Depending on where you’re from, you might know this type of sandwich as something other than a bomber, such as a submarine (or sub for short), hoagie, hero, blimpie, grinder, or po-boy. Anyway, it doesn’t matter since a meatball sandwich by another other name would taste as delicious! These sandwiches are picky-eater pleasers…my husband (who typically will only touch a steak sub) actually loved these meatballs…of course he wanted his bomber without cheese, but at least he was eating turkey-veggie meatballs! (Yes, for some reason my hubby is able to consume slimy green soup without any qualms, but he has a problem when it comes to cheese…go figure.)
When cooking ground poultry, it usually has a tendency to dry out faster than ground beef due to its low fat content. Not these meatballs. They are moist and flavorful because of all the veggies. These meatballs are also fantastic with spaghetti, so you might want to make extra. ;)
Turkey-Vegetable Meatball Bombers
(Yield: 4 servings)
Bombers:
16 turkey meatballs
4 (6 to 8-inch) sub rolls
1 1/3 c tomato sauce
4 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded or thinly sliced
Meatballs:
1 (1 lb) zucchini, shredded
1 medium carrot, peeled and shredded
¼ small onion, grated
1 egg
½ TB Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dried Italian herb mix (I use a mix with basil, oregano, marjoram, and thyme)
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground pepper
¾ c Italian-style breadcrumbs
½ lb ground turkey
Cooking spray
Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Use your hands to combine all the meatball ingredients. Form the meat mixture into walnut-sized meatballs (you should get about 18 meatballs) and line them up on the baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, flipping the meatballs halfway through. Once the meatballs are out of the oven, turn the oven up to 500F.
Slice each sub roll in half. To make each bomber, spread ¼ c of tomato sauce on the inside of a hoagie, line 4 meatballs up on 1 side, and top the meatballs with ~1 TB of tomato sauce and 1 oz of cheese. Place the bombers on a baking sheet and bake for 3-5 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the bread is slightly toasted.
I’m Faith Gorsky, the writer, cook, and photographer behind An Edible Mosaic. My goal is to inspire you to get in the kitchen and try something new! Feel free to 
I’ve been craving turkey meatballs lately and decided to do a “spaghetti squash and meatballs” dinner, but wasn’t having any luck finding a meatball recipe I liked. These look great! I love the addition of zucchini/carrot – my husband will never even know the veggies are there. Great recipe, thanks!
lol I meant *and
I LOVE how you added all those veggies into the meatballs. I’m definitely giving these a try, but with the ground turkey I have in my freezer!
ooey gooey melted cheese on top of meatballs! yum!
Extremely scrumptious looking! Great idea!
Cheers,
Rosa
i love that you can see the chunks of veggies in the meat! this looks sooooooo good!
I love the idea of adding the yummy veggies to the meatballs! Must be so flavorful and delicious!
yumm!! meat balls are among my favorites :) love the idea of using zucchini
Wow! My stomach is screaming…”make that”. I have the ground turkey but am completely out of veggies. I’ve made meat balls by mixing in a dried vegetables soup mix. Seriously delicious so i can’t wait to try this fresh version. Thanks!
Great recipe! I bet the veggies add a lot of moisture to the meat. Great job!
Isn’t that funny about your hubby and the cheese? A friend’s husband will eat cheese but god forbid melted cheese hehe. This looks delicious-in fact it looks just like my favourite Subway Meatball sub-only better! :D
This bomber is the bomb! The meatballs are outstanding with all of those yummy veggies!
Now here’s another recipe my children would like! Thanks for sharing!
~ingrid
This looks amazing! Love those meatballs! So unique!
My turkey meatballs are great for ice hockey…! Now that I have your recipe Ill be making these all winter long…my entire family thanks you :) Figtreeapps
:) Seriously one of my favorite things in the world!
These meatballs look fantastic! This is absolutely my husband’s type of dish. He loves any kind of meatballs, but we use either minced lamb or beef to make them. Using turkey can be a great substitute. I love that you used carrot and zucchini inside the balls. I generally cook them seperately, but why didn’t I combine them before? I just couldn’t think of it. I’ll definitely try this version.
Now that’s heaven in a roll! I love meatball subs and I’m really craving one now! I’m amassing quite a collection of your recipes, thank you so much!
I love how you used zucchini in these meatballs. What a perfect way to sneak some veggies in to a picky eater. With the cheese melted on, my son probably wouldn’t even notice them!