Larb-inspired Ground Turkey Rice Bowls

Here is an easy weeknight recipe that uses ground turkey, seasons it with a citrus-fish sauce-soy sauce dressing, and is served over rice with cucumbers and pickled onions. This ground turkey rice bowl is loosely inspired by the Thai meat dish larb (also spelled laab). It's seasoned incredibly well - no boring ground turkey recipes here - and balanced out by cool cucumbers and tangy pickled onions. If you need an idea for what to make with ground turkey, try this out!

Larb inspired ground turkey rice bowls

For a weeknight dinner, I'm really not trying to spend more than 1 hour in the kitchen. 30 minutes preferably! This ground turkey dinner recipe comes together in about 30 minutes, tops.

I know ground turkey can be bland. But it's low fat and high in protein, and is a blank slate for seasoning.

The trick here is to really brown the meat, and then to season it after with the soy-ginger-lime dressing.

In addition to being an easy dinner for 4, or a dinner recipe for 2 with some leftovers, this ground turkey recipe also is great for meal prep - it makes 4 servings, perfect for 4 lunches. It's healthy, easy to make, and stretches very easily.

You can add mushrooms to it, use ground pork or ground chicken, or ground tofu.

To make these ground turkey rice bowls, you will:

• If you want rice, make rice -- follow the directions on your bag of rice to yield 4 cups of rice. If you want pickled onions on top, follow these directions to make pickled onions -- they will be quick-pickles if you're making them right now before you eat.
• Heat up 1 tablespoon of canola oil in a large skillet. Add 1 minced onion and saute the onion with a pinch of salt until translucent.
• Add in your ground turkey and let the meat brown - about 5 minutes on high heat.
• In a bowl off to the side, mix together ¼ cup of low sodium soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce, 1 tablespoon of freshly grated ginger, the zest and juice of 1 lime, and 1 tablespoon of sesame oil.
• Once the turkey is all browned and cooked through, pour the soy sauce/lime juice mixture and stir to combine.
• Serve with hot rice, sliced cucumbers, and pickled onions.

Enjoy!!!

FAQs for making these rice bowls

Can this recipe be scaled?

• Yes! you can easily double it and serve 8.

Can this ground turkey dinner recipe be made in advance?

• For sure. It will store for 4-5 days in the fridge.

How is it stored? For how long? How do you reheat it?

• Store the ground turkey separate from the cooked rice, in Tupperware, in the fridge.
• To reheat, microwave your rice with a little bit of water sprinkled on top for about 1 min per cup of rice, and then either re-saute the turkey in a skillet or add the turkey on top of the rice and microwave for another 30 sec-1 min.

Which ingredients (flavors) are dominant? How would you intensify, or mellow out these flavors?

• The lime juice combining with the soy sauce in the dressing here is the piece de resistance. It's kind of a ponzu inspired dressing, inspired by larb as well.
• If you want more citrus, add more lime juice!
• If you want more umami, add more fish sauce!
• If it's not salty enough, add some flaky salt at the end!

Can you easily modify this to be vegetarian? Vegan? Gluten free? Keto? Low carb?

• Vegan: you can make this saute with mushrooms, asparagus, and onion, and omit the fish sauce, and serve over rice
• Gluten free: the recipe is gluten free!
• Keto/low carb: serve with cauliflower rice!

 Can this be made spicy?

• Yes - add a tablespoon of sriracha or sambal oelek sauce into the dressing

 What kind of equipment is needed? Are there alternative cooking methods?

• You'll need a skillet to saute the meat
• I make rice in an Instant Pot - add 2 cups of rice and 3 cups of water to your Instant Pot, press the "Rice" button, and ta-da--rice is ready

 What are the best side dishes for this recipe?

• Definitely serve this with sliced cucumbers and pickled onions!

📖 Recipe