In less than 30 minutes, you can have this Instant Pot Meatball and Couscous Meal Prep ready to go! These turkey meatballs are not only delicious but this meal prep is fast, easy, and healthy!
A Healthy Instant Pot Meal Prep: Turkey Meatball and Couscous
Have you ever had a dry turkey meatball before? Bland right? Well, I’m here today to tell you my secret to a delicious juicy meatball: parmesan. Not only does the parmesan adds that extra kick of flavour and help hold the meatballs themselves together, but it add little pockets of cheese that make these meatballs really juicy. I almost always add parmesan to my meatballs and it’s definitely worth that little bit of extra calories. Plus if you own an Instant Pot, the IP helps keeps your meatballs from drying out since it’s being cooked under pressure with steam!
Anyways, now that you know my secret to juicy turkey meatballs, I’d like to share with you a recent meal prep I’ve been working on. I’ve been somewhat obsessed with couscous. I mean, they’re just so cute and round, why wouldn’t you want to eat it?! Anyways, I’ve been playing around to see how I can streamline meal prepping some more and see how many healthy Instant Pot meals I can make before I’m out of ideas and this was my more recent creation. Note, you can do make this turkey meatball and couscous meal prep without an Instant Pot but it’ll just take more than one pot to make.
What you’ll need to make Instant Pot Meatball and Couscous Meal Prep
For the turkey meatballs, you’ll need:
- turkey
- panko
- parmesan
- garlic
- egg
- oregano
- paprika
For the couscous, you’ll need:
- butter
- chicken broth
- couscous
How to Make This Meal Prep in the Instant Pot
- In a large bowl, mix together all your meatball ingredients before rolling them out into little meatballs
- Once all the meatballs are rolled, brown them on each side in your Instant Pot in sauté mode before removing them and setting them aside.
- Deglaze your inner pot to clean it or swap out a new inner pot. In a clean inner pot, back on sauté mode, melt your butter and then pour in your broth and couscous.
- Place a little trivet into the Instant Pot and place the steam rack on top of the trivet and place your meatballs in. (note, you might have to do a separate batch of just meatballs if all of them do not fit)
- Pressure cook for 7 minutes.
How to Make This in the Oven or Stovetop
- In a large bowl, mix together all your meatball ingredients before rolling them out into little meatballs.
- Once all the meatballs are rolled, either fry them in a pan or bake them in the oven at 400 for 15-20 minutes. Make sure to spray the pan with non-stick or place in a parchment paper.
- In a separate pot, follow the instructions on your couscous package (usually 1:1.5 couscous to water ratio).
Tips for the perfect healthy instant pot meatball meal prep
- This recipe makes 52 meatballs. You can either pressure cook these in two batches (once with the couscous, once after removing the couscous) or you can freeze half of the batch and use them later.
- I use a cookie scoop to portion out my meatballs so they’re all the same size – this helps them cook evenly and at the same time.
- Want to add more flavour to the couscous? I use chicken broth to it while cooking (instead of water) but you can also sprinkle parmesan on top of it before serving.
- While you can skip the browning step of the meatballs, I’d recommend browning the meatballs as it helps them keep their shape.
- Want to cut down on the meat? cut the meat in half and add the same amount back in mushrooms chopped finely/
Make Ahead Tips
- Meal prep: store the cooked turkey meatballs with the couscous in an airtight container for up to 4 days in the fridge. Be sure to let the meal cool before packing it into the fridge.
- Freezer: allow the cooked meatballs to cool before transferring it into an airtight container before storing them in the freezer. Thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat in the microwave or oven before eating. I would skip freezing the couscous.
- Baking Method — How to prep this for the freezer: To meal prep this ahead of time, you can freeze the raw meatballs on a sheet pan with parchment paper underneath. Then, once they’ve harden, you can transfer them to a freezer bag to freeze for up to 3 months. Bake from frozen with the same method.
Instant Pot Meatball and Couscous Meal Prep
Ingredients
Meatballs
Couscous
- 1 tbsp butter
- 5-6 cups broth, see note
- 340 grams pearl couscous, one box of PC Black Label brand
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together all your meatball ingredients before rolling them out into little meatballs
Instant Pot Instructions
- Once all the meatballs are rolled, brown them on each side in your Instant Pot in sauté mode before removing them and setting them aside.
- Deglaze your inner pot to clean it or swap out a new inner pot. In a clean inner pot, back on sauté mode, melt your butter and then pour in your broth and couscous.
- Place a little trivet into the Instant Pot and place the steam rack on top of the trivet and place your meatballs in. (note, you might have to do a separate batch of just meatballs if all of them do not fit)
- Pressure cook for 7 minutes.
Non Instant Pot Instructions
- Once all the meatballs are rolled, either fry them in a pan or bake them in the oven at 400 for 15-20 minutes. Make sure to spray the pan with non-stick or place in a parchment paper.
- In a separate pot, follow the instructions on your couscous package (usually 1:1.5 couscous to water ratio).
Notes
- this recipe makes 52 meatballs.
- the standard instant couscous to liquid ratio is 1 cup couscous to 1½ cup liquid. please double check your ratio as while this worked for the couscous I purchased (100 grams = ½ cup of couscous), it might not work for yours.
