Turmeric Turkey and Sweet Potato Skillet with Ginger and Lime
Diced sweet potato crisped in coconut oil with ground turkey, turmeric, ginger, and garlic, loosened with a splash of coconut milk and coconut aminos, then finished with spinach, lime, and cilantro.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
This started as a way to use half a bag of spinach and a sweet potato rolling around the bottom of the drawer, and it turned into the skillet I cook most often when the day has gone long. Everything happens in one pan in about eighteen minutes, and the order matters more than the technique. Sweet potato goes in first with a lid on for eight minutes so the cubes steam through, then the lid comes off and they brown. Turkey follows and is pressed flat so it forms a crust instead of stewing into gray crumbles.
The flavor is warm rather than hot. Turmeric and a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon give it a low, earthy sweetness that sits behind everything, and a great deal of grated ginger cuts back through it. Coconut aminos bring the savory depth, and the third of a cup of coconut milk is there to pull the browned bits off the bottom of the pan and turn them into something that coats every cube. Then lime and cilantro go on off the heat, and that is what stops it from tasting like a heavy pan of sweet potato.
It reheats beautifully, which is most of why it is in regular rotation here, and it is forgiving about what goes in it. Kale or collards in place of the spinach, butternut squash in place of the sweet potato, ground chicken in place of the turkey. The shape of the dish holds. I usually make it in a twelve-inch cast iron skillet and put it on the table in the pan with lime wedges and extra cilantro, and people help themselves twice.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 lb ground turkey
- 1 lb sweet potato (1 large), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 5 oz baby spinach (about 5 packed cups)
- 5 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/3 cup full-fat canned coconut milk
- 2 tbsp coconut aminos
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 2 tbsp lime juice, plus wedges for the table
- 5 scallions, thinly sliced
- 3/4 cup cilantro leaves and tender stems, chopped
- 3/8 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- Steam the sweet potato first: Melt the coconut oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the diced sweet potato and the salt, and toss to coat. Cover and cook for six to eight minutes, shaking the pan once or twice, until a cube gives easily to a knife. Covering it traps the steam, which is what cooks the inside before the outside has a chance to brown.
- Take the lid off and brown: Uncover, add the diced onion, and spread everything into one layer. Cook for three minutes without stirring, so the flat faces of the sweet potato take on color and the onion softens at the edges. Push it all to the outside of the pan to make a clear space in the middle.
- Brown the turkey: Add the ground turkey to the clear space and press it flat with the back of a spatula. Leave it undisturbed for three minutes to form a crust, then break it into rough pieces and stir it through the sweet potato, cooking two minutes more until no pink remains.
- Bloom the spices and deglaze: Stir in the ginger, garlic, turmeric, and cinnamon and cook for forty five seconds, until the pan smells sharp and the turmeric has stained everything gold. Pour in the coconut aminos and coconut milk and scrape the bottom of the pan clean, letting it bubble for a minute until it thickens enough to cling.
- Wilt the spinach and finish: Add the spinach in two handfuls, folding each one in until it collapses, about a minute in total. Take the pan off the heat before you squeeze in the lime juice, since heat flattens lime into something dull and vaguely floral, then scatter over the scallions and cilantro. Toss once and serve straight from the skillet with lime wedges.
Variations
- Butternut squash: Swap the sweet potato for butternut cut the same size. It cooks a couple of minutes faster and gives a softer, sweeter skillet.
- Collards or kale: Use four cups of shredded collard greens or kale in place of the spinach, added with the coconut milk so they have three or four minutes to soften.
- Lemongrass and lime leaf: Add the minced tender part of a lemongrass stalk with the garlic. It turns the pan brighter and more perfumed.
- Thai basil finish: Fold a cup of torn Thai basil in with the cilantro off the heat for an anise note against the sweet potato.
- Plantain: Replace half the sweet potato with a firm plantain cut into coins. It crisps at the edges and stays starchy in the middle.
Storage & Leftovers
Sealed in the refrigerator this keeps four days, and it is better on day two than on day one. The turmeric and ginger settle into the sweet potato overnight and the whole thing tastes rounder. Pack it in single portions while it is still warm and it becomes the easiest lunch of the week.
Reheat it in a skillet over medium-high for three or four minutes, pressed flat and left alone at first so the sweet potato crisps again where it touches the metal. The microwave works and keeps everything moist, though the crisp faces go soft. Either way, a fresh squeeze of lime and a few cilantro leaves bring it back to life.
It freezes for up to three months in flat sealed portions. Sweet potato holds its texture through freezing better than most vegetables, though the spinach softens further. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and reheat in a pan rather than from frozen, since there will be some water to cook off.
Notes & Tips
- Cover the pan at the start: Sweet potato browned before it is cooked through gives you a dark crust and a hard center. Eight minutes under a lid solves it, and the browning happens afterward.
- Cut the cubes evenly: Half-inch dice all the way through means everything is done at the same moment. Mixed sizes give you some cubes collapsing while others are still firm.
- Press the turkey flat: Stirring ground meat the moment it hits the pan steams it. Pressed flat and left alone, it forms the browned crust that gives the whole skillet its savory depth.
- Bloom the turmeric in fat: Turmeric stirred into liquid tastes dusty. Forty five seconds in the hot pan with the oil and the meat juices is what turns it fragrant and deepens the color.
- Add the lime off the heat: Acid boiled in a pan flattens out within a minute. Squeezed over after the burner is off, it stays sharp and lifts the sweetness of the potato.
- Use the widest skillet you own: A pound of sweet potato and a pound of turkey need surface area. A crowded pan steams, and everything comes out pale and soft.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Turkey, sweet potato, and spinach split the work in this skillet. The turkey carries the protein and the browned crust, the sweet potato gives it substance and a natural sweetness, and the spinach folded in at the end keeps the pan green and fresh-tasting.
- Ground turkey is mild and fine-textured, which is why it takes on turmeric and ginger so readily, and it brings protein along with selenium and the B vitamins that come with poultry.
- Sweet potato is where the color and the sweetness come from, and the orange flesh is dense with beta-carotene, which your body converts to vitamin A. Cut small and cooked covered before it browns, it stays creamy inside with crisp faces where it met the pan.
- Spinach collapses to a fraction of its volume in about a minute, so five cups of it disappear into the skillet, bringing folate, iron, and vitamin K along with them.
- Turmeric, cinnamon, and ginger are what make this taste warm rather than sharp, and blooming them in the hot fat is what wakes them up. The lime goes on last and its acid is what keeps a sweet, earthy pan from tasting flat.
- As you eat, notice the difference between a sweet potato cube that caught the pan and one that stayed soft, and let the warmth of the ginger and cinnamon slow your fork down between bites.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use ground chicken or pork?
Both work with no other changes. Ground chicken behaves almost identically to turkey and wants the same undisturbed minutes to crust up. Ground pork is richer and browns faster, so give it two minutes rather than three before you break it up.
My sweet potato was still hard when the turkey was done.
The cubes were probably too big or the lid came off too early. Half-inch dice is the size that cooks through in eight covered minutes. If yours are bigger, add two tablespoons of water and put the lid back on for a few minutes before you go any further.
Is fresh ginger necessary?
It is what makes the dish taste alive, so I would not skip it. If you only have ground ginger, use a teaspoon and add it with the turmeric rather than earlier, since dried ginger is warmer and less sharp and it scorches quickly in a hot pan.
Can I make it ahead for the week?
Yes, and it is one of the better candidates for it. Cook it through, cool it quickly, and portion it into containers. The texture holds for four days, and I would keep the cilantro and lime aside to add when you eat rather than stirring them in now.