Turkey Larb with Jicama, Mint, and Lime
Ground turkey browned fine and dressed off the heat with lime, chile, and shallot, tossed with mint and cilantro and piled onto romaine with cold matchsticks of jicama, cucumber, and raw green beans.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Larb is the dish that taught me how much work herbs can do. There is barely any cooking in it: you brown ground meat, then dress it off the heat with lime, chile, and something salty, and stir in more mint and cilantro than seems reasonable. What comes out is hot, sour, and aromatic in a way that a slow-cooked dish never gets to. I make it with turkey because it browns fine and crumbly and stays neutral enough for the lime to be the loudest thing in the bowl.
The vegetables around it are not a garnish. Larb in Laos and northeast Thailand arrives with a plate of raw things to eat alongside, and that is the best part of the meal. Jicama is cold, wet, and faintly sweet, raw green beans sliced thin snap and taste green, cucumber cools the chile, and romaine leaves are what you use to pick the whole thing up. Every bite ends up being half hot meat and half cold crunch, which is the contrast the dish is built on.
I cook this on hot evenings when I do not want to stand over a stove, and on weeknights when I need something on the table in twenty five minutes without it feeling like a compromise. It travels well for lunch if you keep the meat and the vegetables in separate containers. Make the dressing sharper than seems sensible when you taste it alone, because the meat and the lettuce will swallow a good deal of it.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 lb ground turkey
- 1 small jicama (about 10 oz), peeled and cut into matchsticks
- 2 cups green beans, trimmed and sliced thin on a sharp angle, raw
- 2 romaine hearts, leaves separated
- 1 cucumber, halved lengthwise and sliced thin
- 2 shallots, sliced paper thin
- 5 scallions, sliced thin
- 3/4 cup fresh mint leaves, torn
- 1 cup cilantro leaves and tender stems, chopped
- 1 jalapeno, sliced into thin rings, seeds left in or taken out
- 4 tbsp lime juice, from about 3 limes, plus halves to serve
- 2 tbsp coconut aminos
- 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1/4 tsp cayenne, or to taste
Instructions
- Cut the cold vegetables first: Peel the jicama and cut it into matchsticks, slice the cucumber and the green beans thin on a sharp angle, and separate the romaine leaves. Pile them all on a platter and put it in the refrigerator for at least ten minutes while you cook, until the pieces are cold enough to feel it against your fingers. Cold vegetables against hot meat is the whole point, so do this part first.
- Brown the turkey fine: Set a large skillet over medium-high and add the turkey with two tablespoons of water. Break it up constantly with the edge of a spoon for six to eight minutes, until there are no pink patches and some of the crumbles have caught gold on the pan. Keep working it small. Larb wants a fine, loose texture rather than large clumps.
- Dress it off the heat: Take the pan off the burner and let it stop sizzling for thirty seconds. Add the lime juice, coconut aminos, sesame oil, and cayenne, and stir well so the meat drinks it up. Taste it now. It should be aggressively sour and a little hot, since the herbs and lettuce will soften it.
- Fold in the raw aromatics: Stir in the shallots, scallions, and jalapeno while the pan is still warm but not hot, so they soften barely and keep their bite. Then add the mint and cilantro all at once and fold them through in a few strokes. Do not stir it into submission, the herbs should stay in recognizable pieces.
- Serve it hot against cold: Tip the larb into a shallow bowl and set the chilled platter of jicama, green beans, cucumber, and romaine next to it. Everyone builds their own, spooning meat into a lettuce leaf and adding crunch on top. Squeeze more lime over as you go.
Variations
- Toasted rice powder: Toast two tablespoons of raw rice in a dry pan until deep gold, grind it coarse, and stir it in at the end for the nutty grit that is traditional in larb.
- Mushroom larb: Use finely chopped mushrooms in place of the turkey, browned hard until they squeak and give up their water, for a version with the same sour herb character.
- Cabbage cups: Swap romaine for cupped napa or savoy cabbage leaves, which hold more and stay rigid enough to eat out of hand.
- Herb heavy: Add torn thai basil and dill along with the mint for a bowl that reads almost entirely green.
Storage & Leftovers
The turkey keeps four days in a sealed container in the refrigerator and the flavor deepens overnight as the lime works further into the meat. The herbs will darken, so if you know you are saving half, hold back some mint and cilantro to fold in fresh when you eat it.
Reheat it briefly in a skillet over medium heat, two or three minutes, and add a fresh squeeze of lime once it is off the burner. Acid dulls with heating, and that squeeze is what makes reheated larb taste like the original. It is also perfectly good cold, straight from the container.
Keep the raw vegetables separate and undressed and they will stay crisp for three days. Jicama in particular holds up remarkably well once cut, unlike most white vegetables, and does not brown. I do not freeze this dish, since the herbs and the raw vegetables are most of what it is.
Notes & Tips
- Chill the vegetables: Twenty minutes in the refrigerator is the difference between a good bowl and a great one. The contrast between hot meat and genuinely cold crunch is the dish.
- Break the meat smaller than feels necessary: Large crumbles do not hold dressing and eat like a burger patty in pieces. Work the spoon through it constantly and you will get the fine, loose texture larb depends on.
- Slice the shallots paper thin: Thick slices stay harsh and raw in the mouth. Thin ones half wilt in the warmth of the pan and turn sweet without losing their edge.
- Taste before the herbs go in: The dressing should be too sour on its own. A cup of herbs and a pile of lettuce absorb a surprising amount, and under-dressed larb tastes like plain ground turkey.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- The turkey, the herbs, and the raw vegetables each carry a third of this bowl. The meat brings the protein, the jicama and green beans bring the fiber and the crunch, and the mint and cilantro are what make the whole thing taste like a dish rather than a plate of ingredients.
- Ground turkey browns into fine crumbles that hold dressing well, and it carries a lot of protein for its weight along with selenium and B vitamins. Its mildness is the reason the lime and chile read so clearly.
- Jicama is crisp, wet, and only faintly sweet, and it stays that way even after it is cut, which is unusual. Most of its carbohydrate is inulin, a fiber your gut bacteria ferment rather than something you digest yourself, and it is what gives jicama its cool, watery crunch.
- Mint and cilantro go in by the cup here, which means they stop being a garnish and start contributing real amounts of vitamin K, vitamin A, and the aromatic oils that make the bowl smell the way it does.
- Lime juice is the backbone of larb and it does more than add sourness. Acid brightens the fat in the meat and makes the herbs read as sharper, which is why the dish feels light despite being mostly meat.
- As you eat, notice the moment the cold jicama meets the warm meat in the same bite and how the mint arrives last, and build each lettuce leaf slowly rather than eating standing at the counter.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can I use in place of the jicama?
Water chestnuts, daikon, or firm asian pear all give you that cold wet crunch. Kohlrabi cut into matchsticks is the closest in texture and the easiest to find. Whatever you choose, keep it raw and keep it cold.
Is raw green bean safe to eat?
Common green beans are fine raw and are eaten that way across southeast asia, sliced thin so they are easy to chew. Dried and rehydrated beans are a different matter and should always be cooked, but fresh snap beans from the produce aisle are not.
Can I use ground chicken or pork?
Yes to both. Chicken behaves almost identically. Pork is the traditional choice in many versions and gives a richer bowl that stands up to even more lime. Whichever you use, break it very fine as it browns.
Mine tasted flat. What did I miss?
Almost always not enough lime, or lime added while the pan was still on the burner. Acid cooks off fast over heat. Take the pan off, let it settle, then dress it, and taste again after the herbs go in.