- please note the original recipe had a typo in it, listing 540g couscous instead of 340g couscous. The recipe has since been updated to reflect the typo.
Nutrition Per Serving
WANT MORE MEAL PREPS?
- Spicy Peanut Beef with Broccoli Rice Meal Prep
- Vietnamese Bun Cha Inspired Meatballs Meal Prep
- Spicy Peanut Chicken Wraps
- Healthy Turkey Taco Meal Prep Bowl
- Freezer Friendly Whole Chicken Meal Prep
- Healthy Greek Chicken and Rice Meal Prep
- Honey Sriracha Turkey and Mushroom Meatballs
Want more healthy Instant Pot recipes?
- Healthier Instant Pot Butter Chicken
- Healthy Instant Pot Lasagna Soup
- Easy Instant Pot Beef Stew
- Spicy Chicken and Rice, Inspired by Chipotle
- Healthy Greek Chicken and Rice Instant Pot Meal Prep + Video
- Vietnamese Bun Cha Inspired Meatballs
Other places to connect with me
Instagram: @carmyshungry
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carmyycom
Email: [email protected]
Vlogs/Recipe Videos: Youtube
Gloria
Hello fellow Canadian. I sure recognized those PC products. This sounds like a great weeknight meal. Glad you included non IP instructions, I have a regular pressure cooker, and I know I can adapt this recipe to make it in that too. I love using ground turkey….works so well.
Tina
These look simple and delicious. I love that tip about the parmesan, sign me up! I don’t have an IP but I can totally work your baking instructions. These look great, saving these. My daughter LOVES meatballs:)
Pam Greer
Adding this to my list of Instant Pot recipes!! I love the sound of these meatballs and the tip about parmesan cheese is great!
Amanda
I am such a fan of pearled couscous, so this dish is right up my alley! What a great idea to cook meatballs in the Instant Pot! I haven’t tried doing that yet, but it sounds so convenient, and I bet the meatballs are so tender. Makes preparing a healthy weeknight meal easy. I often struggle with pulling off a balanced dinner during the week with busy schedules!
Lisa
I love your tips for moist (and flavorful) turkey meatballs. Parmesan cheese is a constant in my refrigerator, so I will definitely try this. I don’t have an IP but I do have a pressure cooker and I think I could make this dinner in it. Do you have any tips for a regular pressure cooker?
Susie
I love using my Instant Pot but haven’t made meatballs yet! I will have to try this recipe! I also love couscous. I feel like it’s such an underused side dish. Pinning this now!
Dana
These sound so good, Carmy! Turkey meatballs are so good. When done right, they’re just melt-in-your-mouth moist. I love that they’re paired with couscous too. Couscous is scrumptious and I don’t cook with it enough! This recipe is an excuse for me to up my game, though.
Marisa Franca
What a great tip with turkey meatballs. I haven’t made them specifically because they tend to be on the dry side. Parmesan is a staple in our house so that ingredient is not a problem. I wish I did have an Instant Pot but alas I do not. I think I could probably cook that in our slow cooker. This would be a fantastic weeknight meal.
Sean
Sounds like a wonderful recipe to work with! I’m trying to find more (and better) make-ahead meals, and I love both turkey and a good meatball. As you say in the post though, dry can be so unsatisfying. This sounds very promising, and as a fan of all things instant pot, you’ve definitely piqued my curiosity! Cheers!
Ryan
The only good thing about this “instant pot” meal were the meatballs. They tasted good. The recipe instructions despite the note, were not enough to be successful with cooking the couscous in the instant pot. 540g (Grams is also confusing here, why not just use cups here?) was WAY WAY too much. Even at 3-1 broth to couscous, it would still not come to pressure. Nothing I did got it to pressure so I feel lucky my first round of meatballs got cooked with minimal burning to the couscous (though much of it was mushy, I’m sure due to the added broth on my end). It was edible albeit incredibly bland. There’s no sauce or anything to go with it, even though I just noticed there’s a lime wedge in the picture. Why were these left out? I might have even left 2-3 stars except once I got into the recipe and started having issues, I looked to the reviews to see if they had experience with it.. Nope. All of the reviews are 5 stars, and posted within 7 days of the recipe being posted. Which on its own is fine. But then every single one indicates that they have not tried this recipe, but will in the future… Who the heck leaves a 5 star review for a recipe, without even cooking it, and just based on the way it looks? I’m taking a guess that its friends of the poster. Which is a really crappy way to have your recipe reviews look good.
Carmy
Hi Ryan, apologies that this didn’t work out for you. I believe the 540grams is a typo as I used 1 box of couscous which is 340grams (which would be in-line with my listed 5-6 cups of broth). Thank you for bringing this to my attention. However, if you put in 1:1.5 couscous to broth ratio, your pressure cooker should have come up to pressure as I make couscous this method regularly. Was the pot fully deglazed? I find that if I don’t fully deglaze, the IP won’t come up to pressure or it’ll give me a burn notice. I personally do not eat this with sauce as I find the butter and broth to be enough to flavour the couscous. You are more than welcomed to add additional flavourings :)