Ah, Asian food. There are days when I all want to do is shove my face into a bowl of spicy, greasy, MSG-filled General Tso chicken and even greasier noodles. Don't forget the three limp pieces of snap peas and broccoli they throw in there for some greens. Let's face it: Certain Asian takeout is not exactly the healthiest, and as a parent, you may be a little more hesitant to let Junior try the Kung Pao chicken. Make all the jokes you want about the mystery meat they might use, but I would rather pass on takeout if I can, especially as a meal option for my little one. BUT...this food is so amazingly delicious! Not that deep fried chicken doused in some sweet orangey-ish looking sauce that attempts to pass as authentic, but true Asian food!
All those spices and flavors! Garlic, ginger, scallions, sweet, savory, spicy! I wanted to create a "base" sauce that you could apply to pretty much any meat (or tofu if you prefer). In this recipe, I used ground turkey because it's a super lean, healthy meat and relatively inexpensive compared to grass fed beef. I served my ground turkey over a bed of brown rice topped with some sesame seeds and scallions. You can add some broccoli to the turkey while it simmers and have a complete meal with veggies. I served this with green beans on the side, but the combinations are endless; you could do noodles, lettuce wraps, spring rolls. This takes less than 30 minutes to make (unless you're making brown rice with it) and only tastes better the next day!
Asian Style Ground Turkey
Servings: Approx. 8-10
Ingredients:
2 lbs lean (93%) ground turkey
1/2 cup soy sauce, low sodium if preferred
1 tablespoon brown sugar or coconut palm sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, or double if you and the family can handle spice
4 garlic cloves
2 inch piece of fresh ginger (seriously one of the weirdest looking herbs I've ever seen)
3/4 cup minced red or white onion
Optional:
Green onions/scallions
Sesame Seeds
Brown Rice
Directions:
Get your base sauce ready: Combine the soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, red pepper flakes, and 4 tbsp of water in a small bowl and mix well. Set aside.
Heat a large, deep skillet on medium high heat. While the skillet is heating up, peel the skin off your ginger, garlic, and onion.
Spray some non-stick spray on your skillet and add the turkey to the skillet and begin breaking it up and letting it cook. While the turkey cooks, throw your ginger, garlic, and onion (or the Great Triumvirate of cooking ingredients, as I call it) into your chopper and give it a whirl.
Once the turkey has fully cooked, add your Great Triumvirate to the pan and cook for a couple of minutes. Add that magical sauce you put together in step one, (scrape the bottom for sugar) and mix well. Cover the skillet and let it simmer on medium low heat for around 15 minutes, then serve.
Usually, lean ground turkey turns out really dry but with the addition of the sauce in this recipe, it keeps it very moist and just soaks up the flavors amazingly well. Ground beef would obviously be more flavorful, but can be fattier.
Get out a bowl and add a cup (or two, who does one cup of rice??) and throw the turkey on top. Add some sesame seeds and scallions and you are ready for some homemade Asian food goodness.
Granted, serving this to a toddler who isn't able to use a spoon independently is a bit of a challenge. Especially one who has recently decided that being fed by her mother is the greatest affront to her toddlerhood and won't be tolerated for a minute. This usually results in most of the food and five spoons on the floor, a VERY happy Border Collie, and a triumphant toddler who managed to get three pieces of turkey and two grains of rice in her mouth in 45 minutes.
I hope you enjoy this recipe!!
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