Many Ways with Lean Ground Turkey

Recently I’ve been buying the large 4-pack of ground turkey at Costco. Each pack is about 1.5 lbs, so I’ve had to get creative for Chris and I to have a healthy dish without “tasting healthy” (aka bland). Of course, if I could I’d be eating ground beef or sausage instead! Here are a few of the ideas I came up. Hope you enjoy!

• Turkey, Tofu, Tomato Stew – a classic favorite my mom would make growing up, healthy and hearty!
• Turkey & Black Bean Chili – spices and a bit of beef broth help to add a burst of flavor
• Turkey Bolognese – tomato paste and loads of pureed vegetables “beef” up this dish
• Turkey Boscaiola – a woodsy Italian mushroom sauce, my take includes ground turkey, mushrooms, white wine, beef broth, fresh thyme and fennel seeds
• Turkey Asian Lettuce Wraps – a Chinese restaurant classic, make it simple with just soy sauce or jazz it up with hoisin or plum sauce
• Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps – you can easily cheat and use ready made taco seasoning and instead of tortillas or shells use iceberg lettuce

Most of these dishes I’ve recently made up and haven’t really measured. But as always, make sure you taste and season to your liking!

For the Turkey Black Bean Chili, finely chop a 1/2 yellow onion and a few cloves of garlic. Cook those for a couple of minutes and add the ground turkey. Crumble it as you brown and then add in some cumin, coriander and/or chipotle in Adobo if you have it. Add a beef stock cube for extra flavor. Cook for a few minutes then add the strained black beans and about 1 cup of beef broth depending on portions. Let simmer with a bay leaf or two for about a half hour. Taste and adjust salt/pepper/cumin accordingly. Serve with fresh chopped cilantro and/or sour cream. Easy and hearty.

For the Turkey Bolognese, I like to pack in as many vegetables as I can. Sometimes I’ll cheat and use my little Cuisinart chopper and I’ll blitz a couple raw carrots, couple raw celery and about a 1/2 yellow onion. Cook that with some olive oil for a couple minutes. Add the turkey, a good heap of tomato paste (a small tin if you have it), tomato sauce if you have, and a can of chopped tomatoes. For dried herbs, I use what I have in my cabinet so maybe Italian seasoning, some fennel seeds, extra oregano etc. Add a little beef broth if you have it and a good splash of red wine. Add some bay leaves and let this simmer for a good 30-40 minutes to let the flavors blend together. Taste and add salt/pepper/sugar as desired.

Perfect for Freezing

For the Bolognese, I used some defrosted roasted cherry tomato sauce I always have on hand instead of can tomatoes. It’s full of so much flavor and the big containers at Costco are much cheaper than the small ones at most grocery stores. Just lay the tomatoes on a baking sheet (with a rim, not a cookie sheet basically). Add several peeled garlic cloves. Drizzle generously with extra virgin olive oil, dusting of kosher salt, and lots of black pepper. Roast at 375F until the tomatoes have all popped (about 30 minutes). Let this cool and using a spoon smash up any remaining tomatoes that haven’t popped and smoosh the roasted garlic. You can then freeze this as is. When you’re ready, pop the ziplock in the microwave for a minute or two. You can then add it to the dish above, maybe add some sauteed onion or shallots and add some broth. But you could also pan fry some fish and serve right on top with some asparagus on the side.

The Turkey Boscaiola is inspired by one of my favorite little restaurants in London – La Porchetta. They make this dish with pork, so I thought it’d be an easy swap for ground turkey. Of course, they make it with delicious and rich cream. I actually made this dish without cream. However, I cheated and used some leftover beef stock/sauce from a Garlic Brisket I had made previously. So the beef stock I added had been reduced and slow cooked with onions and garlic (bursting with flavor!). I think it’ll be just as good with any beef broth. Let this dish simmer to get lots of flavor. If you don’t mind a little decadence then add cream of course! Otherwise, a bit of grated Parmesan on top is just as lovely.

Finally, for the Lettuce Wraps, both are extremely quick and very healthy. Serve it for lunch by putting the already peeled iceberg lettuce leaves into a small plastic bag. For the Asian style, cook some chopped onion and garlic. Add the turkey and cook a few minutes. Add any of the following – soy sauce, sesame oil, hoisin sauce, plum sauce, chili garlic sauce. Remember you can always add more, so go easy, taste and add more if desired. Sesame oil is quite strong so you don’t need much. You can then add some crunch with water chestnuts or peanuts. Brighten it up with fresh chopped cilantro and/or green onion.

