Spicy Ground Turkey Pasta
This Spicy Ground Turkey Pasta is the perfect weeknight dinner — it’s so easy and so delicious!
I love spice. And because of this love, if you open my refrigerator and look on the door shelves, you’ll see a ridiculous variety of different jars and bottles of various spice blends, sauces, and pastes. When I’m ready to cook, I unload this mass of ingredients onto my counter and I begin. This makes me sometimes think twice about making my favorite spicy dishes when I don’t have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen.
But, now… things have gotten way easier…
I found my new spice blend obsession: Ayoba-Yo Spice Blend. It’s a rare thing for me to be willing to give up my trusted spice jars, but this spice blend is so good that I’ve been able to streamline my cooking so much. This single jar is a blend of sea salt, coriander, worcestershire powder, and black pepper. And, it’s flavorful enough to use on it’s own without adding a ton of other ingredients.
As an aside, I should tell you that Ayoba-Yo makes amazing bags of Biltong (which is their version of jerky). It’s soft and spiced perfectly and really is the perfect on-the-go Paleo snack.
This Spicy Ground Turkey Pasta is so simple to make. I made it this past Saturday morning, stored it in the fridge, and then we ate it later for dinner. It’s so good!
I added some Asian flavors to this pasta, because that’s the mood I was in. The addition of ginger, rice vinegar, and aminos, really complements the spice blend. Yum.
It would be just as easy to customize this pasta with Mexican, Italian, or Indian flavors. So many pastas, so little time…
I used a grain-free chickpea pasta for this dish (see the recipe below for details). Sometimes when I do this, my family is not too happy (they like traditional pasta better), but because of the spice blend, nobody could tell it was chickpea pasta! This is the mark of an awesome recipe.
Serve this pasta with my favorite Caesar salad, and you’ll be smiling from ear to ear!
Here are some of the amazing healing ingredients in this recipe for Spicy Ground Turkey Pasta:
Turkey is a healthy meat. Make sure you buy organic turkey for the highest nutritional benefits. Recent research has shown turkey helps lower the risk of pancreatic cancer; however I did read some research that suggests that if you eat the skin along with the meat, some of this value is reduced, so don’t eat too much skin — this recipe uses ground turkey so it has no skin involved… Turkey also has a great protein-to-fat ratio, so it keeps you feeling full with less potential for weight gain. It’s also rich in vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin B and selenium. And, in Chinese medicine, turkey is thought of as a qi-booster, so it can be good for low energy levels.
Coriander is the main ingredient of the Ayoba-Yo spice blend, and that’s a great thing because it’s so good for digestion.
Ginger is a Chinese herb. In it’s raw form it’s called Sheng Jiang. This herb is especially good during cold weather months and also during seasonal changes. So, when winter is trying to turn into spring, and we (those of us on the east coast) get some of those cold, raw, damp days, ginger will make you feel better and will help boost your immune system. And, when summer is turning into fall, or fall is turning into winter, those are great times to add ginger into your diet, to prevent those winter colds that seem to pop up often.
Ghee is a clarified butter that has had the milk solids removed and it is lactose free. And, it has the delicious taste of butter. It has a high smoking point, and it doesn’t have to be refrigerated. I recommend buying organic ghee if possible. Ghee contains conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which has been shown to lower the risk of heart disease.
Spicy Ground Turkey Pasta | Print |
- 8-oz pasta (I used a grain-free chickpea pasta), cooked al dente, and drained
- 1 lb ground turkey
- sea salt and black pepper
- 2 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling at the end
- 1 Tbs Ayoba-Yo spice blend
- 1 Tbs tomato paste
- 2 tsp grated fresh ginger
- 1 tsp date or coconut sugar
- 1 Tbs rice vinegar
- 1 Tbs coconut aminos
- 1 Tbs ghee
- fresh basil leaves, for garnish
- Heat 2 Tbs oil over medium heat in a large skillet.
- Add the meat, and stir, breaking up with a wooden spoon.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- When the meat is not pink any longer, add the Ayoba-Yo spice blend and the tomato paste, and cook, stirring, 3 minutes.
- Stir in the ginger, sugar, vinegar, and aminos.
- Reduce the heat to low and let simmer 10 mins.
- Remove from heat, and stir in the ghee and the cooked pasta.
- Garnish with fresh basil leaves and enjoy!