Spinach Salad with Gyro Turkey Meatballs

So, I almost missed this month’s Fantastical Food Fight – what with graduate school finals, and romaine trying to kill us and all.

Sarah of A fantastical Sharing of Recipes hosts each month as participants create something based on the monthly theme - this month's food fight is: Salad!

So yesterday, yes yesterday, I finally had some spinach (it will be a long, long time until I trust romaine again *shudder* (ps – if you’re not in the US or are in the US and living under a rock, romaine has been making friends with E. Coli lately and has been recalled)) and decided to try and make something for this food fight!

I had no real dinner plan other than, “swing by the grocery store while Dude is at piano and see what meat is on sale”.

Honestly, I was expecting to buy chicken breasts or pork loin or something.  But no, it was ground turkey that was on sale.  Hmmmm…

It definitely called for some creativity.  I wanted my food fight salad to be a main dish salad with some protein, but ground meat is not general what I think to combine with salad!

I ultimately decided that the ground turkey had to be transformed into meatballs.  But turkey meatballs are boring so they needed some amazing spices.

For some reason, I was reminded of my Gyro-Style Pork Salads and decided to try a turkey meatball version – with an amazing tzatziki dressing this time!

Though I’m the only one who really liked the tzatziki dressing (my family and I are all pretty like-minded when it comes to under-dressing our salads), the rest was a hit with the whole family (and I couldn’t get enough of the dressing *with* the salad!

It was so delicious and a welcome break after eating rather heavily during finals week (I rocked by finals, by the way – woot!!) I’m super glad I was able to participate and stretch myself with this recipe!

Spinach Salad with Gyro Turkey Meatballs

Inspired by Food & Wine 

Tzatziki Dressing

½ cucumber, peeled and diced

1/3 cup plain yogurt or sour cream

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons fresh chives

Salt & pepper

¼ cup crumbled feta cheese

Meatballs

1 pound ground turkey

¼ cup dried breadcrumbs

1 egg

¼ teaspoon sea salt

1 ½ teaspoon paprika

¼ teaspoon curry powder

¼ teaspoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon dried oregano

¼ teaspoon dried thyme

¼ teaspoon dried rosemary

1/8 teaspoon chili powder

1/8 teaspoon onion powder

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Salad

Fresh baby spinach

Cucumber, diced

Kalamata olives

Avocado, sliced

Pita chips

To make the dressing, place the cucumber, yogurt, olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and chives in a mini food processor or blender.  Pulse until smooth.  Add the feta and pulse to combine.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

To make the meatballs, mix all meatball ingredients until combined.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Cook meatballs until completely cooked through, flipping once.

To make the salad, place spinach on salad plates.  Top with cucumbers, Kalamata olives, avocado, and meatballs.  Drizzle with tzatziki dressing.  Garnish with pita chips and serve.

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