For the Taco Lettuce Wraps, simply make taco meat according to a package and serve with fresh cilantro, chopped tomatoes and/or cheese with the iceberg lettuce wraps. If you want to make your own, add a bit of each – tomato paste, cumin, coriander, chili powder, garlic salt.

For the iceberg lettuce, I usually chop the core off. Then chop the lettuce in half. It usually makes it a little easier to get the leaves off. You can always thinly slice the center and make a taco salad!

Hope these mini recipes have given you some inspiration to be healthy. Remember you can always substitute pasta for brown rice or wholewheat pasta or even farro or couscous.

Happy Easter!

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Sunday Special: Steak for Two

Today was a rare Sunday for me as I didn’t have any class to teach. So my hubby and I got to sleep in and have a nice relaxing day. He was craving steak, so we decided to buy a grill finally. We ended up with a portable Weber (200 series) from Home Depot and boneless rib eye steaks from Costco.

Now if you’ve read my blog you’ll know I come from a family of meat lovers, particularly steak. Consequently I’ve grown up with some pretty high standards set out by my dad and his ridiculously hot grill. Chris and I didn’t do too shabby tonight but somehow there’s nothing quite like Dad’s steak.

I feel there are some basics to making a great steak.

* Good quality fresh meat
* Time to marinate and time to bring the meat to room temperature
* A really hot grill

Of course, having some really nice side dishes always helps. But if the steak is good it’ll speak for itself! I season steaks really simply. My steps to preparing the meat are:

1. If you cant’t find good quality meat then I recommend using a fork and poking the meat all over on both sides. This helps to tenderize tougher cuts of meat. Some people believe you should never do this as it can let the juices out while others argue it lets the marinade in. Try it and see what you think!
2. Do a dusting (single layer) of garlic salt. It’s all in the wrist. And add plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Drizzle all over with olive oil. You could do this a day in advance.
3. Bring the meat to room temperature about 20-30 minutes before cooking.

The key to a really good steak is a very hot grill. We put ours (gas grill) on high and let it heat for about 15 minutes. For a 1-inch thick steak, Cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side for medium rare, 4-5 for medium. If you have to cook inside, use a cast iron stovetop grill for the marks. Pre-heat the oven to broil for at least 15 minutes. Get the grill screaming hot and grill for 30 seconds per side. Then pop it in the oven (preferably on the cast iron grill) for 2 minutes. Take it out and flip the steak. Put it back in the oven for 2 more minutes. It will be medium rare. Be sure to let it rest for about 5 minutes.

Now for the sides! My favorite vegetable side with steak is asparagus, but we chose to use up some leftover spinach, mushrooms and baguette today.

First up Creamy Garlic Mushrooms:

* Finely chop onion and garlic. Heat a large spoonful of butter and drizzle of olive oil (~tsp) in a medium pot on medium heat. Add the onion first.
* Meanwhile chop the mushrooms into quarters (smaller if your mushrooms are really big). Once the onions start to soften, add the garlic and cook another minute. Add the mushrooms and drizzle more olive oil. Stir for a few minutes. When they’ve softened and started to change color, add a half cup of dry white wine. Simmer for a couple of minutes. Add heavy cream to your liking. Simmer for another couple minutes. Season with kosher salt and fresh black pepper.
* If you’d like the sauce to be a little thicker, mix a teaspoon of corn starch with a teaspoon of water in a small bowl. Then add to the pot and let simmer a minute. This is a great appetizer with toasted bread any day!

For the Parmesan croutons you see in the photo, I used up some leftover baguette. Chop into bite size pieces. Coat with extra virgin olive oil. Dust with garlic salt and black pepper. Arrange onto a baking sheet and sprinkle Parmesan all over. Bake at 400F until toasted (~15 min).

The spinach is super quick as well. It’s optional to add some chopped onion. But basically heat some olive oil in a frying pan. Cut a large clove of peeled garlic in half. Stab it with a fork but be sure you haven’t poked all the way through. Add the spinach to the pan and stir with the garlic fork. The heat will release the garlic oil to add a subtle flavor and avoid any burnt garlic pieces!

Enjoy all of this with a nice Malbec or Zinfandel! Happy eating everyone!

PS Leftover steak is great with a fried egg on top!

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