Sweet and Spicy Ground Turkey Stir-Fry

3KillerBs's Note:

I put this together for a light meal when I noticed that we had too big a collection of half-bags of frozen vegetables and little containers of leftover cooked veggies. The kind and quantity of the vegetables can vary according to what you have -- you just need to end up with between 2 and 3 lbs. Some people prefer a more generous amount of thickened sauce on their stir-fry dishes. With a diabetic in the house, I skip that part but I've included the directions if you want it.

• Total Time: 25 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 2 -3 garlic cloves
• 1 onion, cut into thin wedges
• 1 pinch coriander seed, crushed
• 1/3 cup soy sauce, divided (or to taste)
• 1 -2 tablespoon dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon sherry wine (optional)
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes (to taste)
• oil

Vegetable Suggestions

• 1/2 lb snap peas or 1/2 lb snow peas
• 1/2 lb broccoli floret
• 1/2 lb green beans
• 1 -2 cup spinach
• 1 -2 cup bok choy, chopped
• 1 -2 cup napa cabbage or 1 -2 cup Chinese cabbage, chopped
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 1 -2 zucchini or 1 -2 yellow squash, sliced

Optional Thickened Sauce

• 1/2 cup chicken stock (must be cold) (optional)
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch (optional)

Directions:

1. Brown ground turkey in a little oil over medium-high heat. Drain any excess grease leaving just enough to accomplish the stir-frying process.
2. Add garlic, onion, coriander, and a tbs of the soy sauce. Stir well.
3. Begin adding the vegetables starting with long-cooking veggies like carrots and broccoli (especially if broccoli is still frozen), and working towards the quick-cooking greens but not adding those just yet.
4. Just before adding the greens -- right after adding the beans or snap peas -- add the remaining soy sauce, the sugar, the sherry, and the red pepper flakes. Stir well so that sugar dissolves and pepper flakes are well distributed.
5. Add the greens and complete the cooking.
6. Make the optional sauce if desired by whisking the cornstarch into the chicken stock. Pour into pan just before the greens are done and cook, stirring constantly, until the sauce has simmered for about one minute.
7. Serve over rice, ramen noodle, or other preferred, Asian starch.

Reviews

[Cookin-jo]

Fantastic recipe and I love the vegetable options! I doubled the whole thing, using a bit less sugar. I used the thickened sauce...I think a must for this recipe. For the vegetables I used julienned carrots, some bell pepper, sliced mushrooms and spinach. I went a bit easy on the garlic but next time I'll use the full amount. I think I'd also use more red pepper flakes and maybe some ginger. Wonderful use of ground turkey! Served over brown rice.

[glennk5]

This is a fantastic and healthy recipe that the whole family will love! I could eat this twice a week! LOL!

[Fred_Retter]

This was really good! I used the thickened sauce as well, but used water for that instead of chicken stock since I didn't have any. I didn't add the red pepper flakes because my kids wouldn't have touched it if I did. I loved the sweet/salty taste of the sauce. I used a bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables as well as fresh spinach and shredded cabbage. Served it over brown rice. Will definitely make it again!