It dish was really good as written. I didn’t change a thing. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Perfect! So glad you enjoyed!
This is one of my favorite recipes ever! My husband and 1.5 year old love it too. I’ve been making it for years, and it’s been good every single time (and good left over too). Cant wait for more recipes in your new cookbook!
I’m so glad! Our team loves this one SO much 🙂 Hope you find new favorite recipes in the cookbook, too — thanks so much for your support!
This recipe is so DELICIOUS!! My whole family looks forward to this recipe! It makes enough for leftovers and honestly they are so good the next day! I love the yogurt sauce! Wow this is such a delicious meal! It could be ann easy weeknight mix up or a great dinner to serve guests!
You have to try it! Super easy and always comes out perfect even when I add a bit more (or less) of an ingredient depending on what I have on hand!
Another amazing recipe by ambitious kitchen! Love it!
Absolutely! One of our all-time favs, too 🙂 Glad you all love it!
SO delicious and so comforting. For the feta/Greek Yogurt dressing, I used a little extra feta and did not add water so the dressing was more like a dip than a sauce. Will absolutely add these to my dinner rotation!
Perfect! Glad you enjoyed!
So good!!! We have this almost weekly it’s so healthy and delicious 🩷🩷
Amazing! Such a great dinner!
This was delicious! Mint and parsley are two of the first things ready to eat from our garden in Spring. Perfect timing to try this recipe. I served it over rice. Will definitely make this again.
Amazing! The fresh herbs make this extra delicious.
Flavours work really well together. I substituted the orzo with Quinoa. So tasty!
Perfect! Glad you enjoyed!
This was absolutely delicious and super easy!! The meatballs stayed very moist too!
One of our fav dinners!
This was so easy, flavorful and satisfying!!! Absolutely loved this dish (:
So happy to hear that!
This was so easy to make, and loaded with flavour. I will definitely make this again!
One of my all-time favs!
Made these meatballs tonight for dinner and they were a huge hit! Super tasty and really easy to throw together, we will be making these again!
So happy to hear that!
super delicious !
Glad you enjoyed!
Love this Greek meatball recipe. It’s packed with fresh flavors and is one of my go to weeknight meals especially in the summer.
One of my favs, too! Glad you love it 🙂
This is one of my family’s favorite AK recipes! The meatballs are incredibly flavorful but the SAUCE is what brings it all together. I could literally drink it. With a little weekend prep, this is the perfect weeknight recipe!
The best!! So glad you all love it, too!
Made exactly how is and my whole family loved it! My husband requested it again soon and we just finished 20 minutes ago haha
Amazing! Glad it was a hit 🙂
I’ve made just the meatballs several times with ground chicken. Some poultry meatball recipes are overloaded with herbs & spices, but these are just right.
So glad you love them!