High Protein Ground Turkey Bowls with Peanut Sauce
These delicious bowls are made with ground turkey, sweet potatoes, kale, a homemade peanut sauce and quick no-boil pickled red onion for a great way meal prep or easy weeknight dinner.
Customize these to be your own healthy dinner bowls with black beans, green beans, red bell pepper or any preferred ground meat and alternate your favorite toppings throughout the week for variations you won’t get tired of.
My other bowls like hibachi bowls, egg roll in a bowl and Mediterranean chicken bowls use rice or cauliflower rice, so using sweet potatoes changes it up while adding fiber and antioxidants. The peanut sauce is made with PB2, making it lower in fat and calories than traditional peanut sauce.
Why you’ll love this recipe
- These delicious bowls have less than 420 calories per bowl.
- 42g of protein per bowl.
- Made with simple ingredients.
Ingredients and Substitutions:
These are the main ingredients and substitutions. See recipe card below for full ingredients list and instructions for these ground turkey bowls.
- Ground Turkey: this recipe uses lean ground turkey (99/1%), you can substitute with ground chicken, ground beef, or ground pork.
- Sweet Potatoes: you’ll need two large sweet potatoes for these bowls. You can also use brown rice, white rice, cauliflower rice, any potatoes or omit them entirely.
- Kale Salad: be sure to massage the kale to remove the bitterness.
- Vegetables: these bowls include cherry tomatoes, sliced carrots and sliced English cucumbers. I love topping them with pickled red onions.
- Peanut Dressing: this dressing uses a combination of PB2, powdered peanut butter, lemon juice, lite pancake syrup, cayenne pepper and salt. You can substitute the PB2 with 1/2 cup of your favorite peanut butter and lite syrup with 100% maple, honey or date paste.
Variations
- Instead of the peanut sauce, drizzle with homemade bbq sauce or copycat Big Mac Sauce.
- Serve with fluffy rice or regular potatoes rather than sweet potatoes.
- Add soy sauce or coconut aminos to the peanut sauce for extra flavor.
- Add the turkey and potato mixture to lettuce wraps.
Dietary Modifications
- This recipe is gluten-free and dairy-free as written.
- To lower the carbs: use cauliflower rice in place of sweet potatoes.
How to make ground turkey bowls (a visual step-by-step guide):
Step 1: pickle the onions
Whisk apple cider vinegar, honey, salt, and 1 cup water in a small bowl until honey and salt dissolve (image 1). Place the red onion, garlic and peppercorns in a mason jar with a tight-fitting lid; pour the vinegar mixture over top and let it sit, covered, at room temperature for at least 1 hour (image 2).
Step 1: cut and roast sweet potatoes
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash and chop the sweet potatoes into bite size pieces, add to a baking sheet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray (image 3). Spray the potatoes with cooking spray and season with salt and pepper.
Roast for 25-30 minutes until fork tender and browned. Cook time will depend of the size of your pieces (image 4).
Step 2: make the peanut sauce
Combine the powdered peanut butter and water in a bowl (image 5) and forming a peanut butter paste (image 6). Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl (image 7) and mix together well to combine (image 8). Set aside until you’re ready to assemble your bowls. If you want the sauce to be any thinner, add more water.
Step 3: cook the turkey
While the potatoes roast, cook the ground turkey. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, spray with cooking spray and add the ground turkey to the pan (image 9). Using a spatula, break the turkey into bite size pieces as it cooks (image 10). Cook until it is fully cooked through and no longer pink in the center, approximately 5 minutes. Add the chili powder, smoked paprika and ground turmeric to the ground turkey mixture (image 11). Stir together to evenly coat and remove from the heat (image 12).
Step 4: massage the kale
Remove the kale from the stems by slicing along the side of the stem and discarding the stem. Chop into bite size pieces and rinse. Add the rinsed and dried kale to a bowl with the olive oil, salt and lemon juice (image 13). Using your hands massage the oil into the kale (image 14). Once you have massaged the kale for a few minutes and it has decreased in size by about half set aside.
Step 5: assemble the bowls
Assemble your bowls (image 15): 1/4 ground turkey (approx. 90 grams), 1/4 roasted sweet potatoes (approx. 155 grams), 1/4 kale salad, 4 cherry tomatoes, 4 cucumber slices, 1/4 cup sliced carrots, 37 grams peanut sauce, pickled red onions (if using).
Expert Tip!
Don’t skip massaging your kale! This helps break it down and remove the bitterness.
Recipe FAQs
Store leftovers in an airtight container. The best way to meal prep is to prepare each in separate meal prep containers. Avoid adding the peanut sauce until ready to eat for best results when meal prepping.
Pickled onions, sesame seeds, green onions, fried egg, hot sauce or red pepper flakes. Use anything and everything you love!
Sure! Use white or brown rice or do a combination of rice and cauliflower rice. Or just use cauliflower rice for a low carb option like in my breakfast turkey taco bowls.
Air Fryer Instructions: Preheat the air fryer. Wash and chop the sweet potatoes into bite size pieces, add to a air fryer basking sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Spray the potatoes with cooking spray and season with salt and pepper. Cook at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-15 minutes until fork tender and browned. Shake the basket halfway through. I personally prefer roasting in the oven because you may need to work in batches with the air fryer depending on the size of your basket.
