Thai Turkey Salad

There’s one weird quirk about me and food.

I can’t eat anything that’s blue. I mean unusually blue—I’m not talking about blueberries or blue crab.

I’m talking neon-blue-ish. Remember many moons ago when Heinz released blue, green and purple ketchups? I couldn’t bring myself to eat the stuff, even if it did taste exactly like regular ketchup.

I don’t know what it is, but sometimes when I cook with red onion or red cabbage, the hue comes off and imprints onto other foods mixed in. I made a lo mein with spaghetti squash and red onion and I couldn’t eat the leftover because the onion’s color came off on everything, turning it the strange color of blue. I made an egg salad with red cabbage and the boiled eggs ended up being dyed blue from the cabbage.

What the heck?

It’s not everytime I used those two ingredients either. It picks and chooses when to turn stuff blue—but when it does, it really turns me off.

Thankfully this turkey salad I made wasn’t like that (and I used red cabbage, too!). This is like chicken salad but with ground turkey. I ate it both hot and cold and liked either way. You get all those good Thai flavors from everything—the cucumber, peanuts, and sweet chili sauce.

We finally get air conditioning and so I’m easing my way back into the kitchen. A few salads and wraps will be made today, but I used my crockpot yesterday and will actually turn my oven on today. Wish me luck.

Anyway—this turkey salad was a lifesaver for lunch this past week. I stuffed it into some whole wheat pitas and went to town. You can eat it alone, or maybe in a wrap or torilla. Any which way would be good.

Thai Turkey Salad

• Servings: 4-6
• Time: 15 mins
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

A sweet and savory turkey salad with cucumbers, peanuts, and red cabbage.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground turkey
• 1-2 cucumbers, sliced thin
• 1 cup shredded red cabbage
• 3/4 cup unsalted peanuts
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
• 2 TBS. fish sauce
• 2 TBS. sweet chili sauce
• 2 TBS. brown sugar
• 1 TBS. olive oil

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add turkey and cook, breaking up with a spoon, until no longer pink, about 5-6 minutes.
2. Add fish sauce, chili sauce, and brown sugar to turkey. Stir and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, toss together cucumbers, cabbage, peanuts, and mint. Add turkey mixture and toss well. Serve alone or inside of pitas or tortillas.

Step-By-Step Instructions

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add turkey and cook, breaking up with a spoon, until no longer pink, about 5-6 minutes.

Add fish sauce, chili sauce, and brown sugar to turkey. Stir and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

In a large bowl, toss together cucumbers, cabbage, peanuts, and mint. Add turkey mixture and toss well. Serve alone or inside of pitas or tortillas.