How do you make a healthy bolognese sauce? Use lean ground turkey.
This recipe is quick and easy, We consider it a healthy twist on the traditional bolognese sauce, which features beef, pork, pancetta and butter.
Classic bolognese can take hours to prepare and can be quite heavy tasting. This recipe is lighter, but still comforting. Despite using a leaner meat, the results are a thick, rich sauce which is healthy and delicious. Fewer calories, less fat and great flavor…tastes like a winner to me.
In our household we pair the sauce with fresh zucchini noodles. The recipe is large enough to freeze portions for future quick, last minute meals. So good!
One trick we use to create a more intense flavor is to use tomato paste. We make ours from Freeze Dried Tomato Powder. And boy, is it packed with tomato flavor. It is a great item to keep in your kitchen pantry. It can add that extra oomph to any recipe your might add it to.
Quick Turkey Bolognese sauce
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon italian seasoning
- 1 lb lean ground turkey
- 1 cup mushrooms finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 28 oz tomatoes crushed
- 1 ½ tablespoon tomato paste
- ½ cup fresh basil chopped
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and itallian seasoning. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add turkey, mushrooms and salt. Cook, crumbling the turkey with a wooden spoon. Stir until the turkey is no longer pink and the mushrooms are cooked, about 10 minutes.
- Increase heat to medium high. Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, and cook. Stir occasionally, until thickened, about 5 minutes.
Again the Internet is packed with a variety of these. But our advice is to avoid the small handheld tubes and go with a horizontal crank type, The above link is the one we use, but you can find similar models … on-line.
Cut zucchini in half and place the cut side next to the blade. This does two things. First, it makes it easier to cut, and finally it moves the waste to the end you would have trimmed anyway.
They don’t keep well, so you do need to make them fresh. Pair them with any sauce you choose. They are especially good with basic pesto stirred in at the end of the sauté. Just be sure to drain any excess liquid first.
If you think that avocados are just something to mash-up and dip corn chips into, here’s some news for you, and we’re not talking that ‘millennial ‘ toast fad either.
We came across a really great way to fix this fruit. Make an egg salad. You can skip the mayo and get a rich creamy egg salad that is perfect for a sandwich or scooping. Though we’d recommend that you use celery sticks, or carrot disks, rather than corn chips.
It may have been years since you tried Green Goddess dressing. I remember bottles of a Kraft version that showed up in our family fridge in the 70’s . I guess it was popular on the SoCal sprout salads of the day. We recently came across a version of this dressing as part of an oven-roasted green veggie salad … it was better than I remember and actually easy to make.
The way we are making it is with a hand blender which allows us to do very small batches but it can stay in your fridge for a few weeks if you wanted to do larger portions. The recipe attached is weighed out in grams to make this process easier.
Mix this with some of the green goddess and spread over a bowl of salad greens, some wilted kale or even a mix of both.
As the main salad maker in our family, my goal is to ensure we eat fresh veggies every day. A quick, mixed green salad fits the bill nicely. So why do I hesitate when it’s time to make a salad?