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Ground Turkey Bowls
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Ingredients
- 1 lb. lean ground turkey 99/1
- 1 tsp. chili powder
- 1 tsp. smoked paprika
- 1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
- 2 large sweet potatoes, chopped 948g raw
- 3 cups kale, chopped 1 large bunch
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- 1 tsp. olive oil
- 1/2 english cucumber, sliced
- 1.5 cups cherry tomatoes
- 1 cup sliced carrots
- salt and black pepper
Peanut Sauce
- 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. powdered peanut butter PB2 52g
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 Tbsp. lite maple syrup
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- dash of cayenne pepper to taste
- pinch of salt
Pickled Red Onions
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 Tbsp. honey
- 1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
- 1 cup water
- 1 red onion sliced
- 3 garlic cloves whole
- 1 Tbsp. black peppercorns
Instructions
- Whisk apple cider vinegar, honey, salt, and 1 cup water in a small bowl until honey and salt dissolve. Place the red onion, garlic and peppercorns in a mason jar with a tight-fitting lid; pour the vinegar mixture over top and let it sit at room temperature for at least 1 hour.
- To make potatoes in the oven: Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash and chop the sweet potatoes into bite size pieces, add to a baking sheet prayed with nonstick cooking spray. Spray the potatoes with cooking spray and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 25-30 minutes until fork tender and browned.
- To make potatoes in air fryer: add the chopped potatoes to a pre-heated air fryer pan. Cook at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-15 minutes until fork tender and browned. Shake the basket halfway through. I personally prefer roasting in the oven because you may need to work in batched with the air fryer depending on the size of your basket.
- While the potatoes roast cook the ground turkey. Heat a pan over medium, spray with cooking spray and add the ground turkey. Using a spatula break the turkey into bite size pieces as it cooks. Cook until it is fully cooked through and no longer pink in the center, approximately 5 minutes. Add the chili powder, smoked paprika and ground turmeric. Stir together to evenly coat and remove from the heat.
- Remove the kale from the stems by slicing along the side of the stem and discarding the stem. Chop into bite size pieces and rinse. Add the rinsed and dried kale to a bowl with the olive oil, salt and lemon juice and using your hands massage the oil into the kale. You will start to notice the texture of the kale changes, softens and shrinks. Once you have massaged the kale for a few minutes and it has decreased in size by about half set aside.
Peanut Sauce
- Combine the powdered peanut butter and water in a bowl and forming a peanut butter paste. Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and mix together well to combine. Set aside until you’re ready to assemble your bowls. If you want the sauce to be any thinner just add more water.
Assemble the bowls
- Assemble your ground turkey bowls. As always it’s best to weigh your final weights and divide by the numbers of servings for accurate measurements. Ex. weigh your roasted sweet potatoes in grams and divide by 4, that’s how many grams each bowl gets.
- Each bowl gets the following: 1/4 ground turkey (approx. 90 grams), 1/4 roasted sweet potatoes (approx. 155 grams), 1/4 kale salad, 4 cherry tomatoes, 4 cucumber slices, 1/4 cup sliced carrots, 37 grams peanut sauce, pickled red onions (if using).
- Nutrition facts without sweet potatoes: 252 calories 38 P / 19 C / 4 F Nutrition facts with sweet potatoes: 418 calories 42 P / 52 C / 5 F
Notes
- Nutrition facts are an estimate and include the sweet potatoes.
- Use any type of ground meat you prefer.
- Be sure to remove the stems of the kale. They are bitter and will not taste good in your bowl.
The recipe is delicious, but the preparation time (5 min) and cook time (30 min) are so far off. If you make the pickled onions, you have to let them sit for at least an hour (and you have to thin-slice an entire onion). If you make the potatoes in the oven, you have to preheat the oven, chop the 2 large sweet potatoes, and then bake them for 30 min (faster in the air fryer if it’s big enough to do in one batch). I just wish that recipe developers would have one untrained person make the recipe and time it to give more accurate estimates. Now I know to always read it first, while meal planning.
I had forgotten that I ran out of PB2, so I used almond butter and plenty of water, and this worked fine. If you do a sub like this, you can just input your own version of the recipe into My Fitness Pal. This has a lot more fat…
Is there any way to make this with regular peanut butter instead of the powder?
So good. This is a family favorite.
Has anyone made without the peanut butter powder ( allergy) or used an alternate? Looks so good!
This concoction is bullet proof. You can make this and down the road if you don’t have all the items you can leave it out. I don’t use kale I use spinach and that works good for me. I love this idea and use it weekly, so easy and quick
Prepped for lunches and ended up having to make for the whole office bc everyone wanted to try!
Just made this for dinner and lunches this week. Delicious and easy…this will be in regular rotation. Thank you Danielle for another amazing recipe!
For the peanut sauce you’re using 1/2 cup of powder pb and then 2 additional tbsp?
Yes!
If prepping for lunches for the week, will it need re-heated prior to eating? In which case, should cucumbers and tomatoes be stored separate?
Good cold or hot.